Mid Term Election

There are some interesting results coming out about the midterm election.

Everyone knows it was a low voter turnout both nationally and in California.  According to Wikipedia, 36.4 percent voted nationwide.  In California, about 42 percent voted based on statistics put forth by the League of Woman Voters.

At the national level, President Obama has threatened he may very well be vetoing more legislation.  In his  first 6 years he has vetoed 2 pieces of legislation.  Things to watch for are issues involving the environment, such as the Keystone Pipeline, and the Affordable Care Act including changing the definition of full time workers from 30 Hours to 40 hours.  You also may see issues come up on immigration.

The voters seem to have said they don’t like gridlock and the big question is whether the Republicans can control the Tea Party votes and put forth legislation to move the country forward.  Or will the Democrats become the obstructionist party?

In the California Assembly, the election resulted in a tally of 52 Democrats and 28 Republicans.  In the Senate, there are now 25 Democrats, 12 Republicans, and 3 vacancies.  Neither party has a super majority.
In my mind, the thing to watch for is what will happen with initiatives.  To put forward a constitutional measure you need 8% of the voters in the midterm election.  For a statute you need 5%.  The low voter turnout means that someone can put something on the ballot with between 100,000 and 200,000 less signatures than the numbers based on the 2012 election.  We may see a lot of initiatives on the 2016 ballot.

California was the only state in the country where a Republican House seat was lost to a Democrat.  There are now 39 Democrats and 14 Republicans in the House of Representatives from California.

What did you think about the election both nationally and in California?