Posted on 11/08/2006 6:22:53 AM PST by calcowgirl
LOS ANGELES - Democrat John Garamendi won a close race for lieutenant governor, as Republicans faltered in their efforts to win statewide offices and gain power in Sacramento.
Garamendi, who currently serves as insurance commissioner, edged out conservative Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, an anti-tax ideologue, in Tuesday's election.
Democrats also won races for California attorney general, treasurer and controller.
"The conclusion to be drawn here is that California is still a true progressive state even though it has a nominally Republican governor," Garamendi said.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen had a slim lead in the race for secretary of state over incumbent Bruce McPherson, a Republican former state legislator appointed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The state GOP had hoped to ride Schwarzenegger's popularity to victories in more statewide races - four years after Democrats made a clean sweep of the statewide ballot.
Republican candidates captured two executive offices on Tuesday - at least equaling their total going into the election.
Republican Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley multimillionaire, defeated two-term Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in the race for insurance commissioner, a setback for state Democrats. Poizner spent more than $8.5 million of his own money in the race.
He said he didn't think people saw insurance commissioner as a partisan post.
"I think voters on both sides of the aisle are sick of career politicians," he said.
His win came as Schwarzenegger was re-elected in his race against Democratic challenger Phil Angelides by one of the most lopsided margins in California history.
Democrat Jerry Brown, a two-term former governor and current Oakland mayor, won the race for attorney general against Republican state Sen. Chuck Poochigian.
Outgoing Attorney General Bill Lockyer, also a Democrat, became state treasurer by defeating Republican Claude Parrish, a member of the Board of Equalization from Los Angeles.
And Democrat John Chiang, a member of the state Board of Equalization from Los Angeles, won the contest for state controller against McClintock protege Tony Strickland.
Republicans account for 34.3 percent of registered voters in the state, compared with 42.5 percent for Democrats.
When Schwarzenegger rode the recall wave to the governorship in 2003, he became the lone Republican holding statewide office.
The Democratic grip on those constitutional positions was eroded further in 2005 when Schwarzenegger appointed McPherson as secretary of state after Democrat Kevin Shelley resigned amid fundraising and spending scandals.
In another statewide office, Jack O'Connell, a Democrat, was re-elected as schools superintendent in June.
No worries, mate, ilk never go eye to eye with conservatives. They're exclusively keyboard warriors.
McClintock isn't even the next Ronald McDonald.
The demos ran some really nasty ( in my opinion ) ads against him here in OC...used his conservative views against him..
"Republicans" launched a robo-call campaign against Tom, using Arnold's theme of "Tom is Wrong"
With friends like that from your own party...
Emphasis on the cheap.
Darn! I went to bed and we were ahead!
I woke up to defeat.
You off your meds again, gramps?
Having discussed this national destruction of Republicans with a few friends today, there seems to be some consensus among conservative Christians that what has happened is because of the President's and many congressmen's support of the "North American Union." This is a zero tolerance issue to true conservatives, and I'm told that plenty of them voted for Dems to short circuit Bush's effort.
Interesting. I didn't have any tough choices to make on the national level, so the Rs got my vote even though they weren't real contenders. Both were weak candidates without any backing so it was no contest.
I've seen many theories thrown out on why the GOP suffered (e.g. big spending, illegal immigration) but the alternative(D) didn't offer a better solution. The NAU theory actually does support a rationale for cross-over votes.
Personally, I'm disgusted with most all national politicians and party "leaders". They seem more arrogant every day and determined to force their desires on voters rather than represent them. As actions move further and further from the GOP platform, one has to wonder what the Party has left to stand FOR. Nothing seems sacred anymore and everything seems fair game to sacrifice in the quest to "win". To me, there is little glory in "winning" if we end up with a politician who promotes and/or supports the Democrats' platform.
Look at voter turnout in San Diego and Orange Counties. Horribly low. These are counties which lean heavily GOP and they did not get out the vote.
My polling place was pretty much empty at 5:00 pm yesterday. I thought it was because everyone would come after work, but when you look at the registered voter turnout that's not the case.
It's pretty sad when you have a million and a half registered voters in the county and only about 14% of them come out to decide important issues and choose our leadership.
GOP did absolutely nothing to try and unseat Feinstein. I think there is a real malaise, a lack of will to bring about change.
It's not as if they didn't raise a heck of a lot of money.
REF: post 32 ... I stand corrected on turnout numbers... going from what I saw as of last evening....
Still turnout was pitiful.
Never do; they're not about solutions, they need victims and crises.
It's not like there was no warning...
It seems too many in the GOP were counting on Arnold's lead depressing Democrat turnout. They didn't take into account the excitement a lot of California liberals would have when they saw the Democrats taking control of Congress.
Also, flooding voters' mailboxes with mail and voicemails with phone calls does not necessarily equal an effective GOTV operation.
Did Tom run any ads communicating to voters who he is in your area? Here in the Bay Area, the only ads he seemed to run were the couple talking about Garamendi's corruption. Good ads, but more was needed--especially when Garamendi was running ads portraying him as Satan.
Clearly, the GOP and conservative strongholds did not turn out and a few other things did not go his way, but as a "Tombot" for more than a decade, I'm a bit frustrated by his campaign. It seemed like he was counting on voters remembering him positively from the recall and did nothing to answer the attacks being made by Garamendi. I also got the impression Tom thought he had the money and numbers to win.
I think the lesson to be learned from this election is that the CAGOP is inept and ineffective on every level--recruiting candidates, supporting them, connecting with volunteers and voters, and so on. The two GOP winners yesterday were the two rich guys who were able to pour money into their campaigns to win without depending on the party. They both also had the advantage of having extremely weak opponents who ran some of the worst ads I've ever seen. Conservatives need to stop blaming others and waiting for the CAGOP to get its act together. We need to find the money, candidates and strategy to be able to win on our own.
"phony ilk who pretend to be the 'extreme right'"
I certainly don't hope this was in reference to McClintock. I only hope that three losses doesn't diminish his ability to run for higher office than that of state senator again (he's still pretty young).
Regarding your line of comments, are you actually wishing for more Arnold Schwarzeneggers, Steve Poizners, Lincoln Chafees, Arlen Specters, John McCains, etc.?! I voted for the back stabbing governator, but I held my nose as I did so. Choosing a RINO really isn't even a compromise anymore. It's really just voting for a lib without a "D" behind his/her name.
It wasn't.
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