The "California Top Two Primary Act," known as Proposition 14, passed with surprising margins in counties across the state yesterday. The campaign for the proposition should be congratulating itself; many political observers did not see this big win coming for Prop. 14.

Under Prop. 14, voters can vote in the primary election for what used to be referred to as "partisan elections" for any candidate regardless of party affiliation of either the candidate or the voter. Candidates can even chose to not disclose their party affiliation on the ballot. For example, and admittedly at the extreme, if the Communist Party qualified as a political party in California and had a candidate running for Congress in say, Congressional District #9 (Berkeley), the candidate could chose to not disclose that significant political affiliation on the ballot.

Lawyers for both political parties will now be focusing on a legal challenge to Prop. 14. I think the fact that candidates can chose to remove information from the ballot about their party affiliation is a significant line of legal attack. It emasculates the political parties. Prop.… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…… Read More

Sadly I received my last piece of campaign mail today, Wednesday, the day after the polls closed, at my home in Dana Point. It was a Poizner piece mailed out under an Orange, Ca bulk mail permit. If someone from that campaign wants to contact me, I’ll send you a scan of the piece. The Dana Point post office is notoriously slow in processing and delivering “red tagged” political mail, which is entitled to First Class priority handling. But arriving a day after the election just adds insult to injury.… Read More

As is always the case after a major election, there is much more to write about than there is time to write! Look for more substantive analysis on specific races and such, but for this morning, I will take a stab at some overall analysis – all of which will be too brief in any one, but this is an overview, after all. I am not going to be pouring election numbers into this, you can get plenty of that elsewhere. Before I start my run down, I want to echo the praise extended by FR friend Aaron McLear to the Capitol Press Corps who all stepped up in their blogging and tweeting last night. Outstanding. Also a reminder – I am mostly looking at GOP races – someone else will take a closer look at the Dems…

OK, off to the races…

STATEWIDE RACES GOVERNOR: Congratulations to Meg Whitman, and to her (extensive) campaign team. Whitman posted a convincing win over rival Poizner. So much so that Whitman goes into the Summer with significant momentum. I wonder if her first commercials will be up…today?… Read More

Tuesday night the Valley News in Riverside erroneously reported that County Supervisor Jeff Stone defeated Assemblyman Joel Anderson for the 36th Senate District seat, apparently because the reporter was only looking at the Riverside portion of the results.

A new story has now been posted, without a trace of the incorrect report or a correction.

Here is the first part of the story that was…and wasn’t…and now never existed:

Supervisor Stone declared winner in 36th Senate race Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 Issue 23, Volume 14

MURRIETA –… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary Email… (yours truly is quoted)…… Read More

Tonight I will be trying to provide some analysis of election returns from the comfort of home. While the State GOP’s election night festivities are here in Orange County, I have a great reason to spend this evening with my family. Today we brought home Sophia Elizabeth from the hospital — our daughter, Sophia, was born last Friday!

So besides this blog, the best place to track my musings and observations will be on Twitter here.… Read More

Attorney General, State Senate 4, State Senate 36, State Senate 40 (hey its Democrat but a good fight and I see Vargas at the airport all the time), Assembly 25, Assembly 29, Assembly 33, Assembly 59, Assembly 63, Assembly 68, Assembly 70, Assembly 77, San Jose Seat 1, Ventura County Supervisor Seat 2, San Diego Council Seat 2, San Diego Council Seat 6, San Diego Strong Mayor.

UPDATE: barn burner in Assembly 70. One to watch. UPDATE possible upset in Assembly 77.… Read More