As I discussed earlier this week, the local races would be vitally important in this election.

I must admit, I despaired that California would completely miss-out on this “change election”, and simply hoped that we might be able to elect Republican Carl DeMaio into CA-52’s congressional seat — though I did predict that there would be “historic election results on November 4th that would have been unimaginable until this August” elsewhere.

Imagine my surprise to discover I was not optimistic enough! The election tsunami generated a rogue wave that hit California!

The Democrats have lost their supermajority in the state senate, and their status in the Assembly is in doubt.

Two years after California Democrats swept to commanding two-thirds majorities in both houses of the state Legislature, they were unable to again claim the same margin in the Senate and the Assembly remained in doubt with key races too close to call. Republicans captured two closely contested Senate seats central to the supermajority hopes of Democrats. Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen defeated former Democratic Assemblyman Democrat Jose Solorio, while Republican Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, repelled a challenge from Democrat Luis Chavez to retain a spot in the Senate he first won in a tight special election last year. …More seats were in play on the Assembly side. Two vulnerable first-term Democrats, Sharon Quirk-Silva of Fullerton and Steve Fox of Palmdale, lost seats that became focal points for a Republican party intent on fracturing Democratic control.

A little closer to home, the Democrats also lost their supermajority on the San Diego City Council. Republican Chris Cate won District 6 seat over opponent Democrat Carol Kim. This gives Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer back his veto power.

The race for CA-52 that we were following closely is still too close to call.

Republican Carl DeMaio and Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) were nearly tied Wednesday morning in an election race that has captured national attention with allegations of sexual misconduct, an office break-in, oodles of outside financial contributions and a flood of mudslinging advertising. According to results from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters Office, with 100 percent of the votes counted, DeMaio and Peters were both at 50 percent. DeMaio had 72,431 votes to 71,679 for Peters, a margin of 752 votes. …Wednesday morning, the Registar of Voters Office confirmed that there were just over 180,000 ballots that needed to be counted. Those consisted of 143,000 mail-in ballots and 36,429 provisional ballots.

We are anticipating a formal announcement of the results Thursday. The upside: If Peters asks for a recount, he would have to pay for it.

The high water mark for our state: Feminist icon and Obama fan Sandra Fluke lost her race for California Senate by a whopping 22 points.

Dawn Wildman, a leading coordinator with California Tea Party Groups, says, “We actually flipped a couple of seats in statewide races so that was good. It shows our groups are effective at the local level, which is fabulous result. We now have given the GOP the opportunity to get it right…or continue make excuses. However, today we celebrate.”

It is heartening to see the wave of sanity reach the shores of California. Time will tell if the tsunami washed up jellyfish, or something with more spine to it.



