Redistricting. The Impact on Senate Representation

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
California Senate Districts for 2013-14, with orange representing two-Senator areas and white representing zero-Senator areas.

California Senate Districts for 2013-14, with orange representing two-Senator areas and white representing zero-Senator areas.

Another result of redistricting…

Because only the odd-numbered Senate districts will be up for election in 2012, the 2013-14 will see a combination of Senators representing both old and new districts. Those elected in 2010 (even-numbered districts) will continue to represent the districts that elected them. Those elected in 2012 (odd-numbered districts) will be representing the new maps drawn by either the Citizens Redistricting Commission (or a Special Master appointed by the California Supreme Court should the referendum qualify).

During the 2013-14 Legislative Session, the northern counties of Siskiyou and Shasta will be represented by two State Senators (Ted Gaines represents the 2011-drawn SD-01 and Doug La Malfa representing the 2001-drawn SD-04). Farther south, all of Mono County and large portions of Marin and Riverside County will fall outside of both the 2001 even districts and the 2011 odd districts.

In the map to the right, areas shaded in yellow indicate odd-numbered districts (elected 2012) while pink areas are even-numbered districts (using the old 2001 Senate Districts. Blank areas (shown in white) will not fall into any Senator’s district in 2013-14, while areas in orange will be represented by two Senators.

Filed Under: 2012 Election, Redistricting, State Senate, Top Stories

New Party Attempting to Qualify

September 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The California Secretary of State has informed the county clerks and registrars of voters that a new party political party is attempting to qualify for the 2012 Primary ballot. The counties now have 30 days to determine the percentage of valid signatures by verifying either 500 signatures OR three percent of the the total signatures filed, whichever is greater.

The group, called “Americans Elect” has filed more than 1,030,040 petitions with the counties. This is the number of valid petitions required to become ballot qualified. If all the submitted petitions are valid (which is unlikely), the party would immediately become a qualified political party. If the party is short of the full number of petitions, additional petitions can be submitted through January. The Secretary must determine that a party is qualified by January 22, 2012 in order to appear on the 2012 Primary ballot.

According to early numbers released by the Secretary of State, it appears that about 70-80% of the signatures submitted so far are valid.

Filed Under: 2012 Election, Current Research, ElectionVolunteer, Political Parties

State Legislative Primary Candidate Report (9/14/2011)

September 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The current count for state legislative candidates being tracked for the 2012 Primary is;

TOTAL: 219
Legislators: 83 Curent Legislators (38%), 18 Former Legislators (8%), 118 Non-Legislators (54%)
Previous Candidates*: 117 have JoinCalifornia biographies (53%), 102 do not (47%)
Parties: 135 Democrats (62%), 79 Republicans (36%), 4 No Party Preference (2%), 1 Green (0%)

 

* JoinCalifornia.com has candidate biographies for all previous General Election candidates since the 1890s. These candidates are already listed on the JoinCalifornia candidates.

Filed Under: 2012 Election, Current Research, ElectionVolunteer, State Assembly, State Senate