There was a bit of good news Thursday in the fight for Republicans to hold onto the 15th Senate District Seat formerly held by Abel Maldonado (some would actually call it a chance for a GOP pick-up!): Monterey County officials reported that the U.S. Justice Department registered no objection to their initial request for holding a special election on June 22. This means that the federal government has not yet been persuaded by any of the rather outrageous legal objections (the election violates the Voting Rights Act, is racist, etc.) Democrats have been raising to try to delay the election until November, when more rank-and-file Democrat voters tend to turn out.
To recap, this all started six months ago, when Governor Schwarzenegger first appointed (sigh) Abel Maldonado to be Lieutenant Governor. In a blatant political move, Speaker Perez and company turned Maldonado’s February hearing into a race-baiting partisan spectacle with no consensus, and then delayed his second hearing several weeks so that the deadline would pass for consolidating the special election with the June primary.
Nomination of Maldonado aside, fortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger one-upped the Legislature after Maldonado’s confirmation by calling for an August 17 special election to fill the seat, with a June 22 primary. This was the right response to the disingenuous six-month game the Democrats had pulled, and a better opportunity for Republicans to hold onto (pick-up) the seat.
Now, the Governor’s lawyers are fighting with the liberal groups who are trying to stop the election on whatever grounds they can think up. Monterey County is still waiting for the Justice Department’s response to some of the specifics of how the election will be run—so this is not over—but this first “no objection” is at least a step in the right direction.