Outlook for the California State Legislature in 2008

Also posted on my blog, Calitics, Democracy for California, and DU.

Many in the California Democratic Party circles may not know this, but in 2008 there is a real possibility of gaining 2/3 majorities in the State Senate and State Assembly. The fact that a two-thirds vote in both houses is required to pass the annual budget and to override gubernatorial vetoes could serve as a compelling reason to vote against the term-limits initiative.

Using my extraordinary math, statistics, and HTML skills, below I included with each list of incumbents are the margins that each district voted in the 2002 Governor’s race (2002G: Davis vs. Simon), 2004 Presidential race (2004P: Kerry vs. Bush), 2004 Senate race (2004S: Boxer vs. Jones), and 2006 Senate race (2006S: Feinstein vs. Mountjoy) and the average of these and the registration margins, which I will call the Partisan Factor (PF).

Check out the discussion here.

Numbers are below the flip:

ASSEMBLY

23 Assemblymembers are term-limited in 2008, 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Here are the districts which will be open, the term-limited incumbent (for reference) and the registration statistics.

Republican-Held Seats (12)

District	Incumbent	DEM	GOP	Margin
2	Doug La Malfa	31.76%	47.44%	R+15.68
3	Rick Keene	33.41%	41.75%	R+8.34
10	Alan Nakanishi	37.80%	41.83%	R+3.97
15	Guy Houston	38.26%	39.51%	R+1.25
26	Greg Aghazarian	40.84%	41.99%	R+1.15
34	Bill Maze	32.89%	46.88%	R+13.99
36	Sharon Runner	36.16%	42.77%	R+6.61
64	John Benoit	33.49%	45.45%	R+7.94
71	Todd Spitzer	26.55%	52.07%	R+25.52
75	George Plescia	28.73%	43.15%	R+14.42
78	Shirley Horton	40.92%	33.99%	D+6.93
80	Bonnie Garcia	45.59%	36.97%	D+8.62

District	2002G	2004P	2004S	2006S	PF
2	R+30.0	R+34.1	R+23.7	R+16.7	R+24.0
3	R+31.5	R+14.7	R+7.3	R+0.2	R+12.4
10	R+16.6	R+14.0	R+0.7	D+6.2	R+5.8
15	R+4.5	D+0.1	D+7.8	D+22.3	D+4.9
26	R+5.7	R+15.6	D+1.0	D+6.3	R+3.0
34	R+26.1	R+33.6	R+20.9	R+12.6	R+21.4
36	R+26.0	R+21.9	R+5.7	D+5.4	R+11.0
64	R+15.3	R+16.6	R+1.6	D+0.7	R+8.1
71	R+33.6	R+30.2	R+19.4	R+14.4	R+24.6
75	R+19.8	R+12.7	R+0.2	D+5.6	R+8.3
78	D+2.4	D+3.2	D+20.4	D+24.2	D+11.4
80	D+8.6	D+5.2	D+19.3	D+22.4	D+12.8

Democratic-Held Seats (11)

District	Incumbent	DEM	GOP	Margin
1	Patty Berg	44.52%	28.05%	D+16.27
8	Lois Wolk	45.52%	29.51%	D+16.01
13	Mark Leno	56.22%	9.31%	D+46.91
14	Loni Hancock	58.70%	15.04%	D+43.66
19	Gene Mullin	50.05%	22.57%	D+27.48
22	Sally Lieber	43.40%	24.25%	D+19.15
27	John Laird	48.12%	26.40%	D+21.68
30	Nicole Parra	46.45%	38.70%	D+7.75
40	Lloyd Levine	47.78%	28.12%	D+19.66
46	Fabian Núñez	63.37%	12.78%	D+50.59
52	Mervyn Dymally	67.90%	13.00%	D+54.90

District	2002G	2004P	2004S	2006S	PF
1	D+10.3	D+22.4	D+26.5	D+32.5	D+21.6
8	D+8.8	D+12.5	D+22.8	D+28.8	D+17.8
13	D+53.3	D+72.2	D+73.5	D+72.9	D+63.8
14	D+43.9	D+62.8	D+61.7	D+65.6	D+55.5
19	D+28.4	D+39.8	D+44.8	D+54.4	D+39.0
22	D+26.4	D+36.1	D+40.7	D+48.5	D+34.2
27	D+20.4	D+35.0	D+36.0	D+43.8	D+31.4
30	R+2.6	R+14.7	D+3.8	D+12.9	D+1.4
40	D+11.6	D+21.9	D+35.3	D+33.7	D+24.3
46	D+60.8	D+62.7	D+72.3	D+72.3	D+63.7
52	D+70.0	D+73.5	D+79.4	D+79.9	D+71.5

SENATE

10 Senators are term-limited in 2008, 6 Democrats and 4 Republicans.

*Maldonado is not term-limited but may be vulnerable in his increasingly Democratic district.

Republican-Held Seats (5)

District	Incumbent	DEM	GOP	Margin
15	Abel Maldonado*	39.69%	37.14%	D+2.55
19	Tom McClintock	36.23%	40.36%	R+4.13
29	Bob Margett	32.14%	44.68%	R+12.54
33	Dick Ackerman	26.94%	50.75%	R+23.81
37	Jim Battin	34.57%	45.26%	R+10.69

District	2002G	2004P	2004S	2006S	PF
15	R+2.4	D+6.4	D+11.3	D+20.6	D+7.7
19	R+7.0	R+2.0	D+7.6	D+10.6	D+1.0
29	R+19.9	R+15.2	R+1.7	R+2.2	R+10.3
33	R+31.4	R+27.2	R+14.9	R+11.6	R+21.8
37	R+13.4	R+16.6	R+0.9	D+2.2	R+7.9

Democratic-Held Seats (6)

District	Incumbent	DEM	GOP	Margin
5	Michael Machado	45.98%	32.41%	D+13.57
7	Tom Torlakson	46.81%	30.66%	D+16.15
9	Don Perata	58.98%	13.53%	D+45.45
21	Jack Scott	45.65%	28.56%	D+17.09
23	Sheila Kuehl	50.07%	25.26%	D+24.81
25	Edward Vincent	58.87%	20.97%	D+37.90

District	2002G	2004P	2004S	2006S	PF
5	D+7.7	D+8.4	D+22.2	D+27.6	D+15.9
7	D+14.5	D+22.8	D+27.2	D+39.6	D+24.1
9	D+48.2	D+63.6	D+64.5	D+66.6	D+57.7
21	D+15.0	D+27.8	D+35.9	D+37.0	D+26.6
23	D+22.6	D+31.1	D+40.8	D+45.9	D+33.0
25	D+38.7	D+45.7	D+52.9	D+53.6	D+45.8

Now here is a list of the districts with the most competitive PF’s, ranked from highest to lowest priority.

Assembly

District	PF
80	D+12.8
78	D+11.4
15	D+4.9
30	D+1.4
26	R+3.0
10	R+5.8
64	R+8.1
75	R+8.3

Senate

District	PF
15	D+7.7
19	D+1.0

Overall, we should target Assembly Districts 10, 15, 26, 64, 75, 78, and 80 while defending District 30, and target Senate Districts 15 and 19. If we manage to win both Senate seats, we will have 27 Senate seats, enough for a 2/3 majority. If we win the most competitive Assembly districts (10, 15, 26, 78, 80) we will have 53, just one short of 2/3. We would have to win at least one of the lesser competitive districts (64, 75) to reach 2/3 there. We will also have to defend AD-30, which may not be hard if we find a candidate less divisive than Parra.

With 2/3 in both houses, we can finally pass decent budgets without significant bickering and with sufficient funding for things like mental health facilities and public transit including high-speed rail.