Democrats Retain Firm Grip on Legislative Power

California Democrats maintained their strong hold over both houses of the Legislature in Tuesday’s voting, despite a heavy push by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to whittle their majorities.

Several races remained tight as vote-counting continued late into the night. But buoyed by districts that heavily favor Democrats and a strong showing in California by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, Democrats were all but certain to keep most if not all their seats in the state Senate and Assembly.

Aided by Schwarzenegger’s fundraising prowess, the California Republican Party and many of its candidates outspent Democrats. But consultant Gale Kaufman, who oversaw the Democrats’ Assembly campaigns, said Schwarzenegger’s popularity did not appear to rub off on GOP candidates in the first general election since last year’s recall in which Schwarzenegger ousted Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

“Republicans have been talking as if there has been a shift since the recall,” Kaufman said. “But Democrats won these campaigns because they have been talking about prescription drugs, education, outsourcing of jobs: issues that people care about.”

The election marks a transition: Veteran legislators who predate term limits were being forced to retire. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) and Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) had been in office since the 1960s. On the Republican side, Sen. Ross Johnson of Irvine was departing, having won election in 1978.

Likely additions to the Legislature included the first Vietnamese American, Republican Garden Grove Councilman Van Tran and Joe Baca Jr., a son of Rep. Joe Baca (D-Riverside), while former Assemblyman Tom Umberg of Santa Ana appeared likely to reclaim his old Assembly seat.

Democratic and Republican leaders drew legislative districts in 2000 that so favored one party or the other that few of the 100 legislative and 53 congressional seats up for grabs Tuesday were truly in dispute. There were serious contests over only one congressional and a dozen state Assembly and Senate seats.

Still, both parties spent heavily. The handful of hard-fought races cost more than $44 million. Spending on two races, one in the Central Valley and one in the Bay Area, reached $8 million each, shattering spending records for California legislative races.

California’s congressional delegation includes 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans, a split that appeared likely to remain the same. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the Legislature, 48 to 32 in the Assembly and 25 to 14 in the Senate, with one vacancy previously held by a Republican. Democrats apparently held their 25-seat majority in the upper house.

Former Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, the 1998 Republican nominee for governor, made a comeback by winning an open congressional seat in the Sacramento area. Lungren previously had been a congressman from the Long Beach area.

In the one contested congressional race, former state Sen. Jim Costa, a Fresno Democrat, beat state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) in the race to replace retiring Rep. Cal Dooley (D-Hanford). The district includes parts of Kern, Kings and Fresno counties.

The National Republican Congressional Committee saw in Ashburn a chance to pick up a seat and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race. But Costa, a moderate Democrat with deep roots in the San Joaquin Valley, was particularly well-known, having spent 24 years in the Assembly and Senate.

Hard-fought legislative races were scattered across the state, from San Diego to the suburbs east of San Francisco:

* Incumbent Sen. Mike Machado (D-Linden) was beating back a concerted Republican effort to gain a Senate seat. Schwarzenegger stumped in the district for Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto, a Republican. The campaign included dozens of mailers, television ads and a concerted get-out-the vote effort.

Podesto attacked Machado for breaking campaign finance laws; the Fair Political Practices Commission fined Machado $61,000 in August. Machado accused Podesto of courting developers and fostering sprawl, an issue in the region that remains heavily agricultural.

* Assemblyman Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) was leading San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Peg Pinard for a Central Coast Senate seat held by termed-out Sen. Bruce McPherson (R-Santa Cruz). Schwarzenegger pushed hard for Maldonado, a moderate.

* In a South Bay Assembly district, Redondo Beach Mayor Greg Hill, a Republican, faced Mike Gordon, a Democrat who owns a telemarketing business.

* In Long Beach, former Rep. Steve Kuykendall, a Republican from Rancho Palos Verdes, trailed Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) for an Assembly seat. Karnette had served the limit of two terms in the state Senate but was hoping to remain in the Legislature by returning to the Assembly.

* Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) was running against Mary Ann Andreas, a former chairwoman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, which owns a casino near Palm Springs. Andreas attracted donations from Native Americans nationwide. Garcia received donations from tribes that own casinos that compete with the Morongo facility.

* Democrats made a major effort to oust first-term Assemblywoman Shirley Horton (R-Chula Vista). Democratic Chula Vista Councilwoman Patty Davis raised $1.8 million, including $400,000 from the California Democratic Party. The GOP provided $700,000 of the $2.2 million that Horton raised.

* In another San Diego-area Assembly race, Democrat Lori Saldana, a community college professor, faced former Assemblywoman Trish Hunter, a Republican. The seat was held by a termed-out Democrat, Christine Kehoe, who is running for a Senate seat.

* Republican Steve Poizner, a billionaire entrepreneur, was trailing his Democratic foe, Redwood City Councilman Ira Ruskin, despite spending $5.2 million for an Assembly seat held by Democrats on the San Francisco Peninsula. Poizner and Ruskin raised $8.3 million between them.

* First-term Assemblywoman Nicole Parra (D-Hanford) defeated Republican challenger Dean Gardner, who lost to Parra by 266 votes two years ago. Gardner accused Parra of being too liberal for the district; Democrats publicized an array of irregularities in Gardner’s past, including tax liens, bankruptcy and name changes.

* California Coastal Commission member Pedro Nava, a Democratic attorney, was leading Republican education consultant Bob Pohl for the Santa Barbara Assembly seat vacated by termed-out Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). Nava raised nearly $1 million, more than twice as much as Pohl, but a business-backed independent expenditure committee spent more than $400,000 to back Pohl and attack Nava.

Republicans had hoped to use Schwarzenegger’s popularity to gain as many as three seats. Those hopes faded in the past month as the presidential race caught fire and record numbers of Californians registered to vote. High turnout historically favors Democrats, experts say. By last week, Republican strategists described themselves merely as being pleased for having mounted serious campaigns in a few districts where Democrats dominate.

“I think [Republicans] are finding it’s extraordinarily more difficult than anticipated,” said Republican consultant Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the nonpartisan Target Book, an analysis of legislative races.

Democrats entered the final sprint to election day with far more money to spend on last-minute mailers, television ads and polls. As of Oct. 16, Democrats reported having spent $11.5 million since January, with $5.6 million left for the final push. The California Republican Party reported spending $17 million since January, with $1.6 million left to spend.

“It seems like every two years, it just gets higher and higher and higher,” Hoffenblum said.

While the bulk of the races were all but decided in the March primary, the fall campaigns were particularly tough, as candidates made liberal use of dirt dug up on one another by opposition researchers. Moneyed interests added to the rancor by waging independent campaigns, using mailers and other campaign tactics to attack candidates on issues ranging from crime to being in the pockets of Indian gambling interests.

Such groups spent more than $9 million in the past two months.