California 2010 Election Results - Jerry Brown is the new Governor

California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has won.

The Democratic candidate defeated Republican Meg Whitman in the most expensive race in California history.

Mr. Brown won the election with 49 percent of the vote. Ms. Whitman received 46 percent of the vote.

The race, which was closely watched by politicos nationwide, is one of the few bright spots for state Democrats. A number of races remain close, or have gone in favor of Republicans at the state level.

The race garnered national attention after Ms. Whitman spent nearly $150 million in her bid to win the election.

The State Column

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Barbara Boxer defeated Carly Fiorina at the senate race

LOS ANGELES — Democrat Barbara Boxer has won her fourth term in the U.S. Senate, dashing GOP hopes of removing the liberal icon with a strong challenge from former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carly Fiorina. Boxer's re-election Tuesday was not easy. She faced a multimillionaire candidate and a wave of attack ads funded by out-of-state business and conservative groups. The campaign was among the most challenging in the 69-year-old senator's long political career, as she found herself defending Democratic attempts to turn around the struggling economy. Fiorina blamed Democrats for failed economic policies, but Boxer turned the tables and said Fiorina represented a return to past Republican policies that created the recession. Boxer also painted Fiorina as too extreme for most California voters on issues ranging from abortion to gun control.

huffingtonpost.com

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Proposition 19 - (Legalization of Marijuana) Election Results Indicates a “No” Vote

Despite months of campaigning for those in support of Proposition 19, it looks as those the legalization of marijuana in the state o California will not be happening anytime soon. Even though only a fraction of total votes in the 2010 California election have been counted, those which have, indicate that Prop 19 will not pass.

With support from celebrities and politicians alike, such as Vicente Fox, George Soros, Tom Bates, and Ed Rosenthal, Proposition 19 just couldn’t overcome the statements made by US Attorney General Eric Holder in mid October stating that the Federal Government would still make recreational marijuana use illegal even if Prop 19 had passed. The proposition which got off to a tremendous start in the the first 10 months of the year just couldn’t develop enough of a following to win the majority of California voters liking. Pre-election polling done in July indicated that approximately 50% of voters supported the Proposition, while about 39% were against it. These numbers seemingly went the other way after Holder’s comments last month

With 17% of the votes counted in California, proposition 19 commands just 44% in favor of it, while 56% of California voters have voted “no”. Sure we still have the majority of votes in the state to be counted, however if early indication mean anything, proposition 19 certainly looks like it is dead in the water, at least for this year’s elections.

thenewsoftoday.com

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Proposition 23 (Suspension of Green House Gas Control) is defeated

Opponents of Proposition 23 won a major victory tonight, shooting down the ballot measure that would have suspended California's strict greenhouse-emissions law, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The contest was something of a showdown between clean tech firms and wealthy oil companies, with each side claiming that California's economic future was at stake. Big Oil said Proposition 23 would save over a million jobs, while Big Green argued the ballot measure would kill 500,000 jobs and a burgeoning "green economy" that would produce many more jobs.

Voters apparently believed the Big Green argument was stronger.

Many California college students were also involved in the "No on 23" fight, worried that the ballot measure would stall a clean technology economy and hurt their chances of landing a "green job" once they graduated from school.

In a L.A. Weekly cover story, Gabe Elsner, a 23-year-old environmental activist, organized college students up and down California to defeat Prop. 23. Elsner wanted the youth vote to turn out in force and stop the ballot measure.

According to the "No on 23" campaign, early exit polling showed that liberal and moderate Republicans opposed Prop. 23.
With the victory, many experts predict that a green economy is poised to take off in California, possibly becoming a key component of an economic rebound in the Golden State.

L.A. Weekly