CA: 2007 Legislature likely to look similar to 2006 version

AP - San Luis Obispo Tribune ^ | Nov. 08, 2006 | STEVE LAWRENCE

[calcowgirl]

LOS ANGELES - Despite millions of dollars in campaign spending and a flood of attack ads, the 2007 California Legislature could end up with the same partisan lineups as the 2006 version.

Democrats won 47 of the Assembly's 80 seats and were leading in a 48th district that was too close to call early Wednesday. Republicans captured at least 32 seats, the number they had going into the election.

In the Senate, where half the seats were on the ballot, only one seat had a chance of changing hands - the lone district held by Democrats in heavily Republican Orange County.

In that race, Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Fullerton, led former Assemblyman Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, by only 13 votes with 96 percent of precincts reporting for the seat now held by Democrat Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove. Dunn was barred by term limits from running for re-election.

Democrats had 25 of the Senate's 40 seats while the GOP had 15 seats going into the election.

In the undecided Assembly race, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, led retired highway patrolman Danny Gilmore 51.65 percent to nearly 48.35 percent with 66 percent of precincts counted in her bid for a third term.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, edged former Assemblyman Steve Clute, D-Indio, by about the same 51 percent to 49 percent margin in another tight Assembly battle.

The Daucher-Correa, Parra-Gilmore and Garcia-Clute races were among about a half dozen that both major parties considered winnable, prompting them and their allies spent millions in attempts to win them.

The Parra-Gilmore and Garcia-Clute campaigns both drew about $4 million in contributions and independent expenditures. Spending on the Daucher-Correa fight could top $6 million.

There was little drama in most of the 100 legislative races on Tuesday's ballot. The way lawmakers drew districts after the 2000 census put most of them safely in Democratic or Republican hands.

But there were fireworks in Clute's attempt to knock off Garcia in an Imperial-Riverside counties district that was designed for a Democrat.

Clute criticized Garcia for telling a high school class that she thought Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was "built" and that she "wouldn't kick him out of my bed."

One Democratic mailer, playing on the bed theme, suggested Garcia was in bed with special interests in Sacramento,

Garcia fired back, accusing Clute of honoring "a perverted, registered sex offender" by introducing a resolution 15 years ago to name a section of Highway 91 after the late Assemblyman Walter Ingalls, D-Riverside.

Ingalls, who served in the Legislature from 1972 to 1982, was fined and placed on three years' probation after pleading guilty in 1987 to exposing himself to two undercover officers in a Riverside park.

Clute's resolution was unanimously approved by the Assembly after Ingalls died of liver failure in 1991, but it failed to pass the Senate.

[calcowgirl]

State Senate District 34

  Candidate                 Votes     Percent
  Lynn Daucher (Rep)       38,679      50.1 %
  Lou Correa (Dem)         38,666      49.9 %


State Assembly District 80

  Candidate                 Votes     Percent
* Bonnie Garcia (Rep)      28,010      51.1 %
  Steve Clute (Dem)        26,875      48.9 %


State Assembly District 30

  Candidate                 Votes     Percent
* Nicole Parra (Dem)       23,975      51.8 %
  Danny D. Gilmore (Rep)   22,390      48.2 %

[ken5050]

Did McClintock win?

[calcowgirl]

No, he lost :-(
along with everyone except Schwarzenegger and Poizner.

I'm looking for a good article on the downticket races to post.

In the meantime, I did post all the statewide results, including the props, on this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1734702/posts?page=3#3

[ken5050]

Thanks..

[calcowgirl]

I just posted a thread on the downticket races:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1734738/posts

It was hopeful for a while. Early on, McClintock held a hefty lead (52% to 44%)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1733986/posts?page=81#81

And then Los Angeles precincts reported. :-(

[NormsRevenge]

I expect to see a close to 150 billion dolar state budget proposed this year and close to 200 billion by the end of the Gub's reign..

It's all for the children , yaknow.. they'll be paying for it long after all of us are gone.