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I think I was wrong about the way the candidates rotate; it's the candidates, not the letters, that rotate. The candidates are first ordered according to today's drawing to determine the order for Assembly District #1. In AD#2, the first candidate goes to the bottom of the list, and the rest of the list of candidates rotate up by one. With only 80 districts and up to 195 names, most candidates will not have chance at being anywhere near the top.

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_ra.htm

... the Secretary of State conducts a random drawing of letters of the alphabet. The resulting order of letters constitutes the alphabet to be used for determining the order of candidates' names on the upcoming statewide ballot; it applies throughout the name, not just for the first letter so that Adams could precede Aaron.

Names of candidates for offices voted on statewide rotate by Assembly district, starting with Assembly District 1 where the names appear as first determined by the random alphabet. In Assembly District 2, the candidate who appeared first in Assembly District 1 drops to the bottom and the other candidates move up one position and so on throughout the 80 districts. This gives each candidate more than one opportunity to appear at the "top of the ticket" in his/her race. [not in the Oct 7, 2003 special election]

Congressional candidates rotate within their districts with the lowest numbered Assembly district leading the rotation. State Senate and Assembly candidates follow the random alphabet but do not rotate; however, if a legislative district crosses county lines, the elections officials of each county shall conduct a random drawing to determine candidate order for these offices in their county.

This procedure was established by legislation passed in 1975 in response to court rulings declaring that standard alphabetical order or incumbent-first was unconstitutional since there is a 5% positional bias among undecided voters.

13111. Candidates for each office shall be printed on the ballot in accordance with the following rules:
...
(c) In the case of all other offices, the candidates for which are to be voted on throughout the state, the Secretary of State shall arrange the names of the candidates for the office in accordance with the randomized alphabet as provided for in Section 13112 for the First Assembly District. Thereafter, for each succeeding Assembly district, the name appearing first in the last preceding Assembly district shall be placed last, the order of the other names remaining unchanged.
...

13112. The Secretary of State shall conduct a drawing of the letters of the alphabet, the result of which shall be known as a randomized alphabet. The procedure shall be as follows:
(a) Each letter of the alphabet shall be written on a separate slip of paper.... The resulting random order of letters constitutes the randomized alphabet, which is to be used in the same manner as the conventional alphabet in determining the order of all candidates in all elections. For example, if two candidates with the surnames Campbell and Carlson are running for the same office, their order on the ballot will depend on the order in which the letters M and R were drawn in the randomized alphabet drawing.