Election Results 2012

Election Results 060512

The semi-official results are in!

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen reports the following results, though the final certification won’t happen for a few days.

In the propositions, term limits were approved by the voters, though most probably didn’t read the proposition and were just “voting the bums out”.  The measure allows a politician to remain in either the assembly or the senate for 12 years, up from 6 in the assembly and 8 in the senate.  However, the total time in state legislature was reduced from 12 to 14.   The measure will probably slightly decrease the number of assembly people running for senate.  Either way even successful politicians will have to get honest work after just 12 years in state office. 

Proposition 29, a new tax on tobacco products, fell to defeat, losing very narrowly statewide, 49.2% to 50.8%.  Still, that narrow margin is still a great victory since it might indicate that the voters have had their fill of government good works.  Locally the measure failed by a resounding 67.8% to 31.2%.  The tobacco companies and others spent $47 million to defeat this measure, and many note that the measure was ahead by 2-1 several months before the election, and probably correctly claim that the tobacco money won the election, but there was wide spread disagreement in the blogosphere about personal choice and prohibition by taxation.  Your Fringe Editor encourages readers not to smoke tobacco, it’s a deadly addiction, but if you decide to, go right ahead, Friend, and good luck with that.

Feinstein took almost half the vote statewide, but in Sierra County she took just 32%, with Republicans Dan Hughes and Elizabeth Emkin each getting 13.7% at this writing.

Congress District 1 sees Republican Doug LaMalfa taking on Democrat Jim Reed.  Statewide Reed took 25.1% and LaMalfa took 37.7%.  In Sierra County, though, Reed lost to Republican Aanestad 20.1% and 20.6%, and LaMalfa got over 38%.

State Senate District 1 statewide saw Julie Flatter garner 30.6% to 48.2% for Republican combatant Ted Gaines.  Locally, however, Flatter, who is known in the county, got only 25% of the vote, with 58.4% going to Ted Gaines.  Les Baugh, Republican got 16% statewide but only 7.7% locally.  Bo Ambrozewicz grabbed 8.5% in Sierra County but only 5.1% statewide. 

Assembly District 1

 As can be seen from the chart, thanks to Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who made this chart up for the Prospect, it’s Bosetti and Dahle in the general, with, it seems at this point, Democrat Meacher not bringing up number 2. 

Victors Lee Adams and John Kennelly

Locally, Lee Adams, running unopposed, handily won reelection for Sierra County Supervisor, District 1.  Also running unopposed, Paul Roen captured District 3, replacing retiring supervisor Bill Nunes.  Nunes has been a hard working supervisor, and Roen, a respected local forestry contractor active in local forest and water issues, will have his work cut out to fill Nune’s shoes on the board.  Roen received a strong challenge from write-in voters; 29 votes or almost 13%, so there’s a heads up there. We’d like to remind readers that the Prospect correctly called the winner in both these races.

 



Pat Hudson, John Kennelly, and long-time avid Prospect reader and Cap0 of local Repubs, Tom Dotta

John Kennelly retained his Superior Court seat by the strong margin of 72.41% to 27.43% over his challenger, Sidonie Christian.  Pundits note that Kennelly treated Christian like the serious threat she was, and campaigned diligently, walking the county and asking people put up signs.  Christian faced an uphill battle against a judge who has already made a name for fairness and consideration. 

The real battle was for District 4 Supervisor between Jim Beard and Mike Moore.  Moore has years more experience with government, and was seen by many as the more moderate of the two.  Beard has much less experience dealing with government, but is a great speaker and conveys his sense of purpose.  The two were neck and neck for most of the night, and in the end, as is often the case in Sierra County, less than ten votes made the difference.  Beard emerged victorious by seven votes, 132 to 125.

Oh yeah, and for President we have Romney vs. Obama, meh.

To see the state results go HERE.

For local results download HERE.