As of the afternoon of November 16, the race between Jeff Hewitt and Russ Bogh had tightened. They are the candidates for Riverside County, California, Supervisor, district 5. Bogh now leads by 252 votes. The vote is Bogh 36,185; Hewitt 35,933.
The race is non-partisan. Bogh is a former Republican state legislator. Hewitt, a member of the Libertarian Party, is outgoing Mayor of Calimesa. Bogh’s margin had been 360 votes as of a week ago, and there are still many uncounted ballots.
If Hewitt were to win, he would have almost 500,000 constituents. That would be the largest jurisdiction to elect a member of the Libertarian Party, in the entire nation, in the last 25 years.
Top 2 primary in the gerrymander district ???
NO Donkey in the gerrymander district ???
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PR – all legis bodies.
This is a runoff. There were five candidates in the primary, and none received a majority. There were no partisan labels. Party affiliation was unclear based on web pages. One candidate is a district representative for a Democratic state senator. He finished fifth.
Local elections should be moved to odd years.
Even though a local race may be nonpartisan most voters usually know with which party the candidates are affiliated.
Having local elections in odd numbered years is an extremely bad idea. If a local election is at the same time as a state or national election then the turnout will be much higher.
Demo Rep blinds himself at times with his monocular focus.
RKS–
ONE year terms – for legis/exec offices, esp.
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Olde/early Conn. regime had 6 MONTH terms — May/Nov elections.
Olde phrase —
When annual elections END, then tyranny begins.
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Now many legis/exec State/Local HACKS with 4 year terms — due to Prez 4 year terms.
@RKS,
It is better to have an informed turnout. If you want a large turnout, hold the “election” at the beach, and promise the “voters” that they won’t have to think, much less vote. Have free ice cream and fireworks. The parties can sponsor the beach volleyball teams. The red and blue teams will always be in the final. Perhaps a parade with city firetrucks, police cars, and sweet sweepers.
If there were actually pary labels, the Libertarian would not be close.
Come on hewitt! Hope you get the win!
JR —
How about the Party Party ??? —
See *Animal House* movie early 1980s.
“If Hewitt were to win, he would have almost 500,000 constituents. That would be the largest jurisdiction ever to elect a member of the Libertarian Party, in the entire nation.”
I don’t think that statement is true.
Travis County, TX elected Wendell Weatherford as Public Weigher in 1988. That was a partisan election.
https://www.traviscountyhistory.org/current-and-former-elected-officials-1840-present/
The population of Travis County in 1990 was greater than the current population of Hewitt’s district.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_County,_Texas
I wonder if Weatherford asked for the office to be abolished, or if the Travis County Commissioners Court (County Council) went out of their way to abolish the office.
See this link: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/73R/billtext/html/HB01039S.htm
I think Scott Lieberman is correct, so I will amend the post.
The legislative history of HB 1039 says that the person had campaigned on abolishing the office, and never taken the oath of office. So it might be correct to say that was the largest jurisdiction to elect a Libertarian,but if he did not take the oat of office, he was never the public weigher. The bill and its senate companion were sponsored by Travis County legislators. A Travis County and Bexar County county commissioner had testified on the bill. It appears that a public weigher was elected in Bexar County in 1988. Bexar County has more people than Travis County. Note that the purpose of HB 1039 was to permit a referendum in a county on eliminating the office. On the ballot at least, public weigher was a precinct office. This might indicate that the public weigher were elected from a commissioner’s precinct and thus 1/4 the population.
Election provisions for public weigher were finally removed in 2009 as part of the Sunset Bill for the Department of Agriculture. A public weigher is now a licensed business that can certify things like scales. Even before that there was a parallel system of public weighers such that even if a county failed to elect public weigher weights and measures would be regulated. Public weigher remains in the Texas Constitution as a resign-to-run office, but was never a statutory office. Elected public weighers may have been paid on a fee basis, rather than a salaried basis.
If no one filed, no one would be elected, and the office would be dormant. The Hanbook of Texas says that as late as 1979 there were at least two elected public weighers, meaning the office was dormant in most counties. This permitted Libertarians to file, and be elected.
The largest constituency for an elected Libertarian was likely Harris County School Trustee. Almost all Texas school districts are Independent School Districts (ISD). This means they are independent of the county schools, and have their own school board and superintendent. But at one time before school consolidation, most were dependent school districts with a single school offering a grade school, 1-8 or 1-6 education. They were too small and too poor to have a school board or a superintendent. Even a school principal was likely just a teacher who was given a bit extra pay. The county school trustees would be responsible for overall administration. The county seat might have a high school. Farm kids who showed promise would board in town and pay tuition (perhaps paid by a sponsor). The school district might operate multiple schools and have its own school board. Over time rural schools and school districts consolidated and became independent districts, and there was nothing left for the county school board to do. Msst were left with nothing to do and were abolished.
Some Liberarians were elected to the Harris County School Board because they were unoposed. There was a lawsuit over the statewide qualification of the party, because it prevented the trustees from being re-elected. Republicans started filing, in part to prevent the election of Libertarians. No it appears the position is used by politicians to build their resume. The statutes for the county school board have been removed, but there is a provision that says the county school board may operate under the statutes that existed before they were eliminated.
Jim Riley When someone does not have a logical argument they resort to ridicule instead.
Demo Rep I think that annual elections would be too expensive.
@DKS,
Why do you think high turnout is better than informed turnout?
RKS-
How many States have odd year elections and even year elections = EVERY year elections ???
One reason for EVERY year elections is to BANKRUPT the special interest gangsters.
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PR and Appv
Even ONE year terms are too much — if some moron/hack goes EVIL powermad.
See various Prez hacks, for example.
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One more reform — Recall elections in ALL regimes — esp the USA regime.
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