On March 12, California will be holding special elections to fill two vacant State Senate seats. Filing has now closed. In the 32nd State Senate district, four Democrats and two Republicans are running. In the 40th State Senate district seat, three Democrats and two Republicans are running.
Here is a story about the 32nd district race. The story quotes California Assemblywoman Norma Torres as saying that she is not worried about the fact that her race has four Democrats and two Republicans, which opens the possibility that the four Democrats will split the Democratic vote so that the two Republicans place first and second. She says she is not worried because, she says, she ran in a race like that in November 2012 and “did fine.” But her race in November 2012 was not the same kind of race. When she was re-elected to the Assembly in 2012, in the 52nd Assembly district, there were three Democrats but only one Republican (and no other candidates). So the 2012 race in her Assembly district was unlike the upcoming election. With only one Republican in the race in 2012, it was impossible for two Republicans to place first and second and eliminate all the Democrats.
Here is a link to the list of candidates in the March 2013 election for the 32nd State Senate district, and here is a link for the 40th district.
Both special elections are due to California not electing all senators after redistricting. In both districts, the incumbent senator elected in 2010 was elected to Congress in 2012. Since the special election is for the remainder of a term which began in 2010, it is run on the old boundaries.
The special election in SD-40 is due to the election of Juan Vargas to Congress in November 2012, and his subsequent resignation from the Senate. In the June 2012 primary, Vargas was accused of funding Republican candidate Michael Crimmins, who narrowly finished ahead of the 2nd place Democrat. Vargas would then go on to easily defeat Crimmins in November (72-28).
Crimmins had been expelled from the San Diego Republican Central Committee in 2010, and was not the favorite of party leaders. The apparent favorite of local Republicans, Xanthi Gionis, is now running for the senate seat. The first letter of her name is a Greek chi.
The special election in SD-32 is due to the election of Gloria Negrete McLeod, the current senator to Congress in November 2012. Negrete McLeod defeated the incumbent, and fellow Democrat, Joe Baca in a November 2012 Top 2 election. In 2006, Negrete McLeod defeated Joe Baca, Jr. for the SD-32 senate seat, as the son attempted to move from the Assembly.
Negrete McLeod apparently has animus for Norma Torres due to her support of Baca in the November 2012 race.
A curiosity is that while the congressional district CA-35 and the senate district SD-32 almost entirely overlap, there was no Republican running in June 2012 with a Green candidate finishing 3rd with 18.6% of the vote; while in the special senate election, there is no 3rd party candidates, but two Republicans.