Special Elections

Re the school bond / tax increase special election in Moorpark and Thousand Oaks. I believe it's about time we put an end to the unnecessary waste of time and expense for special elections. We have elections scheduled regularly and should adhere to that, unless those opting for the election are also willing to pay the bill for it themselves and ensure (again at their expense) that everyone knows about it to enable a fair voter turnout. STEVE KRAMPACH Thousand Oaks

SACRAMENTO - Democrats took another seat in the state Assembly this week, but a conservative Republican won a Central Valley state Senate district in an upset victory. The San Diego-area Assembly seat was a sure bet for Democrats - both candidates were from the majority party. Community organizer Lorena Gonzalez won a special election in that race with 72.3% of the vote, defeating small-business owner Steve Castaneda in the 80th Assembly District. To the north, in another special election, Republican farmer Andy Vidak of Hanford won a Senate seat, besting three Democrats and a candidate from the Peace and Freedom Party with about 52% of the vote.

California needs to change the way it fills state legislative vacancies. Current law requires a special election that often creates a chaotic, costly and time-consuming process of legislative musical chairs. The state soon will have had half a dozen legislative special elections this year, and easily could have at least another half-dozen to fill vacancies later this year. Why so many legislative vacancies that trigger special elections? First, term limits. Termed-out legislators often leave old jobs early for new elected positions.

WASHINGTON - Two years after Mark Sanford left the South Carolina governor's office tarred by an adultery scandal, he has completed an unlikely political comeback to win a special congressional election, holding the seat for Republicans. Sanford defeated Democratic neophyte Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of the late-night satirist Stephen Colbert, in the Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District on Tuesday. He reclaims a House seat he once held for three terms. The bitter race had been expected to be tight, but the Associated Press called it just 90 minutes after the polls closed.

Republican Sharon Runner of Lancaster and Democrat Ted Lieu of Torrance handily won two widely watched special elections Tuesday, avoiding the need for April 19 runoffs. The elections were the first to be held under the state's new balloting system, in which voters choose among all candidates in a primary and the top two vote-getters, not the top finisher from each party as previously, compete in a runoff. Because these were special primaries and both candidates won majorities, there will be no runoffs.

Emergency ethics rules imposed by the Los Angeles City Council for last month's municipal elections were extended Tuesday to upcoming elections to fill two council vacancies. The rules require political parties, unions and other organizations that spend more than $10,000 to support or oppose city candidates to disclose their actions to the city Ethics Commission at least seven days before the election.

Mark Ridley-Thomas' election to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last fall already has spawned three special elections for legislative seats. And there will be a fourth if none of the six candidates on the Sept. 1 ballot for the 51st Assembly District can muster a majority. The field consists of five Democrats -- two members of city councils, a water board member who formerly served on a local school board, a 20-year-old making his first bid for elected office and a perennial candidate.

Gov. Pete Wilson scheduled special elections on March 2 in portions of Northern, Central and Southern California to fill three empty legislative seats. Voters will fill vacancies left by the resignations of Sen. Barry Keene (D-Ukiah) and Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan (D-Fresno) and by Sen. Don Rogers' move to a new district. Rogers (R-Tehachapi) won a vacant seat in the Nov. 3 election to avoid having to seek reelection in 1994 in a district made heavily Democratic by reapportionment.

Earlier this year, the price of democracy in Orange County was $231,000. That's how much it cost the county to hold a special election to fill the Garden Grove-based state Senate seat vacated when Ed Royce jumped up to Congress. But now Orange County may get a reprieve on that bill--as well as the cost of putting on special elections for years to come.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors has given the city of Moorpark permission to hold a special election March 5 to fill a seat on the City Council. The seat was left vacant when former Councilman Paul Lawrason was elected mayor in the Nov. 6 election. Lawrason had two years remaining on his council term. The council voted recently not to appoint an interim member to fill the fifth seat, saying it was better left to the voters.

California needs to change the way it fills state legislative vacancies. Current law requires a special election that often creates a chaotic, costly and time-consuming process of legislative musical chairs. The state soon will have had half a dozen legislative special elections this year, and easily could have at least another half-dozen to fill vacancies later this year. Why so many legislative vacancies that trigger special elections? First, term limits. Termed-out legislators often leave old jobs early for new elected positions.

SACRAMENTO - State Assemblyman Robert Blumenfield's election to the Los Angeles City Council last week won't keep him from helping to push a state budget through by June 15. But it could complicate things later for his fellow Democrats in the lower house. Blumenfield, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, won't leave state office until July 1. But his planned departure is among a handful of resignations in both houses that have set off a round of musical chairs for the Democrats who dominate the Legislature.

SACRAMENTO - State Sen. Michael J. Rubio, who was leading the Legislature's effort to make California's environmental laws more business-friendly, abruptly resigned from office Friday to accept a government-affairs job with Chevron Corp. Rubio, a Democrat from Shafter, in the Central Valley, was chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and introduced bills during his two years in office that related to the oil industry in his district. The state Fair Political Practices Commission will conduct a routine review of Rubio's move to make sure it involves no violation of the conflict-of-interest rules in California's Political Reform Act. "We will look to see if there is something to indicate that the act was violated and, if so, we will take a look at it," said the commission's chief of enforcement, Gary Winuk.

SACRAMENTO - Having won a coveted two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature for the first time in more than a century, California Democrats now face the temptations of one-party government - and the perils that come with it. The party's liberal allies are urging legislative leaders to aggressively exercise their newfound powers, allowing them to sidestep Republicans on tax votes and in placing measures on the statewide ballot. Among the proposals are new levies on oil companies, overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage and overhauling Proposition 13, the landmark property-tax initiative.

Monday marks the 225th anniversary of the turning point of the world - the hinge of modern human history. On Sept. 16, 1787, kings, czars, sultans, princes, emperors, moguls, feudal lords and tribal chieftains dominated most of Earth's landmass and population. Wars and famines were commonplace. So it had always been. Democracies had existed in a few old Greek and Italian city-states, but most of these small-scale republics had winked out long before the American Revolution. While Britain had a House of Commons and a broad-based jury system, hereditary British kings and lords still retained vast powers.

SACRAMENTO — This is nonsense, I'm thinking: A legislative candidate wins a majority of votes in the June primary but still must run in November against the same guy he already beat. That seems a waste of tax dollars for an unnecessary election redux. You'd think if a candidate collected a majority of the vote — not a plurality, but a clear majority — that would be it. Game over. That's how it works in mayoral and other local elections — also for state superintendent of public instruction and special elections to fill legislative and congressional vacancies.

Special primary elections will be held April 10 to fill the congressional vacancy created by the death of U.S. Rep. Julian Dixon and March 6 to fill the state Senate seat that opened when Hilda Solis was elected to Congress. Gov. Gray Davis ordered the elections Thursday in the 32nd Congressional District and the 24th state Senate District. All candidates will appear on all ballots in the primaries, regardless of party.

It was finally time to perform my civic duty. So I reached for the official voter guide and absentee ballot that had been staring at me for days. First rule: Read carefully each proposition's explanation by the nonpartisan legislative analyst. It's the most credible, detailed information a voter can find. Second rule: Ignore all those arguments and rebuttals at the end of each analysis. They're intellectually insulting, composed of childish spin and can be mind-muddling.

Democrat Suzanne Bonamici's victory in a special congressional election in Oregon on Tuesday night preserves the balance of power in the House. Bonamici won the all-mail vote Tuesday by a double-digit margin over Republican Rob Cornilles to hold for the party the seat left vacant when David Wu resigned last summer amid allegations of sexual misconduct. National Democrats made a sizable investment of cash and manpower in the contest, spending more than $1 million and making 336,000 phone calls and knocking on 148,000 doors in the 1st district.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who came to symbolize hope and resilience as she tenaciously recovered from a gunshot wound to the head during the last year, announced she would resign from Congress to concentrate on her recovery. Giffords, 41, announced her plans in a stylized video on YouTube and Facebook and in a Twitter post. Her decision, effective this week, clears the way for candidates in both parties to stake a claim on her competitive border district. By state law, her replacement will be chosen in a special election.