A Good Morning for California Democrats

a GREAT Night !! (8.00 / 1)

It was a GREAT Election all around
Expecially if it's true about the 2/3rd Democratic majorities in Sacramento

Too bad about Prop 37
But, without money, it was expected
Maybe Molly Munger can put her money into a follow up to Prop 37

Sorry, Mitt .... YOU LOSE !!!

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by: frisco @ Wed Nov 07, 2012 at 18:14:12 PM UTC

2/3 majority because... (6.00 / 2)

We have the potential for a 2/3 majority because redistricting (something the Democratic Party and Calitics opposed) gave us a fighting chance in the inland counties.  I've been saying all along that if we have fair districts, we win, but those arguments were dismissed as "goo-goo" politics by people in the party, and on Calitics, who supposedly know what's best.

Well, because of redistricting, I now have a Democratic Assemblyman, Democratic State Senator, and Democratic Congressman - 3 things I would not have if the party had gotten their way.

The inability at times for the party and pundits to see win-win opportunities continues to astound me.

So can we stop beating up on redistricting and the top-two system now?  It has given us what we have been wanting for so long.  Maybe we can now put our energies into solving California's problems instead of esoteric and arcane discussions about election rules.

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by: riversidemike @ Wed Nov 07, 2012 at 20:03:03 PM UTC

A very great night (6.00 / 2)

2/3 majorities was a big, and welcome, surprise. I hope we can use this opportunity to show the state that with a functional legislature, we can make life better.

Online voter registration might've been huge - I'm looking forward to seeing some final numbers on the 18-29 turnout. The NYT exit polling last night indicated that this age range went from 20% of the electorate in 2008 to 28% in 2012, perhaps an unrivaled increase in an election where most states saw a decrease in youth voting.

I'm even less convinced about jungle primaries after this election. My ballot looked bare without places for third party or write-in candidates. I would've appreciated the opportunity to cast a symbolic third party vote for Senator.

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by: ursidaureus @ Wed Nov 07, 2012 at 21:28:45 PM UTC

Prop 13 (4.75 / 4)

Time to start talking prop 13 reform again?  Or at least removing the corporate property loophole?

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by: socalrefugee @ Wed Nov 07, 2012 at 21:37:03 PM UTC

If (4.00 / 1)

If we REALLY hjave 2/3rds majorities.......

We should GET SOMETHING DONE !!
and ACT RESPONSIBLY

I hope the Legislative Democrats can get Something GOOD Accomplished

NO MORE EXCUSES !!
And NO MORE SPENDING BINGES  

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by: frisco @ Wed Nov 07, 2012 at 22:10:03 PM UTC

congrats to the democrats (4.00 / 1)

2/3 majorities is interesting but we'll have to see if its 2/3 majority of protax progressives or the democrats only broadened their label and now have social moderate republicans wearing blue.

Its not a crazy thought for pro-business social moderates to realize that the southern-friend GOP label doesnt help much.  I guess we'll see how the speaker and pro temp discipline their members.

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by: CaliCon @ Thu Nov 08, 2012 at 04:05:40 AM UTC

Social 'moderate' republicans (5.00 / 1)

Here's a Republican who';s NOT a 'social moderate'
EX-Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack

'...California Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack's latest comment that she's dismissing Latino voters until after the election is part of a long-term pattern of behavior in which she's systematically disrespected, and ignored, minority voters in her district.

This week she said she would ignore Latino voters until after the election, earlier this month the Republican candidate for California's 36th district suggested that supporting Native American culture was anti-American; and in 2006 she described the heavily Latino part of her d
"Third World Toilet."

...a "Third World  oilet."...'

She originally got her job sy sleeping with Sonny Bono
Honey, it WASN'T WORTH IT
EARN SOME REAL MONEY

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by: frisco @ Thu Nov 08, 2012 at 15:59:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Woo (0.00 / 0)

This was a really great, impressive night. I am so excited to have Tammy Baldwin in the Senate. All the election results felt really positive. I'm not sure I even mind that we didn't win back the House, because even though not having the House will be a huge problem we at least did such a good job of containing any damage. I think this is the first election since I was 17 that I just went to bed at the end of the evening, instead of staying up until 2 AM reloading cnn result pages either nervously or miserably.

The one source of worry for me is prop. 35. A bunch of people I know are legitimately terrified this passed. I know some people who work in or around sex work and there is a near-universal belief in that crowd that the new definition of "pimping" prop. 35 puts in place is so wildly overbroad it is essentially guaranteed to result in the sex workers themselves being prosecuted as pimps-- which also under prop. 35 means they will now be registered sex offenders-- even though as prop. 35 was pitched the sex workers comprise a large proportion of the "victims" that the law was intended to put in place to protect in the first place. If we had been asked "do you want to prosecute prostitutes as sex offenders and then force them to give the government a list of all their internet handles for life?" I don't think that proposition would have passed. Yet that appears to be part of the effect of prop. 35, and for no other reason than it was sloppily written.

I really hate the CA ballot proposition system more and more every election. If this had been a normal law and before it passed there started to be concerns that there would be unintended side-effects of the law then the law text could have been amended to avert that, or if the law passed and then unintended side-effects popped up we could just fix it with a second bill the next year. But no, it's a ballot proposition, so now we are stuck with every detail as written, one assumes permanently. Unless we can get another Facebook executive to buy us a new ballot prop to patch it, I guess.

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by: mcc @ Thu Nov 08, 2012 at 05:30:54 AM UTC

We may no longer need propositions (4.50 / 2)

Now that Dems can actually legislate again with the super-majority.

That was one of the many problems with Prop 13: Nothing could be passed, so people bypassed the legislature with ballot propositions.

Like they did with Prop 13, Republicans will probably resort to ballot props to try and enact stuff that won't fly in the state house.

We must remain ever vigilant and NEVER let anything like Prop 13 happen again!

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by: bdop4 @ Thu Nov 08, 2012 at 10:12:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

California May be a Precursor to National Politics (5.00 / 1)

If we can enact substantial reforms and bring this state out of the abyss, it may encourage the national party to go for the gold and retake the House in 2014.

Republicans have made one thing very clear: nothing of substance can be achieved while they control any part of the legislative process. The GOP is going to have to undergo a major transformation before they can be relied upon to act responsibly.

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by: bdop4 @ Thu Nov 08, 2012 at 10:17:01 AM UTC

Prop 13 (4.00 / 1)

Splitting the property tax rolls between commercial and single family homes would be GREAT

But, I'm not holding my breath

Do the basic things and no Spending Sprees

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by: frisco @ Thu Nov 08, 2012 at 16:08:50 PM UTC

Commercial property (0.00 / 0)

Is split between rental units(apartments, duplexes, triplexes, mobile home parks, etc) where people live and retail/industrial, if something is done, one must be careful as people live in rentals, as I do.

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by: VBobier @ Sun Nov 11, 2012 at 19:43:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]