Charles Suren "Chuck" "Pooch"[2] Poochigian (born May 19, 1949)[3] is an American jurist serving as Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal.

Poochigian served as the Chief Deputy Appointments Secretary, assisting the Governor in the selection of key administration officials and members of over 375 state boards and commissions.

In 1998, Poochigian was unopposed in seeking election to represent California's 14th Senate District, which included portions of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern Counties.

In November 2002, he was again re-elected without opposition to the reapportioned 14th Senate District which now includes all or portions of Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne Counties.

On April 8, 2005, as a California State Senator and assistant Republican leader, Poochigian published an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, entitled "Using the ADA to abuse the legal system" where he ridiculed the ADA requirements for basic accommodations for disability, such as grab bars around toilets and levers on doors and faucets, and referred to those requirements as "payday for shakedown artists".

The campaign was featured by The Wall Street Journal[7] and others for its use of emerging technology, such as MySpace, YouTube, and other online mediums, to reach out to voters and mobilize activists.

One notable attack ad released by the Brown campaign voiced over by Peter Coyote stated that Poochigian had a 0% rating on the environment.

[8] A post-election Los Angeles Times article stated: "[T]he famously collegial Poochigian, 57, proved reliably feisty, hitting Brown hard for Oakland's skyrocketing murder rate and a past littered with Moonbeam moments during his long-ago stint in Sacramento and lefty pronouncements while he was a talk radio host in the 1990s.