Scott Lay, over at the Nooner, a California Political Newsletter, is reporting that Democrat Matt Dababneh pulled out a win in the recent Assembly District 45 Race – where he barely edged out Republican Susan Shelley, by a margin of 329 votes. That was a great showing by Shelley, in what is a solidly blue district.
Here are the results:
- Matt Dababneh (D): 14,984 (Los Angeles 14,933 + Ventura 51)
- Susan Shelley (R): 14,655 (Los Angeles 14,555 + Ventura 100)
Primary turnout: 9.8%
Runoff turnout: 11.8%
George Skelton, at the L.A. Times, wrote that Senate leader Darrell Steinberg says he has seen enough. He wants to rid California of incessant special elections to fill vacancies in the Legislature.
I am not sure I agree with Steinberg as clearly the GOP had a shot at picking up the 45th A.D. Governor Jerry Brown, presumably, would have just appointed a Democrat and been done with it.
The big lesson for the CA GOP is that their candidates can at this time do well in blue districts – and that could be due to the NSA disaster; the ObamaCare fail, or the continued economic malaise under President Obama.
Here in Orange County the OC GOP needs to get behind SAUSD Trustee Cecilia Iglesias for the 69th Asssembly District, which is currently held by career politician Tom Daly. Iglesias should do very well in what remains Orange County’s most Latino district. The 69th A.D. includes much of the cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana.