Almost forgot to mention this little bit of political news out of Southern California... In last week's special election, former assemblyman Ted Lieu easily defeated Bob Valentine to win the state's 28th Senate District race, with 57.1 percent of the vote: Lieu easily wins South Bay state senate seat.The senate seat was vacated when former Sen. Jenny Oropeza died in office last year of complications from a blood clot. Valentine, who posed the only serious challenge to Lieu, collected just 25.1 percent of the vote. Under new election rules, since Lieu won with a majority, no runoff was required:
Lieu announced his run just a few days after the November election. He moved swiftly, grabbing endorsements and raising $365,000 for his campaign. Other candidates self-financed their campaigns or relied on small contributions, mostly from friends and family.Lieu says his top priority is to work with the Governor to craft a budget to get California's economy moving again. Easier said than done, but I wish you the best. More here: Former lawmakers win special Senate elections.
The special election, along with another contest in the 17th Senate District in the high desert, tested the state's "top two" primary law that took effect Jan. 1. Under the new rules, if no candidate wins a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters -- regardless of party -- advance to an April 19 runoff.
But the race for the South Bay's 28th District turned out as political insiders expected: a win for Lieu, the former Torrance city councilman who represented much of the South Bay in the state Assembly from 2005 to 2010.