On July 23, California held a special legislative election, 52nd Assembly district, in San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties. The largest city in the district is Ontario, and Ontario’s Mayor, Paul Leon, who is a registered independent, is running first. Leon was a registered Republican until May 31, 2013, when he switched to independent and simultaneously filed to run for Assembly. He had run as a Republican in another special election earlier this year, for State Senate, and had placed second in the primary and then lost the run-off to a Democrat.
The San Bernardino County Republican Party gave $9,000 to Leon’s Assembly campaign, and yet the county party endorsed the only Republican in the race, Dorothy Pineda. Besides Leon and Pineda, the race has seven Democrats.
As this post is being written, it is too early to tell who will place second. From the preliminary returns, it will probably be Democrat Freddie Rodriguez, but it is possible the Republican, Pineda, will place second. There will be a run-off in two months. If the run-off is between Rodriguez and Leon, then Rodriguez will probably win, because the district is strongly Democratic. The registration data for the district is 47.5% Democratic and only 26.7% Republican. Here is a link to the unofficial returns on the California Secretary of State’s page. As the evening progresses, more and more votes will be tallied.
The sample ballot for Los Angeles County explicitly says that no party endorsements were received. The sample ballot for San Bernardino county shows no endorsements.
Sometimes candidates are endorsed by qualified parties but the parties don’t take the initiative to send the information in to the Secretary of State. That happened in 2012 as well.
A curiosity of California election law is the filings with county election officials in multi-county elections.
This includes filings for legislative and congressional seats, initiative petitions, and endorsements by qualified parties.
The 10-year registration history of candidates is posted on the SOS website, while the party endorsements (by the county party) goes in the sample ballot printed by the counties.
Since it is the statewide party that is qualified, it makes no sense to permit/require endorsements by county parties. Even with statewide party endorsements, each party would be free to defer to the judgment of the county (or district) parties.
This is not an “Independent” candidate. The word Independent is part of the name “American Independent”. Use no party preference.
Some day, Mark Seidenberg, you will answer my repeated questions…how is it possible that California recognizes both the Americans Elect Party and the American Independent Party? Your theory that if one party has a word in its name, no other party can use that name, collides with that reality. Also how do you account for the fact that California election law still lets independent presidential candidates have the label “independent”?
Alameda and Los Angeles counties tabulate “Independent” voters among those registered with non-qualified parties, a status which is clearly distinct from No Party Preference voters.
If the officers of the Independent Party were to request the number of registrants for the Independent Party be tabulated, I suspect that the party would qualify, so that party officers could be elected in a state-funded primary, there could be a 2016 presidential primary, and the party could make endorsements for voter-nominated offices.
Richard Winger
A political party is not a corporation. Therefore the practice for a corporation is not the same. That is how the
California Department of State explains it.
Imperial County using HAVA registration forms, where the party name is printed in and write in the word “independent”
for party, contacts the elector and asks him the following
question. ” By using the name “Independent”, do you mean the
“American Independent”? Every person said yes as an answer to the question. It was asked of people that
stated there county of birth as Mexico.
I asked Debra Bowen of this practice in February, 2008
and she said it was proper.
Surely the real story here is that with over 60% voting for Democrat candidates in he primary they could easily have ended up without a candidate in the run-off! However did California voters let the politicians get them into this mess?
In the senate special election, Leon received about 1/3 of the votes of the trailing Democratic candidates from the primary.
Just because a voter votes for a Democrat, it doesn’t mean that they will vote for any Democrat.
The question needs to be asked of
Secretary of State Bowen. I ask
her your question in person in February, 2008. She gave me the
reply. I am not the source, Secretary of Secretary of State Bowen is the source.