Earlier, BAN reported that California Green Party member Victor Hernandez would appear on the November 2026 ballot in the 59th Assembly district in Orange County. Now it appears that a second Green legislative candidate will qualify for the November ballot. Mark Rendon in the 14th Assembly district is currently in second place in a 3-way race. Here are the returns as of June 11. The three candidates are the Democratic incumbent, Rendon, and a Republican. Currently Rendon is leading the Republican, Borgar Solnordal, by 12,398 to 11,147. Not all the votes are counted.
Assuming Rendon does place second, and there are two California Greens on the November ballot for partisan office, this will be the largest number of Greens on the California November ballot since 2018, when there were three.
The 14th Assembly district is centered on Berkeley and Richmond, and also has parts of Oakland.
I wonder how many there were in 1998.
Three, all for US House, none for legislature.
This is the second time the district* has advanced a non-D candidate ahead of a R. In 2020, a No Party Preference candidate finished 2nd. Two times a write-in candidate has qualified for the general election, a P&F candidate in 2012 (first Top 2 election) and a Republican in 2022.
In 2018 as an open seat, 12 Democrats ran as the Top 2 served as a Democratic primary.
*AD-14 is essentially the same as AD-15 in the 2010s, moved slightly northward, losing some of its Oakland share (20% to 11%) and Emeryville. It is now 4/7 in Contra Costa County vs. about 1/2 previously.
Borgar Solnordal, designated “Sunday School Teacher” on the ballot, did not report any expenditures, which was dwarfed by the $1000 dollars of Rendon (G), and the $1 million plus of Buffy Wicks (D-chair of Appropriations Committee).
Solnordal responded by text to the Mercury News, “Ms. Wicks needs to stop promoting communism and socialism to the detriment of our area. My campaign is moving mountains.”
The legitimacy of California elections is undermined by how it reports votes. Counties could report votes counted daily, or once per week. Alameda County was notoriously bad. Since it is one of the most Democratic-counties this led to late reporting of Democratic votes. It was effectively the same of what the Daley machine used to do in Chicago.
Currently, the three slowest counties are:
62.6% Mendocino, Voters smoked their ballot.
67.9% Nevada, Cannibals.
68.5% Marin, Fog in Golden Gate, California cut off.
Meanwhile, turnout is likely to be the highest for a mid-term primary since 1998, and will exceed that based on share of eligible voters, and exceed that of the discredited partisan primaries going back to the 1980s.