Posted on 06/06/2006 9:59:15 PM PDT by SmithL
Business-backed moderate Democrats took early leads Tuesday against liberals in seven of 13 key primary races that could go a long way in determining the political leanings of the next California Legislature.
Voters were picking nominees for 100 legislative seats and filling a midterm vacancy in a heavily Republican Orange County Senate district. In early absentee balloting, Assemblyman Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, had 71 percent of the vote while Democrat Larry Caballero, a teacher, had 29 percent.
The most important votes were being cast in 13 primary races in which moderate Democrats backed by business groups battled liberals supported by labor, environmentalists and, in some cases, plaintiffs' attorneys.
Because only a handful of districts have a real chance of being won by either major party in November, the outcome of those primaries could have a significant impact on environmental and consumer rights bills and legislation backed by business groups.
"It's a battle between ... liberal, labor Democrats versus moderate business Democrats who are more inclined to be more receptive to business and will vote sometimes with the Republicans," said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies.
Voters also could give a boost to an all-in-the-family trend in California politics that's developed since they imposed term limits on lawmakers in 1990. The Legislature could get its second husband-wife team and two pairs of brothers, depending in large part on the outcome of Tuesday's elections.
But while Tom Harman was leading in his bid to fill out the Senate term of fellow Republican John Campbell, who was elected to Congress in December, Harman's wife, Dianne, was running third in a three-way race to succeed her husband in a heavily Republican Assembly district.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
So the most extremist Libs are losing to more rational Libs? Yet the Democrats listen to the Koskids. Go figure.
California = blue state over run by American leftists, why don't we just give it to Aztlan?
No such thing. Lieberman is the last of a dying breed.
Nah. Remember, in WW2, it gave us Ronald Reagan. It was a great state once; we just have to figure out some way to build, deploy, and use some sort of hippie liberal seeking munition...
The invading vermin are more pressing than the liberals at this time.
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