Though there are still votes to be tallied we wanted to get you an early election update on some California races. Over the next week or so as additional ballots are counted some of these races will change. As expected, Joe Biden carried California in the Presidential race so we will focus on other races of note.
The two biggest fights in the state were over Proposition 15 and Proposition 22. Proposition 15 was an effort to increase property taxes on businesses to fund education and other programs in the state. It was supported by a number of labor unions, elected officials and liberal advocacy groups. It was heavily opposed by the business community and other groups. Proposition 15 is currently headed to defeat with a 48.3% – 51.7% margin. Going in the opposite direction Proposition 22 is headed to passage with a 58.4% – 41.6% margin.crowd hands raised
Proposition 22 was pushed by Uber, Lyft and the gig companies as an answer to AB 5 which passed the legislature last year. AB 5 mandated that a number of companies make their workers employees and not contractors. As a result Uber and Lyft led a coalition of companies in sponsoring the ballot measure which changes the law. It was a huge win for them and a bigger loss for the legislature which refused to carve certain companies out when passing AB 5.
In the State Legislature the Democrats will continue to hold super-majorities in both the State Assembly and State Senate. In the State Assembly Democrats will actually lose a seat as two Republicans were running against each other in the 38th district where Christy Smith ran for Congress instead of reelection. In the 38th Suzette Martinez Valladares will be the new Republican member. In the State Senate Republicans are threatened with a possible loss of up to 4 seats. The 23rd district is an open Republican seat where Republican Rosilice Ochoa Bogh is tied at 50% of the vote with Democrat Abigail Medina. In the 21st Republican incumbent Scott Wilk is barely ahead of Democrat Kipp Mueller 50.1% – 49.9%. In both the 29th and 37th districts Republican incumbents are trailing their Democratic challengers. Former Democratic Senator Josh Newman is up 51.6% – 48.4% over Republican Ling Ling Chang in the 29th. In the 37th Republican incumbent John Moorlach is trailing his Democratic challenger Dave Min 48.1% – 51.9%. If these Senate results hold it could leave the Republicans with only a handful of members in the body.
As stated earlier there are still votes to be counted but these are the state of some of the races at the current time.
You can use this website to locate which Assembly and Senate district that you reside in: FindYourRep.Legislature.ca.gov.
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