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Gov. Brown's carrot-and-stick campaign worked: California voters approved his mix of temporary sales and income taxes to finance scchools, with his Proposition 30 winning passage handily by more than 700,000 votes.
From Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald in EdSource: "California schools’ rendezvous with rock bottom is over. A massive grassroots campaign, an eleventh hour surge in advertising and strategic targeting of likely voters pulled Proposition 30 over the halfway mark yesterday, giving both Gov. Jerry Brown and California public schools and community colleges a victory. With 90 percent of the vote reported as of early Wednesday, Prop 30 led 54 to 46 percent. The initiative is expected to raise nearly $7 billion for education this year by raising income taxes on the wealthiest Californians and increasing the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for the next four years..."
"The same can’t be said of Proposition 38, the other school funding initiative on the ballot. Voters soundly rejected it by a margin of nearly 3 to 1. Southern California attorney Molly Munger, who put $47 million of her own money into the campaign, and generated ill will with ads taking aim at Prop 30, conceded defeat in a written statement in which she thanked her supporters. ”This year you helped raise awareness dramatically about the importance of increasing taxes to support public education,” Munger said. ”Transformational change takes time and we are committed to staying the course until our state truly does tackle this school-funding crisis.”
"For now, advocates for increased school funding will have to be content with the same level of spending as last year. Proposition 30 will raise the level of minimum funding for K-12 schools and community colleges by $2.9 billion, but in the first year, there won’t be any additional money available for new programs..."
Meanwhile, the attempt by corporate interests and Republicans to curtail the ability of unions to raise political cash was sharply rejected by voters after a campaign that soared well past $100 million in spending and prompted a legal battle over outside money.
From the Union-Tribune's Michael Gardner: "...Proposition 32 to prohibit unions and corporations from making payroll deductions to fund political activity appears to have lost 56.2 percent to 43.8 percent with nearly 95 percent of the vote counted as of 5:25 a.m. Wednesday."
"The union's leader issued a statement declaring victory: “In voting down the deceptive Prop 32, Californians rejected a blatant power play by corporate special interests to silence the voice of working people. Despite weeks of misleading advertisements backing Prop 32 paid for by billionaires and out-of-state Super PACs, the margin of defeat was decisive. Prop 32 backers spent more than $50 million in an effort to fool voters. Ultimately, California families saw through this sham ..."
In the Assembly, nobody could be happier with the results than the speaker, who declared the election of a super-majority in the lower house.
From the Bee's Torey Van Oot: "Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said tonight that Democrats have secured a supermajority in the lower house, a surprising development that could give the party the ability to raise taxes on their own if the Senate follows suit."
"Democratic candidates led their GOP opponents in two swing Assembly districts early Wednesday morning, and an upset was brewing in a race between Fullerton Mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva and GOP Assemblyman Chris Norby. Quirk-Silva led Norby by 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent in the 65th Assembly District with 100 percent of precincts reporting. The difference amounts to 1,004 votes."
"While Senate Democrats emphasized early and often their goal was to claim a two-thirds supermajority in the upper house, there was relatively little expectation the same would occur in the Assembly this year."
The congressional race between Democratic incumbent Jerry McNerney and GOP challenger Ricky Gill, one of the nation's most closely watched, ended in victory for McNerney, who fended off a well-financed challenge.
From Josh Richman in the Mercury News: "McNerney had called Gill a novice propped up by his parents' business ties. Gill turned 25 -- Congress' constitutional minimum age -- in May, five days before graduating from law school. He has yet to take the California State Bar exam, so he can't practice law. And, he has not held a full-time job other than being a partner in his parents' farming and RV park businesses, where his duties have been unclear."
"But redistricting made McNerney, 61, something of an outsider: He moved from Pleasanton to Stockton this year to live within the new lines. Gill, a Lodi native, called him a liberal Bay Area carpetbagger whose experience isn't worth a plugged nickel and left the region with a stagnant economy, ongoing water problems for agriculture, high gas prices, soaring health care costs and a share of the nation's debt."
"Gill proved to be an effective fundraiser, backed in part by Central Valley business interests and national GOP benefactors."
In what may be California's costliest congressional race ever, a $13 million faceoff between two Democratic incumbents in the newly drawn 30th CD, Brad Sherman emerged the victor.
From the LAT's Jean Merl: "The battle between the two men with similar voting records grew from two recent changes in the state’s political landscape: fresh political maps that put both their homes in the reconfigured 30th Congressional District and a new top-two primary system that lets two members of the same party compete in the general election."
"Sherman, 58, went on the attack almost from the start, taking swipes at the 71-year-old Berman’s age and criticizing his votes on foreign trade agreements and initial legislation to rescue the nation’s troubled financial institutions."
"Berman at first tried to stay above the fray, emphasizing his achievements in three decades in Congress and his reputation for working effectively across party lines. But he changed course after finishing 10 points behind Sherman in the primary, and the race grew increasingly testy. Berman launched a “BS Report” to knock Sherman’s style and what it characterized as Sherman’s lack of substantive legislation."