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2010 Proposition Poster Election: 50th Assembly District

Max Schwartz |
September 16, 2012 | 10:15 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

 

The California State Capitol. Photo by Steve Wilson; courtesy of Creative Commons
The California State Capitol. Photo by Steve Wilson; courtesy of Creative Commons
In 2010, California voters passed multiple propositions. Two of those passed were Proposition 14, which was passed in the June primary election, and Proposition 20, which was passed in the November general election.

Prop 14 allows the top two vote getters to advance to the general election, regardless of their party. Prop 20 gave an independent commission the ability to redraw district lines. This proposition applied to both federal and state districts.

The election in the new 50th Assembly District is one of the products of these propositions.

The 50th Assembly District encompasses West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu and parts of Agoura, among other cities and parts of West Los Angeles. This district, before redistricting, was made up of other cities.

The two candidates running for the new 50th District Assembly seat are Assemblywoman Betsy Butler and Mayor Richard Bloom. Butler currently represents the 53rd Assembly District, but has moved to run in the new district. Bloom is the current Mayor of Santa Monica. Both of the candidates are Democrats and out of the four who ran in the primary, only one was a Republican – Brad Torgan. This election would not be happening if it were not for proposition 20.

 “The top two primary was sold to the public as a tool that would end partisanship and cause candidates for the center because they believe that candidates would have to run and seek the support of all voters. While that is true to some extent, I think that if you look at the outcomes of elections up and down the state, you really don’t see that effect,” said Eric Bauman, Chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Vice Chairman of the California State Democratic Party.

Bauman said that Democrat vs. Democrat elections can cause some harm to the party.

"They can be damaging to the Party in a couple of different ways…general elections are like slug fests, so what ends up happening is that to win, one candidate says here’s why you should vote for me and here’s why you shouldn’t vote for my opponent, so you have Democrats throwing knives against Democrats. You also have large sums of money get sucked out of the pool that can be spent on winning new seats…” Bauman said.

Butler is the Party's officially endorsed candidate.

When there are two candiates of the same party, who to endorse can become a local matter.

"The Democratic Party’s endorsement process is driven by local delegates. …they get to vote for any one of the candidates,” Bauman said.

Bauman also said in the race, "there is not a major impact in the sense that regardless of which candidate wins, we are going to have a solid, strong Democrat representing this area of Los Angeles…this community is a particularly a strong community environmentally and I think either of these candidates will make sure to fight to protect the coast line…this community has some very unusual features to it…so there’s a lot of treasures in this district.”

 

Click here for full state Assembly race coverage.

Reach Staff Reporter Max Schwartz here; follow him on Twitter here.



 

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