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California State Legislature-Ballotpedia Case Study

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to 1988 (with the exception of the 1964 presidential election in which Democratic candidate Lyndon B. Johnson won the state of California). Furthermore, as recently as 1988, the last time Californians voted for a Republican was in 1988 when they voted for H.W. Bush for president and Republican Pete Wilson for U.S. Senate but that was the end of it. California has not voted for a Republican for the presidency or for the Senate since that year.
According to ("California State Legislature - Ballotpedia," n.d.), the California State Legislature is the state legislature of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house) and the California State Senate (upper house). Additionally, the Assembly has 80 members and the Senate has 40 members. As of October 2016, California was one of seven Democratic state government trifectas which means that the Democratic Party holds the governorship as well as a majority in both the state Senate and state House. The Democrats control the state Senate with 26 seats to the …show more content…

According to the ("Top-two primary - Ballotpedia," n.d.), in this system all candidates are listed on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of their party affiliations, advance to the general election. As a result, it is possible that two candidates belonging to the same political party could win in a top-two primary and face off in the general election. This is the exact situation happening in the 2016 California Senate Election. California’s primary election was held on June 7th, 2016. Thirty-four candidates filed to run for the California Senate seat and were beat out by two Democrats. The two candidates up for the Senate seat are Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez. As a result, the Republican Party won’t even have a Senate candidate on the ballot. California’s U.S. Senate race is safely

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