Winners: Chickens, Mormons, Nicole Parra, and sick kids
Losers: Billionaires (Pickens/Sperling/Soros), Don Perata, the Florez clan, gays and lesbians
Mixed Bag: Arnold Schwarzenegger - big winner on redistricting, but finding those tax votes in the Legislature didn't get much easier.
Democrats appear to have gained two net seats in the Assembly, picking up AD15 (Houston), losing AD30 (Parra), and winning both AD78 (Horton) and AD80 (Garcia).
In the upper house, Hannah-Beth Jackson leads Tony strickland by 108 votes. All precincts have been reported in the district, so it'll be a battle over late absentee and provisional ballots. There were more than 300,000 votes cast in the race.
All in all, the sense from Republicans is that it coulda been worse, which may make Jon Fleischman's pre-election wish come true...
If you're counting on uncounted ballots to help your cause, the counties with large unreported returns are Monterey (64.7% reporting), Riverside (69.5%), San Bernardino (29.2%) and Santa Clara (77.7%). Counties have not yet reported their numbers of late absentees and provisional ballots.
An estimated 82 percent of registered voters in Los Angeles County came to the polls, indicative of the increased turn-out statewide.
While it was a historic night nationally, the results don't seem to argue for significant Obama coattails.
The Bee's Amy Chance writes "It was clear that Obama had brought new voters to the
polls. Exit polling conducted for the National Election
Pool by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International
indicated as many as 2 million California voters cast ballots for the first
time.
"Those voters were inclined to vote no on Proposition
8, the measure that sought to repeal a court decision
declaring gay marriage constitutional.
"'They tend to be younger...two-to-one on the 'no' side on Proposition 8,' said pollster Mark DiCamillo of the Field Research Corp.
"But DiCamillo said there were countervailing forces
at work as well.
"Catholic voters who heard Sunday sermons urging a "yes" vote on the measure also turned out in force, he said.
"'I can't underestimate the effect that the Sunday before the
election has on an issue that affects churches and
religious beliefs,' he said."
Proposition 8 passed in reliably liberal Los Angeles and Imperial counties.
In San Francisco, voters decided to keep George Bush's name off the sewage plant, keep prostitution illegal and stick with PG&E.
Both have about the same approval rating in the city...
STATE BALLOT MEASURES
91% reporting (as of 5:32 a.m.)
It looks as if Californians were still feeling generous, funding the start of a new high-speed rail system, and approving bonds for childrens' hospitals and veterans looking to buy homes. Animal and victims rights were extended, and gay marriage was banned, but once again an effort to require minors to notify parents before they receive an abortion was rejected (by nearly the exact same margin as 2005). Two environmental initiatives were roundly defeated, and the governor finally looks as though he's going to get some change in the political map-making system in California.
Here are the numbers...
Prop 1A (high-speed rail)
Yes: 52.3%
No: 47.7%
Prop 2 (farm animals)
Yes: 63.3%
No: 36.7%
Prop 3 (children's hospitals)
Yes: 54.7%
No: 45.3%
Prop 4 (parental notification)
Yes: 47.4%
No: 52.6%
Prop 5 (nonviolent drug offenses)
Yes: 40.2%
No: 59.8%
Prop 6 (law enforcement funding)
Yes: 30.3%
No: 69.7%
Prop 7 (renewable energy generation)
Yes: 34.9%
No: 65.1%
Prop 8 (same-sex marriage elimination)
Yes: 51.9%
No: 48.1%
Prop 9 (victims' rights)
Yes: 53.1%
No: 46.9%
Prop 10 (alternative fuel bonds)
Yes: 40.0%
No: 60.0%
Prop 11 (redistricting)
Yes: 50.5%
No: 49.5%
Prop 12 (veterans' bond)
Yes: 63.5%
No: 36.5%
And for anyone looking for a more global perspective on last night's election, the BBC has collected quotes from world leaders reacting to the passage of Proposition 9. Er, we mean, the election of Barack Obama...