November Election Is Right Around the Corner
October 16, 2006

Tuesday, November 7, is Election Day. While the race for Governor is grabbing most of the headlines, California’s traditional thick ballot is stuffed with a number of races and propositions that are very important for California’s future.

The race for Governor seems at this point to be a question of what will be Governor Schwarzenegger’s margin of victory, not whether he will beat the Democrat nominee and State Treasurer Phil Angelides. The trending of the “top of the ticket” race has sparked renewed interest in a number of other races for statewide offices. In the race for Lt. Governor, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi (D) is running against Republican State Senator Tom McClintock (R). Both are seasoned politicians and well known to California voters, and current polling indicates this race will go down to the wire.

The race for Insurance Commissioner, whose job includes running the workers’ compensation fraud program and setting advisory pure premium rates for workers’ compensation insurers, is also expected to be very competitive. Republican Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley businessman, is running against current Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante (D). Poizner has significantly more funds at his disposal for this race and the current trending indicates that he may win this race.

As always, California has numerous initiative measures on the ballot. These include the five measures put on the ballot by the Governor and the Legislature to improve California’s infrastructure (Measures 1A – 1E) and privately initiated measures including Proposition 87 that establishes an oil severance tax to supporting clean energy programs, Proposition 89 that which would greatly change the way businesses can contribute to political campaigns, and Proposition 90 that would restrict the use of the power of eminent domain by state and local governments.

Visit the Secretary of State’s website (www.ss.ca.gov) for more information or review your voter’s guide that you should have received in the mail. Absentee balloting is already underway, so if you cannot get to the polls on November 7, you can still vote. There are important races and issues to be decided, and your vote is critical.