Sorry for the late mail today- our service provider was doing some post-election updates to their system this morning, meaning we couldn't get into our mailbox. Just think of this as an early 'Nooner!'
Three days after the election, a significant number of races are still yet to be called, including the Doug Ose-Ami Bera brawl, which sits at 64,615 – 62,432 as of this morning. Alexei Koseff has the numbers for the 11 tightest races in the Sacramento Bee.
Speaking of uncalled races, Josh Richman looks at how the growing vote by mail rate is changing elections – and the fine art of conceding. At the San Jose Mercury News:
“You've put your life on hold to pour your heart, soul and perhaps even a huge chunk of your personal fortune to run for public office. Then, with Election Day over but thousands of ballots still uncounted, you find yourself trailing by a tiny percentage of the vote.
“So when do you utter the political lexicon's two most difficult words? – ‘I concede.’"
Jennifer Medina at the New York Times spoke with newly-re-elected Governor Brown about plans for his fourth term. She heard the same mantra the tight-fisted governor has been repeating for decades: fiscal restraint.
“Now, 40 years after he was first elected governor of California, Mr. Brown, 76, will begin what will almost certainly be his last term in public office, and the question will be what he intends to do with his power. In an interview Wednesday, he emphasized the importance of fiscal restraint, which has long been one of his biggest points of pride, and which he seems to want to turn into his permanent legacy for California: After years in which the state lurched from one budget crisis to another, Mr. Brown and the Legislature have managed to pass a succession of on-time balanced budgets.
“’Living within our means is a heroic continuing battle here,’ Mr. Brown said by phone. ‘We have pressure in every sector to spend more. I’m riding the tiger out here. Everyone says: Why don’t you add five more programs? What else can you think up? Medicaid spending alone is about $90 billion — that’s bigger than the economy of some states.’”
Meanwhile, back in the California media, Brown is deflecting the notion that the GOP controlled house and Senate could kill the state’s high Speed Rail Project by ending federal spending for it. Michael Finnegan has the story at the Los Angeles Times.
“’Gov. Jerry Brown played down concerns Thursday about Republicans killing the state’s $68-billion bullet train, saying that ‘they’re going to join the chorus’ in support of high-speed rail once construction around Fresno and Bakersfield gains momentum.
“’Look, we have the ingredients to get this thing launched,’ Brown told reporters on his way into an Anti-Defamation League lunch at a Beverly Hills hotel”
Republican firebrand Tim Donnelly may have missed his chance to be his party’s California flagbearer this year, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be backing off controversial positions to woo party leaders – he says they’ve turned the GOP into the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. From Carla Marinucci at SFGate.
“State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, whose gubernatorial bid fired up many in the conservative grass roots — and struck fear into the hearts of moderate GOPers — says Tuesday’s election proved just one thing.
“’Republican leaders ‘have taken the Grand Old Party and turned it into the moderate wing of the Democrat Party,’ Donnelly said in an interview. ‘Forget all about the social issues — take a look at what they’ve done for the past 20 years. They’ve continually told the people who are their strongest supporters that you don’t matter.’”
A less polarized split: Senate Minority Leader Kristin Olsen disagreed with party Chair Jim Brulte on targeting Adam Grey of Merced.
“Olsen said she and other Assembly GOP leaders had no say in the spending targeting Gray and supporting Mobley. She suggested she disagreed with the decision to target her next-door colleague with about $830,000 in spending. Gray led by 2,300 votes after Election Day.
“We had no expectation that Brulte was going to play in that race,” Olsen told The Bee Wednesday. “It came as quite a shock and a surprise. And we see what the results were.”
Meanwhile, in non-election related news, a victim’s rights group has sued the state to speed up pending executions. From Don Thompson at the AP.
“Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation filed a petition in Sacramento County Superior Court asking a judge to order state corrections officials to adopt procedures for a single-drug, barbiturate-only method of execution.
“State policy calls for using a series of three drugs to put condemned inmates to death. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is drafting new lethal injection regulations after Gov. Jerry Brown said in April 2012 the state would switch to a single-drug injection.”
This year’s midterms were the most expensive in history, with at least $3.7 BILLION spent. That kind of money – and the negative campaign ads that inevitably come with it – turn a lot of voters off.
Just ask Bob Healey, the Moderate Party candidate for Governor of Rhode Island who spent $35 on his campaign and got 22% of the vote. Jaime Fuller has the story at the Washington Post.
“The substantially bearded Healey told a local news station Wednesday morning: ‘It’s amazing what $35 can do. As I’ve been saying, if we only spent $75, $80, we might’ve won the race.’
“On Tuesday night, Providence's Eyewitness News was a bit shocked. A political analyst said on air: ‘I don’t think anybody expected Bob Healey to get that high. We expected Bob Healey in double figures, maybe as high as 14 or 15 percent, but he really drew a lot of votes. Some communities he actually won, if I remember seeing the numbers correctly. He ran second in some communities."’
