November 3rd California Legislature Election Results
California Democrats appear to have further strengthened their super majority in the Senate, but Republicans look to have held their own in the Assembly races with no incumbents losing a seat. Democrats hold all constitutional offices in the executive branch and have deep super majorities in the legislative branch. The practical effect of this super majority is to make it harder to stop majority vote bills as well as tax and fee bills that have a 2/3 vote requirement. It also means the majority party in the Legislature can override a gubernatorial veto at will (almost never happens).
State Senate
Going into the November 3rd election Democrats held 29 of the upper chamber’s 40 seats. They would appear to have added at least two more seats to that supermajority and possible three more depending on the final vote counts. Democrats currently have narrow leads in three seats currently held by Republicans and only 553 votes behind in one other. One seat, SD23, is literally 50%-50% and is anybody's guess.
# In SD 21 Senator Scott Wilk is hanging on with a slim lead of only 553 votes as of Wednesday evening November 4th. Late ballots are still being processed.
# SD 23 (Rancho Cucamonga-Redlands-Hemet) is the open seat currently held by Mike Morrell (R), school board member Abigail Medina (D) has a 141-vote lead over another school board member (different district) Rosalie Bogh Ochoa (R). Put this in your "every vote counts" file, and it is far too close to call.
# SD29 (Diamond Bar-Fullerton): In 2018, Democrat Josh Newman was recalled concurrent with the primary election and Ling Ling Chang (R) was elected to fill the rest of the term. As of this morning, Newman has a 3.2% lead (10,339 votes) over Chang to reclaim the seat. However, it is believed that there may be more outstanding ballots in the Los Angeles County part of the district where Chang is from (Diamond Bar).
# SD37 (Orange County): Similar to SD29 where Democrats are hoping to oust a GOP incumbent, UC Irvine law prof Dave Min (D) has a narrow 3.8% lead (17,264 votes) lead over Republican John M.W. Moorlach.
State Assembly
Going into the November 3rd election Democrats held 61 of the lower chamber’s 80 seats. If Tuesday’s election results remain on track, the 2021-21 State Assembly will have 60 Democrats, 19 Republicans, and 1 independent. Democrats knew they would lose one seat from their current 61, as the open AD38 (Santa Clarita) primary resulted in a Rep-Rep general election after the favored Dem candidate suspended her campaign. If results hold, no incumbent Assembly member was defeated.
Statewide Ballot Initiatives and Referenda
The California ballot was loaded with 12 propositions including proposed constitutional amendments, initiative statues and a referendum. Records were shattered this year on the total amount of money spent on these measures coming in at over $700 million with over $220 million spent on proposition 22 alone. This trend is likely to continue as the business community faces a more hostile legislative environment. Business may look to the initiative process to get relief in policy changes they can’t get in Sacramento.