Our state’s nutty system for special elections must end
At least for now, Kern County voters have been given relief from the serial special elections triggered by Kevin McCarthy’s last-minute resignation from Congress.
The confusing, frustrating and costly series of special elections that followed shined a bright light on the need to reform California’s system for filling vacant federal and state legislative offices.
Reforms have been suggested in the past and more recently in the wake of McCarthy’s resignation. But they have been largely derailed by politicians, who find it’s easier to just dump the cost of holding special elections onto local taxpayers.
California legislators and the governor must make simple reforms that will bring down special election costs and expedite the filling of federal and state legislative vacancies.
Bakersfield’s McCarthy, the former 20th Congressional District Republican representative, who briefly served as House speaker until he was ousted in October, announced in November he would not seek reelection. A few days later, he said he would quit Congress altogether — midway through his two-year term.
The timing of McCarthy’s decisions set ambitious politicians on a collision course with state-mandated election deadlines.
Vince Fong, McCarthy’s political ally, already had filed papers to run for Assembly and was unopposed in his reelection to the 32nd Assembly District seat. Fong tried to back out of the Assembly race, but California Secretary of State
Shirley Weber ruled that it was too late. Candidate filing deadlines had passed.
Fong successfully sued to run for both Assembly and Congress on the same March 5 primary ballot. Despite his support of an alternative primary write-in campaign for the 32nd Assembly District, Fong overwhelmingly won the Assembly primary race. His “write-in heir apparent,” Bakersfield Republican Councilman Ken Weir, finished second in the primary, with only 15.9% of the vote.
California’s primary system requires the top two vote-getters in each race to compete in the November general election. As a result. Fong’s and Weir’s names will appear on the ballot.
Meanwhile, as required by law, Gov. Gavin Newsom scheduled a March 19 special election to temporarily fill McCarthy’s congressional seat.
Fong finished first in the special election primary race, with Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux finishing second. But neither candidate received a majority of the votes to win the race. That required a May 21 special election runoff election. Fong won that race.
Fong now has resigned his Assembly seat to be sworn in as Bakersfield’s 20th District congressman on Monday. That leaves his 32nd District constituents without a voice in the state Assembly for about seven months. State law does not require a special election to be held to fill a legislative vacancy if less than a year remains on a term.
But being sworn in will not affect Fong’s Assembly bid. Both Fong’s and Weir’s names will appear on the November ballot. Fong’s name also will appear on the same ballot as a candidate for the full, two-year 20th Congressional District seat.
If Fong wins both races in November, he is expected to decline reelection to the Assembly in favor of serving in Congress. This will require the governor to set yet another special election to fill Fong’s Assembly seat.
Yes, this is all confusing, frustrating and costly. For Kern County alone, the cost of both the March 19 special election primary and May 21 runoff is $4 million. The district also includes Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties, which must pay an additional share of the costs.
It is possible Fong will win his Assembly race and another special election will have to be called to fill the Assembly vacancy.
Just a few election reforms could help:
■ Local taxpayers are shouldering the financial burden caused by ambitious politicians jumping from one elective office to another. California should go back to the system, which was abandoned in the mid-2000s, of the state reimbursing counties for special election costs.
■ The governor should be empowered to temporarily appoint candidates to fill unexpired legislative seats, until a special election is held.
■ Deadlines should be more flexible to require all special elections to be conducted in conjunction with regularly scheduled primary or general elections to reduce costs.