Seven Special California Elections In One Year After Democrats Resign, Retire, Accept Appointments

With so many Democrats in Congress announcing they are not running again, we realized a similar trend as well.

 Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Solano) is resigning at the end of the year, theReporter.com announced. With Assemblyman Frazier and Assemblyman Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park) both leaving the Assembly, that will make six special elections within this year to fill state legislative seats with Democrats who don’t fill out the terms to which they were elected.

Many are asking if Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda), Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), and Assemblyman Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco), will be as upset over the cost of these special elections as they were over the cost of the recall?

As CBS Local San Francisco reported, “A day after California voters resoundingly rejected the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, two state lawmakers are pushing to fix what they call a broken recall system. Assemblymember Marc Berman and State Senator Steve Glazer are leading the charge to reform the recall process,” based on the cost of California’s most recent recall election.

“’A $276 million waste just to reaffirm 2018’s results with an election coming in 2022,’ California Assembly Speaker Pro Temp Kevin Mullin tweeted Tuesday night.”

“Glazer and Berman said all that money was spent just for a majority of voters to confirm what they’d already said back in 2018. The two lawmakers say they’re open to any and all ideas, but are very adamant about making sure to get bipartisan engagement with any reform.”

Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) left his Assembly office to accept appointment as city attorney of San Francisco, by Mayor London Breed, the Globe reported. A special election will take place in 2022 for Chiu’s Assembly seat.

Currently, the state is already at seven special elections. Assembly members Frazier, Chau and Chiu are the only upcoming ones (so far), but we’ve had four other special elections since May:

–          SD-30 – Sen. Holly Mitchell resigned to be on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

–          AD-79 – Assemblywoman Shirley Weber resigned after being appointed to Secretary of State.

–          AD-54 – Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager resigned to run for and take Holly Mitchell’s Senate District 30.

–          AD-18 – Assemblyman Rob Bonta resigned after being appointed as State Attorney General.

The Globe spoke with Capitol insiders who say they don’t know how many other lawmakers have decided to not run for reelection, but say most lawmakers are waiting to decide until final maps from the redistricting commission are released.

However, they say once everyone knows what the redistricting looks like, to expect more announcements to come after the New Year.

One insider noted that so far, Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Sacramento) is considering a run for Sacramento County Sheriff, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) might be going to the CA Labor Federation, as the Globe reported, Assemblyman Mark Levine (D-San Rafael) is running for Insurance Commissioner, and Assemblyman Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco) is running for Congress to fill the seat currently held by California Rep. Jackie Speier who announced she will retire next year, as the Globe reported.

There have also been rumors that Assemblyman James C. Ramos (D-Highland) is looking to run for a higher office, and Assemblyman Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield) is running for Congress, as the Globe reported.

January 2022 will be a busy month, and perhaps, full of surprises.