California Election Wrap-Up

The revolution seems to have stopped at the stateline.  John J. Pitney notes that this was not a fluke: Californians really are leftie-libs.

So the state budget can now be approved by a simple legislative majority (Prop 25), but they'll need 2/3 super-majorities to pass fees and charges at both state and local level (Prop 26).  Nordicus is not sure what the net result of that is on government spending, but I can't believe that it will shrink it.

The redistricting commission (Prop 27), which eliminates the power of legislators to choose their constituents, survived; and will be extended to Congressional districts, too (Prop 20).  Most people think that this will make campaigns more competitive, but I'm not sure it'll have much of an effect.  William Voegeli has a compelling analysis concluding that no amount of redistricting can change the fact that Californians are leftie-liberals.

Nordicus had a batting average of .000 on the California ballot.  My only non-conservative vote was "yes" on Prop 19, which lost.  How could this have happened? Correspondents tell me that the recreational use of marijuana has been widespread - and unpunished - for decades.  So Prop 19 would not have increased its availability, but only levied a sales tax upon it.

So the leftie-liberal hypocrites voted it down.