After nearly six months of debate and wrangling, the State Senate finally did what Calitics told them to do and voted to confirm Abel Maldonado as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, 25-7.
Maldonado is expected to be sworn in as soon as tomorrow, and would then vacate his seat as the Senator from the 15th District (where I live). After that, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would then schedule the special elections to fill the SD-15 vacancy. It is expected that the first round would be in August and the runoff would be folded in with the November general election.
The Republican candidate is likely to be Sam Blakeslee (AD-33, San Luis Obispo), who was up until recently the Minority Leader in the Assembly. The Democratic candidate is going to be John Laird, a progressive hero who represented AD-27 (Monterey, Santa Cruz) until he was termed out in 2008.
To say Laird is beloved by his former constituents is to understate the case. In February 2008, AD-27 was one of the few districts in the entire state to vote in favor of Proposition 93, the term limits extension bill. Signs around Monterey Bay read “Keep John Laird: Yes on 93.”
A Laird victory, along with Anna Caballero running next door in SD-12 (Salinas, Merced, Modesto), would give Democrats a 2/3rds majority in the State Senate. It would transform California politics and immeasurably boost the position of progressives and Democrats ahead of what will be another year or two of difficult budget choices.
SD-15 is a winnable district for Democrats. After all, the most recent registration numbers show that SD-15 is a blue district, with 41% Dems, 34.5% Reps, and 23% DTS. It is a district Obama won by over 20 points. Further, roughly 58% of the voters in SD-15 live north of the Monterey/SLO County line – in John Laird country.
The battle for 2/3rds is about to begin, and Monterey County will be ground zero. We’ve got an election to win, and a state to save.
UPDATE: Maldonado will indeed be sworn in tomorrow and resign his Senate seat at the same time. The Central Coast’s long nightmare is about to end, and an opportunity to rescue California is about to arrive.
Maldo out, Laird in. This is the BEST.
I’d be thrilled to see Laird back, but Able is usually one of the two votes for the budget…. where the hell are we going to get another?
I’m relishing the thought of getting Dems to the 2/3 so we can finally fix Prop 13… was talking to a fellow lefty the other day and she was amazed to find out that Prop 13 applies to businesses too … told her the story of Gallo wines property sale that somehow didn’t trigger prop 13 because they just switched around the board of the companies.
She was aghast… imagine what the average voter knows (or doesn’t).