Image: "I Voted in California" stickers, from instocklabels.comHere it is, Dec. 11, and the final count of ballots cast in California’s Nov. 6 general election was certified less than a week ago. And, as Jim Brulte and Kevin McCarthy have sadly noted, many GOP Election Night “wins” fell to Democrats as the final votes were tallied.
A voter prepares to make a choice on the ballot. (Photo: Svanblar, via Shutterstock)California voters are being asked to approve $16.4 billion in bond financing, cut taxes and weigh in on such diverse topics as kidney dialysis prices and farm animal living conditions in the Nov. 6 election. The 11 initiatives on the ballots include requests for bond financing for housing, water and children’s hospitals. Other initiatives would approve huge property tax savings for seniors, repeal the controversial gas tax hike and open the way to expand rent control. In the long tradition of California ballot propositions, fights over the initiatives have prompted record spending.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Adonis Villanueva, via Shutterstock) PPIC Survey: In the closing weeks of the fall campaign, Gavin Newsom holds an 11-point lead among likely voters in the governor’s race and Dianne Feinstein is ahead by 16 points in the U.S. Senate election. Two closely watched ballot measures—one to repeal the recent gas tax increase and another to expand local authority to enact rent control—are trailing.
Condos in San Francisco, which has a local rent control ordinance. (Photo: Stephen VanHorn, via Shutterstock)What neither side predicted is that some California tenants faced a nightmare scenario before a single vote was cast. Rent was being increased at one building, the manager said, because “we’re facing rent control and more importantly, the likelihood of controls on increasing rent after vacancies.”