California Midterm Election Results

By California Business Properties Association

KEY TAKE-AWAYS

GOVERNOR-ELECT NEWSOM NAMES CHIEF OF STAFF

After a 19 point victory, Governor-Elect Newsom wasted no time getting his team together. Announcing Ann O’Leary, a long-time policy advisor to Hillary Clinton to serve as his chief of staff. He also named Ana Matasantos, who served as Budget Director for both Governor Brown and Governor Schwarzenegger, as his Cabinet Secretary.

CALIFORNIA GOP LOSES MORE GROUND

It was no surprise that Mr. Newsom won the Governorship as all the polls indicated his success, however the fact that he won by almost 20 points was surprising, and that wide margin has proven to produce some surprises in legislative races too.

Normally in the off-year elections Republicans expect to do better than during Presidential elections, however Tuesday saw the GOP lose control of the House of Representatives and apparently cede a 2/3s vote majority in both houses of the Legislature. It appears the trends are heading towards almost solid control across the board.

ELENI KOUNALAKIS WINS LT. GOVERNOR

In some very positive news for the CRE industry, Eleni Kounalakis was successful in her bid for Lt. Governor with over a 12 point win. Eleni spoke with the CBPA Board over a year ago and received a rare endorsement. Her past experience as a commercial real estate professional and knowledge of our industry was key in our endorsement.

DEMOCRATS ON TRACK FOR SUPERMAJORITY IN BOTH STATE HOUSES

Even as the votes continue to be counted in some close races, it appears that both houses of the state Legislature will see a 2/3 vote Democrat majority, while setting the highest mark for one party in the Assembly in over 40 years.

In the Senate going in to the elections, Democrats controlled 26 of the 40 seats and needed one more to get to the supermajority of 27.

All Democrat incumbents appear to have successfully defended their seats and it appears they have flipped one needed seat, Senate District 14, in the Fresno/Bakersfield area as Sanger Councilwoman Melissa Hurtado is leading GOP incumbent Andy Vidak by 53.5 to 46.5 percent.

In the Assembly, Democrats are seeking to build on the supermajority they already hold. Although several races are too close to call, if there are realistic scenarios in which they see a plus-three pickup and could start the new legislative session with a 57-vote supermajority. 54 is the vote threshold needed to pass new taxes.

PROPOSITION 10 DEFEATED SOUNDLY – ON TO SPLIT ROLL BATTLE

In a very bright spot for this election, our industry was part of the successful effort to defeat Proposition 10, the rent control measure. In total, over $48M was raised to defeat this measure, and almost half of that came from CBPA’s efforts as leaders of the Prop 10 Flaws effort.

Defeating rent control, you can see what happens when we are able to access capital to properly fund a campaign – this populist measure couldn’t even get to 40% support.

Rex Hime played a key role in organizing our industry’s distinct efforts in this fight, that paralleled the more broad-based No On 10 campaign, but emphasized some issues of specific importance to our members/industry.

We should take a moment to enjoy this victory. But our next task – defeating Split Roll Property Tax, on the ballot in Nov. 2020 – is already upon us. As there is no rest for the weary, we already have a meeting set up with other allied leaders dedicated to defeating split roll, next week.

Defeating this rent control measure by such a large margin shows that we can be successful at the statewide level when we are focused and funded. However, it is not a given. November 2020 is a Presidential Election Year and turnout amongst the Democrat base will be much higher.

STATEWIDE CONTESTS

Position	Candidate	Votes	%
Governor	Gavin Newsom (D)	4,760,757	59.7%
	John H. Cox (R)	3,218,084	40.3%
Lieutenant Governor	Eleni Kounalakis (D)	3,716,817	56.1%
	Ed Hernandez (D)	2,908,818	43.9%
Secretary of State	Alex Padilla (D)	4,880,051	62.0%
	Mark P. Meuser (R)	2,985,875	38.0%
Controller	Betty T. Yee (D)	4,962,828	63.2%
	Konstantinos Roditis (R)	2,885,189	36.8%
Treasurer	Fiona Ma (D)	4,818,369	61.6%
	Greg Conlon (R)	3,005,406	38.4%
Attorney General	Xavier Becerra (D)	4,797,387	61.1%
	Steven C Bailey (R)	3,060,667	38.9%
Insurance Commissioner	Ricardo Lara (D)	3,805,450	50.8%
	Steve Poizner (NPP)	3,681,079	49.2%
Superintendent of Public Instruction	Marshall Tuck	3,437,650	50.4%
	Tony K. Thurmond	3,386,486	49.6%
U.S. Senate	Dianne Feinstein (D)	3,834,203	54.4%
	Kevin De Leon (D)	3,218,257	45.6%

Result	Justice	Yes Votes	%	No Votes	%
Yes	Carol A. Corrigan, Associate Justice	4,301,855	71.3%	1,734,196	28.7%
Yes	Leondra R. Kruger, Associate Justice	4,255,329	71.8%	1,667,848	28.2%

STATE BALLOT MEASURES

Result	Proposition		Yes Votes	%	No Votes	%
Yes	1	Bonds to Fund Veteran & Affordable Housing.	4,905,058	55.1%	3,991,454	44.9%
Yes	2	Amend Existing Housing Program for Mental Illness.	5,566,386	62.3%	3,369,960	37.7%
No	3	Bond for Water and Environmental Projects.	4,246,039	48.1%	4,575,668	51.9%
Yes	4	Bond for Children’s Hospital Construction.	5,483,494	61.5%	3,438,519	38.5%
No	5	Senior Property Reduction.	3,626,471	40.9%	5,244,050	59.1%
No	6	Repeal of Fuel Tax Approved by Voters.	3,938,567	43.5%	5,123,597	56.5%
Yes	7	Change Daylight Saving Time Period.	5,333,996	60.1%	3,534,160	39.9%
No	8	Regulates Kidney Dialysis Treatment Charges.	3,516,611	39.3%	5,441,678	60.7%
No	10	Rental Control on Residential Property.	3,558,557	39.3%	5,486,318	60.7%
Yes	11	Emergency Ambulance Employees on-call.	5,372,954	60.2%	3,552,628	39.8%
Yes	12	Farm Animals Confinement Standards.	5,516,972	61.8%	3,409,389	38.2%