Incumbents, local tax measures fare well across county
To no one’s surprise in the mid-term elections held Tuesday, California voters voted left and more liberal than the rest of the country — and voters in Sonoma County were even more left than that.
County voters joined winning majorities in all but one of the 11 statewide propositions. Voters here supported Prop 3 (water project bonds) while it was defeated statewide. Elsewhere local voters rejected repealing a gas tax (Prop. 6), refused to support new rent controls (Prop. 10), voted yes for a $4 billion housing bond (Prop.1) and agreed with statewide voters to change daylight savings time.
Local voters also slightly disagreed with statewide results in the U.S. senate race won by incumbent Dianne Feinstein. Her majority win was much slimmer here against challenger Kevin de Leon (57 percent to 43 percent.)
Closer to home, almost all local tax and bond measures were supported by the voters, with the big exception being the defeat of a Santa Rosa city housing bond.
Incumbents on local city councils, school board and fire districts fared well in almost all of the competitive races, with the usual slim margins dividing the lowest-placed winner from the next candidate. All election results remain unofficial until a final canvas is completed by the Registrar of Voters in early December.
California remained the bluest (Democratic) of all 50 states in the nation, filling all major statewide offices with Democrats, including a new governor, Gavin Newsom.
In the state’s 53 U.S. Congress races, Democrats won 42 seats, to just 11 for Republicans. Local Democratic congressmen Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson each won by landslide margins, as expected.
