The morning after the November 4 mid-term elections, President
Obama woke up to a fresh new set of headaches after the Republicans
strengthened their grip on the House and took possession of the Senate. Sen
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) not only did not lose his reelection but now he finds
himself in a new job – Senate Majority Leader. In his election night victory speech, McConnell reiterated his opposition to the President’s agenda and then
in the next breath said that his party was obligated to work with the President
in governance where they can.
"I don't expect the president
to wake up tomorrow and view the world any differently than he did when he woke
up this morning," McConnell said. "He knows I won't either. But I do
think we have an obligation to work together on issues where we can agree. Just
because we have a two-party system doesn't mean we have to be in perpetual
conflict." - NPR
In keep with REALTOR® profession’s support for
nonpartisanship, such cooperation and adult supervision can only be hoped for.
Locally, California did not disappoint in its tendency
to move in the opposite direction of national trends. The Democrats racked
up impressive victories, except for a few surprises that have direct impact on
the South Bay. The turnout in Los Angeles County was reported to be 25%. Here
is a run-down of local elections results that impact REALTORS® in the South Bay:
California Governor
“I’m surprised that Jerry Brown won reelection,” said no
living human being ever. The governor’s race was called for Brown early on election night when barely 16,000 votes had been counted. Jerry Brown easily won
reelection with almost no campaigning, 66% - 33%.
County Supervisor, 3rd
District
Sheila Kuehl edged out Bobby Shriver to
replace the legendary Zev Yaroslavsky for the powerful county district that
represents most of West Los Angeles. Both Democrats in a non-partisan race,
each one tried to run to the left of the other in this very liberal-progressive
district. Shriver was heavily supported by the business community and by
REALTORS®.
Congressional District 33
Democrat Ted Lieu (supported by RPAC) defeated Republican
Elan Carr 58% - 41%. Ted will soon catch a plane to take the loneliest job in
the world – that of freshman Democrat in the current U.S. Congress.
Congressional District 43
To little surprise, the formidable Maxine Waters defeated
Republican challenger John Wood, 70% - 30%. Waters was supported by RPAC.
Congressional District 44
To even less surprise, incumbent Democrat Janice Hahn
defeated challenger Adam Shbeita, 87% - 12%. Hahn was supported by RPAC.
State Senate District 26
Ben Allen comfortably beat out Sandra Fluke to this seat by
a margin of 60% - 39%. CREPAC did not take a position on this race.
Assembly District 64
Mike Gipson, currently a Councilmember in Carson, defeated
Prophet Walker by a margin of 64% - 36%. Gipson ran a textbook campaign, with a
strong ground game and constant presence on social media. Gipson was supported
by CREPAC.
Assembly District 62
Democrat Autumn Burke (75%) defeated Republican Ted Grose
(25%) and extended the political dynasty of her family as the daughter of
Yvonne Burke, the retired LA County Supervisor. Burke was supported by CREPAC.
Assembly District 66
Republican challenger David Hadley launched an early,
grassroots-y campaign and sprinkled the district with signs, perhaps before many
of incumbent Al Muratsuchi’s own signs appeared. Late in the campaign, Hadley’s
supporters fired a barrage of negative attacks over social media, while
Muratsuchi’s campaign hit back with news about contributions to the Hadley
campaign. As of election night, David Hadley squeaked past Al Muratsuchi,
51.43% to 48.57%, or a margin of 2,329 votes. At the date of this writing, the
California Secretary of State has labeled this race as a “Close Contest” where
there is a margin of less than two percentage points between the candidates. In
these races, election officials make take up to 28 days after the election to
fully count all provisional ballots and vote-by-mail ballots. Muratsuchi was
supported by CREPAC.
Los Angeles County Sheriff
Jim McDonnell, currently the Long Beach Police Chief,
cruised to an easy victory over Paul Tanaka, currently Mayor of Gardena and
retired commander of the Sheriff’s Department. The margin was 75% - 25%.
Los Angeles County Assessor
In another squeaker, Jeff Prang (50.52%) inched past John
Morris (49.48%) to win the race for County Assessor by a margin of 9,036 votes.
Conventional wisdom had pegged Prang to easily win this race, however it proved
difficult against Morris. Prang and Morris had both picked up support from
various REALTOR® associations throughout the county. It is expected that Prang
will watch an old VHS of the 1972 Robert Redford movie “The Candidate”, and
then walk into the tattered Assessor’s office and say, “What do we do now?”
BALLOT MEASURES
State Measure 1: Water Bond
Jerry Brown stumped hard for this water bond measure, which
easily won 70% - 30%.
Hermosa Beach Special Measure
Q
A school Improvement bond, Measure Q failed with Hermosa
Beach voters by a thin margin of 52% - 47%. It needed 55% to pass.
Santa Monica Transfer Tax
Two measures were on the ballot, Propositions H and HH, which
collectively sought to raise the documentary transfer tax for affordable
housing funds. Proposition H sought to triple the documentary transfer tax to $9 per $1,000 of sale price. Proposition HH was an advisory only regarding the use of transfer tax revenues for affordable housing purposes. In a split vote, Proposition H lost by a wide margin of 57% - 42%, while Proposition HH won 50.08% - 49.92%, a razor-thin margin of just 35 votes. Despite the victory of the advisory item in HH, it is currently not meaningful given the failure of the actual proposal to raise the transfer tax.
County Measure P
A $23 parcel tax to pay for parks (“P” for “parks”, get it?)
passed 62% - 37%. In its opposition to this measure, the Los
Angeles Times complained that the County Supervisors’ process for slipping
this measure onto the ballot was typical of their closed-door, super-secret
style of governance.
