THE LATEST ON CALIFORNIA POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
April 13, 2010
There's still 56 days until the June primary, but voters in the 37th Senate District and the 43rd Assembly District head to the polls today.
In the 37th, voters are choosing a replacement for GOP Sen. John Benoit, who was appointed to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors last year. GOP Assemblyman Bill Emmerson and former Republican Assemblyman Russ Bough have been fighting in the front lines in the seven-way contest.
Four candidates are also running in the 43rd Assembly District race to replace former Democratic Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, who was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in December.
That contest has largely been dominated by blows traded between attorney and former congressional aide Mike Gatto and Glendale Unified School Board member Nayiri Nahabedian, both Democrats.
Former Burbank Chamber of Commerce President Sunder Ramani, a Republican, and former Glendale Police Department Public Information Officer Chahe Keuroghelian, a Democrat, are also in the running.
Both elections are expected to see low turnouts. If no candidate emerges with more than 50 percent of the vote, the two top vote-getters will move on to a run-off election that has been consolidated with the June 8 primary.
The Secretary of State yesterday released some statistics showing the frequency of these "special" contests.
Since 1990, the state has held 96 special elections to fill vacant spots in the Assembly, Senate andCongress, which breaks down to nearly 5 special elections a year. The high number of elections often translates to high costs for the counties that have to put on the contests.
One statistic that sets the special elections a part is the typically low voter turnout. Since 1990, special elections have seen an average turnout of about one in four voters (with a large number of votes cast by mail). That participation figure represents less than one-third of the voter turnout for the 2008 presidential election. Two special elections last year --Los Angeles' 26th Senate District and 51st Assembly District --saw record-low turnouts of just under 8 percent.
"Our democracy depends on citizen representation, but most voters get excited about going to the polls in June or November for a gubernatorial or presidential election, not in January or April or December to