Bill Monning will vie for Assembly seat—but only if Laird is forced out.

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Currently, legislators may serve a total of 14 years—six in the Assembly and eight in the Senate. The initiative aims to limit legislators to 12 years in office, but they would be able to spend all or part of that time in either House.

If enough signatures are gathered, the issue will go to voters on Feb. 5, 2008. If the initiative passes, Laird says, he will run for his fourth term in the Assembly. “And I will endorse John Laird whole-heartedly,” Monning says. In this scenario, Laird is all but guaranteed to win.

Three Santa Cruz County Democrats have already announced their candidacy—Emily Riley and Ryan Coonerty (Santa Cruz’s mayor and vice mayor, respectively) and Felton water activist Barbara Sprenger. That field is likely to split the Santa Cruz County vote. Conventional wisdom says the race is Monning’s to lose. And he believes he deserves the job for old-fashioned reasons. “It may sound corny,” he says, “but I have a real passion for the diverse people of the Central Coast and the environmental integrity of the Central Coast.”