With Assembly win, Democrats bolster their supermajority
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California Democrats appear to have bolstered their historic supermajority in the Assembly.
Final election results released Sunday by Los Angeles County elections officials showed Democrat Steve Fox beating Republican Ron Smith by 145 votes in a Southern California swing district that spans three counties.
The victory gives Democrats 55 seats in the lower house -- one more than a two-thirds supermajority -- and some padding as Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) seeks to maintain his caucus’ tenuous numbers. Assembly members are expected to run for the seats of two state senators who are leaving the Legislature for Congress next year.
Fox, however, could prove an unpredictable vote. According to the Sacramento Bee, the attorney and teacher ran as a Republican in a 2008 Assembly contest and has signed an anti-tax pledge.
The final Los Angeles County vote count Sunday also showed the winner in another upset widening his margin of victory. In District 50, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom bested incumbent Assemblywoman Betsy Butler (D-Marina del Rey) by 1,705 votes.
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