Election Night Parties (A Lesson from Charles F. Van de Water)

October 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Friday marks the 140th birthday of Congressman-elect Charles F. Van de Water. Van de Water was one of those few elected officials in state history who was elected to an office but never took that seat. Van de Water was killed in a late night car crash while returning home from a party to celebrate his successful campaign.

In this case, Van de Water died November 20, 1920, about two months before he would have assumed the Congressional seat that he had been elected to eighteen days before. In the 1920 election, Van de Water defeated the incumbent, Charles H. Randall (the first Prohibition candidate ever elected to Congress) who later went on to serve on the L.A. City Council.

The lesson to learn here: for those of you planning election night parties, make sure that you have a designated driver (or place to sleep) for anyone who parties a little too hard. You really don’t want something like this to happen.

LINK: New York Times article about the crash

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Two Candidates Drop Out

September 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Two candidates appearing on the November ballot have dropped out of their races in the last week;

In Assembly District 69, Republican Jose Moreno has withdrawn from his race after learning that his candidacy was a violation of the federal Hatch Act. “The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of individuals principally employed by state or local executive agencies and who work in connection with programs financed in whole or in part by federal loans or grants.” [OCPolitical article]

In the current Special Election to fill Senate District 4, candidate Nonpartier Ben Emery announced that he would be withdrawing after learning that his employer “bought a new building with a state grant last year… and one of the group’s committees has been working with Logue to resolve some issues with the state regarding the building. ” [Chico Enterprise article]

Both will remain on the ballot in their races.

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