I commented on the election results open thread, but decided to do a diary on this so I could post results.
For those of you not aware, this is a pretty important special election. It was held to replace Abel Maldonado (R), who was selected by The Governator to be Lt. Gov. (in a creepy kind of deal) after John Garamendi (D) was elected to congress from the Lt. Governancy. Having a Democrat in this seat -- in a Democratic district (34-23-20) -- could put the Dems over the top for the 2/3 majority required in the Senate to be able to pass a sane budget.
The candidates are former State Rep. and Democrat John Laird, and Republican Oil Executive-turned-legislator Sam Blakeslee. More on the race and updates on the flip.
Maldonado was a key crossover vote in a couple of budget deals, but was always striking a deal.
The district itself snakes from Santa Clara county all the way down to Santa Barbara, touching the Central Coast, and is sort of horribly gerrymandered. For those of you not familiar with the size of California, a State Senator here actually represents more people than a US Congressman does in Congress by district size.
The candidates are former State Rep. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) who was a respected compromiser on legislative issues requiring nuance, but a leading advocate of civil rights (including marriage equality) and educational issues. His opponent is Sam Blakeslee, a current GOP state representative from Santa Barbara who has on his resume a stint as an oil executive (Exxon!) and as recently as last year was advocating expanding offshore drilling here in California. He also got the backing of the usual suspects: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation (the people behind Proposition 13), Chamber of Commerce, etc.
The seat is critical because the Dems are one seat away from having a 2/3 majority required to pass a budget. As it is, the Republicans hold the budget process hostage right now, and much of the state problems that are not inherently structural are caused by this logjam.
As of about 10 minutes ago, the turnout was horrible (below 30%) as was probably planned by timing the special election here (there are NO other races, and we just had a primary two weeks ago!), and Blakeslee was winning 49%-42% with the rest of the votes going to third parties.
The good news, if there is any, is that if he fails to get to 50% there will be a run-off in the general election, and with increased turnout for the Gubernatorial election, there's a much better chance Laird will win the second time around
As it is, this is going to be a serious nailbiter.