Finally, Election Day for the California Primary 2016. Almost every day for the past few weeks, my mailbox has been stuffed with expensive flyers and political campaign literature clamoring for my vote. Political endorsements were still filling up my voice mail yesterday. Late Monday, the results from the Puerto Rico primary came in. After seeing those results, some in the media like CNN declared Hillary Clinton had “clinched” the Democratic presidential nomination with 1, 812 pledged delegates and 572 superdelegates for a total of 2, 384. Not so fast. Bernie Sanders’ campaign insists it’s not over yet.
Sanders’ followers charged “rush to judgment,” because the superdelegates can change their minds up until they cast their votes at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next month. So the Sanders Clinton battle appears to be far from over. Locally, the fight between supporters of Ardy Kassakhian and Laura Friedman has been pretty intense as well with expensive campaign flyers making all sorts of allegations and claims.
Kassakhian, Friedman, Andrew Blumenfeld, Dennis Bullock, Alexandra Bustamante, Rajiv Dalal, Aaron Cervantes, and Mark MacCarley are running to represent the 43rd District in the State Assembly. Mike Gatto holds office right now, but he’s termed out this year. Assemblyman Gatto has thrown his support behind Friedman to take over his seat.
There are many more races and candidates on the ballot. If you haven’t already, go vote today. Polls open until 8 p.m. Find your polling place information here.
