SD-15: Openly Gay John Laird Loses Special Election

John Laird will not be rejoining the California LGBT Legislative Caucus this year after all. He lost Tuesday's 15th District State Senate Special Election against Republican Sam Blakeslee. The 15th district seat was previously held by Republican Abel Maldonado, who is now Lieutenant Governor of California and running to hold on to this new post against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in November.


The official results were

Jim Fitzgerald 8014 5.1% 

Mark Hinkle 3162 2.0% 

John Laird 69649 44.1% 

Sam Blakeslee 77107 48.8%

Unfortunately, the seat will not be up for a vote again until 2012, so that leaves Democrats 2-votes away from the 2/3rds (27 votes) they need in the Legislature's 40-member upper House to pass a budget and raise taxes.

CA LGBT Legislative Caucus Increasing to ≥ 7

Back in May 2008 I predicted that the next California LGBT legislative caucus (January 2009) would have five members. I was correct on the numbers (5), but not on the names (Assemblymembers Perez, Ammiano, Senators Kehoe, Leno and Ashburn). And the last of these was not out until a scandal this year.

The LGBT legislative caucus of the 2011-2013 session should have at least 7 openly LGBT members, 5 in the Assembly and 2 in the Senate.

June 2010   (FIVE)         January 2011 (SEVEN)
ASSEMBLY                     
Tom Ammiano (AD-13)        Tom Ammiano (AD-13)
John Perez (AD-46)         John Perez (AD-46)                                    

                           Ricardo Lara (AD-50)                                    

                           Toni Atkins (AD-76)                                    

                           Richard Gordon (AD-21)

SENATE
Christine Kehoe (SD-39)    Christine Kehoe (SD-39)
Mark Leno (SD-3)           Mark Leno (SD-3)
Roy Ashburn (SD-18)

Ashburn is not running for re-election, but makes history as the first openly gay Republican member of the California Legislature (who was out wile still serving).

Additionally, there is a good chance that former Assembyman John Laird may re-join the caucus as its 8th member if he wins a special election in the 15th Senate District in August.

Saturday Politics: Laird is In; EQCA's Statewide Picks

Photo by Gloria Nieto

Today's edition of Saturday politics has a "blast from the past" and big moves by the state's largest LGBT political organization.

SD-15. John Laird was an Assemblymember from 2002-2008 representing the 27th district which included Santa Cruz. This week the 60-year-old openly gay politician announced that he is running to fill the 15th District State Senate seat vacated by Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado. The special primary election will be on June 22, and (if needed) the general election will be on August 22nd. The winner will be be filling out the rest of the term which expires in 2012. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is being sued by some of the counties in the 15th Senate District because, by refusing to set the calendar so that the general election could coincide with the statewide general election on November 2nd he is sticking them with an extra bill estimated to be 2-3 million dollars. Democrats would like the elections combined because larger turnout should favor the Democratic candidate in this competitive, Republican-leaning district.

EQCA. Equality California PAC announced their endorsements in statewide races.

• U.S. Senate: Senator Barbara Boxer
• Governor: Jerry Brown
• Lieutenant Governor: Gavin Newsom
• Secretary of State: Debra Bowen
• Treasurer: Bill Lockyer
• Controller: John Chiang
• Insurance Commissioner: Hector De La Torre
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson

Notice any race missing? Only, the most interesting and hotly contested race of them all: Attorney General! After getting all six Democratic candidates in a room two weeks ago, the EQCA PAC board apparently could not pick only one, unlike MadProfessah, who has picked San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris. Curious result from EQCA.

Remember, there are now exactly 30 days until the Statewide Primary election on Tuesday June 8th.

Saturday Politics: CA-33, AD-43, SD-15, CA-AG and CA-LG

Kamala Harris

In today's edition of Saturday Politics we have stories about Karen Bass's run for Congress, developments in the California Attorney General race and details about the new (and the next) Lieutenant Governor of California.

CA-33. Assemblymember Karen Bass path to the United States House of Representatives has been cleared by the decision by a deep-pocketed rival named Howard C. Mandel to not challenge the former Speaker of the Assembly for the Democratic nomination for the 33rd Congressional District, currently represented by retiring Diane Watson. Multiple sources tell MadProfessah that the good doctor, who had been prepared to spend up to $500,000, has been quietly convinced by leaders in the Jewish community that they support Ms. Bass's run for the Congressional seat. This leaves Bass' only remaining challenger the perennial candidate Felton Newell.

AD-43. Following his decisive win in the April 13th special primary election and his primary opponent's withdrawal from the race, Mike Gatto has secured the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club in both races happening June 8, 2010: the special election run-off and the Democratic primary election.

CA Attorney General. While MadProfessah endorsed San Francisco District Attorney on Wednesday, the same day that former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly wrote a check for $4 million to double his campaign war chest for the Democratic nomination for the Attorney General.

CA Lieutenant Governor. The race between Los Angeles City Councilmember Janice Hahn and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has gotten pretty tense. The two ad elaborate, duelling parties at the California Demorcratic Convention in Los Angeles, where neither was able to gather the state party's official endorsement. At the Equality California statewide candidates forum last Sunday, the two refused to share a stage. Interestingly, Hahn easily earned the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club on Monday, despite the fact that Newsom is well-known in the LGBT community as an early champion of marriage equality.

SD-15. In other Lieutenant Governor news, State Senator Abel Maldonado was sworn in this week as the new Lieutenant Governor after winning confirmation a few months after the Assembly rejected his nomination, giving the Republicans 3 of the 8 statewide constitutional offices (including Governor and Insurance Commissioner). Maldonado's ascension leaves his seat in State Senate District 15 open, and openly gay former Assemblyman John Laird has made no secret of his desire to switch the seat to the Democrats. If he wins, he would become only the second openly gay man to serve in the State Senate, following Mark Leno.

That's it for this week. Feel free to send tips for future Saturday Politics stories by twitter (@madprofessah), email or in the comments!