Free Republic

Voters in California’s 29th State Senate district recalled freshman Democrat Josh Newman in Tuesady’s California primary over his vote for Governor Jerry Brown’s 12-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike, replacing him with Republican Ling Ling Chang and definitively denying Democrats a supermajority in the upper house.

12:20 a.m. Wednesday California Democrats have been denied their supermajority in the state Senate. Voters in an Orange County district on Tuesday elected former Republican Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang in a recall election against a Democrat. Voters removed Democratic Sen. Josh Newman from office over his vote to raise gas taxes last year. That means Senate Democrats won't hold the two-thirds majority needed to pass tax and fee increases. Newman narrowly won the traditionally Republican district in the 2016 election, and both parties saw him as vulnerable. A Republican-backed effort to repeal the tax increase is likely to be on...

After two years in office, Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) was recalled Tuesday for his vote to increase the gas tax to repair the state’s woefully maintained streets and expand its inadequate transit systems. Political opportunism won over responsible governance. Republicans launched the recall campaign after Newman supported the gas tax increase in Senate Bill 1, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass. But Newman’s vote was pretext. Really, Republicans were trying to win back a seat that Newman narrowly won in 2016 and that was historically held by the GOP. The campaign worked. Newman is out and Republican former assemblywoman...