Congressman Calvert loses.  Assemblyman Bill Emmerson loses.  We lose Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia's seat to the Democrats and vote for the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate to be the next United States President.

That is how Election Day 2008 would have turned out if it were up to Riverside County voters.

Luckily, the first of those two facts didn't come to pass because Congressman Calvert has a portion of Orange County in his district which remained overwhelmingly Republican and because Assemblyman Bill Emmerson has the same advantage in the San Bernardino portion of his district. 

But sadly, we did lose the most critical battleground in this election, the 80th Assembly District, making it easier for Democrats to pass taxes in Sacramento.  The tax-and-spend socialists now only need to pick off 3 Republicans in the Assembly at budget time, where it had been 6 previously.  The GOP numbers in the State Senate remain the same with 2 Republicans needed to pass any new taxes or budgets.

We also voted for the most liberal member of the Senate, Barack Obama, over maybe the most qualified person ever to be President.  Even though it was only about a 1% margin of victory for our new President in Riverside County, Republicans who care about our future success in the county should be asking ourselves why RivCo went from an 18% Republican win margin in 2004 for President Bush and a 6.5% win for then-Gov. Bush in 2000 to a 1% Democrat win this year.

But the bad news in Riverside County doesn't stop there. (For good news about this election click here.) 

Assemblyman Paul Cook only won in RivCo by about 1% and State Senator Bob Dutton only won the RivCo portion of his district by 3%.  On the local level, Samuel Davis, the only Republican running for Riverside Community College District came in a close third losing to liberals Mary Figueroa and former Democratic Congressional candidate Mark A. Takano.  Electing Davis would have swung the Board to a Republican majority.

For most of the past 30 years, the Jurupa Unified School District seat up this election has been held by John Chavez, a conservative Democrat and well-respected board member. His retirement created an open seat on the Board, with a fairly classic ideological split: a conservative community volunteer and parent, Tracy McMahon, vs. a liberal special Ed teacher connected to the teachers union. The union candidate won by a 2 to 1 margin.

For Menifee USD, Riverside County Young Republican (RCYR) endorsed candidate Manolito Vitug came in dead last and in the Canyon Lake City Council race, RCYR endorsed candidates John Zaitz and Carl W. Armbrust both finished in the bottom half of vote getters.

Also disappointing was former Republican candidate for the 65th Assembly District Brenda Salas and Republican Party of Riverside County Treasurer Chris Mann both losing for their respective seats on the San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency.

Despite all of the setbacks and challenges ahead in Riverside County, at least we did not elect anyone with the nickname ''Renaissance-Man'' to Banning City Council.  My apologies to Don ''Renaissance-Man'' Robinson since I don't know anything else about the man or his politics - but in a race with a "cork" and a "Rocky" that is the worst political nickname of the year.

 

 

 

Riverside County Results ONLY
Last Updated: November 26, 2008 4:36 PM
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President and Vice President
                                              Vote Count         Percent
DEM - BARACK OBAMA     311,056                  49.88%
REP - JOHN MCCAIN          301,614                  48.37%

[2004
GEORGE W. BUSH             322,473              57.91%
JOHN F. KERRY                  228,806             41.09%]

[2000
REP - GEORGE W. BUSH   232,029              51.42%
DEM - AL GORE                  202,614              44.90%]

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State Assembly Member, 80th District
                                                Vote Count               Percent
DEM - MANUEL PEREZ            44,599                       50.38%
REP - GARY JEANDRON          43,930                       49.62%

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United States Representative, 44th District
                                                  Vote Count           Percent
DEM - BILL HEDRICK           102,475                  52.14%
REP - KEN CALVERT             94,045                 47.86%

 

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State Assembly Member, 63rd District
                                                                     Vote Count               Percent
DEM - MARK DAVID WESTWOOD                  1,580                    51.60%
REP - BILL EMMERSON                                 1,482                    48.40%

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State Assembly Member, 65th District
                                          Vote Count          Percent
REP - PAUL COOK             63,294             50.26%
DEM - CARL WOOD            62,650             49.74%

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State Senator, 31st District
                                                     Vote Count       Percent
REP - BOB DUTTON                       56,216          51.85%
DEM - AMEENAH FULLER              52,204          48.15%

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Riverside Comm. College Governing Bd. Mbr.
435/435 100.00%
                                                 Vote Count           Percent
MARY FIGUEROA                     93,351              27.62%
MARK A. TAKANO                    88,616             26.22%
SAMUEL DAVIS                        51,757              15.31%
DELORISE ANDERSON            47,074              13.93%
YVETTE FRANCIS                    21,397              6.33%
CASEY MICHAEL BOWEN        12,374               3.66%
DARYL TERRELL                     12,157               3.60%
LINNIE FRANK BAILEY             11,237               3.32%
Total 337,963 100.00%

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Jurupa USD Governing Bd. Mbr., TA 2
39/39 100.00%
                                               Vote Count             Percent
SHERYL SCHMIDT                    12,485                 65.46%
TRACY MC MAHON                  6,589                    34.54%
Total 19,074 100.00%

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Menifee Union SD Governing Bd. Mbr.
76/76 100.00% 
                                                   Vote Count             Percent
RANDALL T. FREEMAN                 9,616                   20.22%
RON ''MR. U'' ULIBARRI                  9,362                  19.69%
JERRY BOWMAN                          8,556                   17.99%
VICTOR GIARDINELLI                     8,390                   17.64%
PHOEBA A. IREY                           8,143                    17.12%
MANOLITO V. VITUG                       3,484                    7.33%
Total 47,551 100.00%

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Canyon Lake City Council Member
5/5 100.00%
                                            Vote Count                 Percent
NANCY C. HORTON                 2,633                     22.68%
BARRY GENE TALBOT            2,153                     18.55%
JORDAN EHRENKRANZ           1,764                     15.20%
STEVEN J. SALAZAR               1,681                     14.48%
JOHN ZAITZ                              1,358                     11.70%
CARL W. ARMBRUST                  878                       7.56%
JIM KAY                                      716                       6.17%
FRANK KESSLER                        426                       3.67%
Total                                        11,609                   100.00%

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San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency Director, Div. 1
19/19 100.00%
                                                    Vote Count          Percent
DAVID ALFRED DYSART, JR.             1,479             53.16%
BRENDA SALAS                                1,303              46.84%
Total 2,782 100.00%

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San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency Director, Div. 2
5/5 100.00%
                                                Vote Count              Percent
BILL DICKSON                             1,527                   54.50%
CHRIS MANN                               1,275                   45.50%
Total 2,802 100.00%

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Banning City Council Member
15/15 100.00%
                                                                      Vote Count         Percent
BARBARA HANNA                                                5,285            23.67%
JOHN MACHISIC                                                   4,049            18.13%
DON ''RENAISSANCE-MAN'' ROBINSON                 3,401            15.23%
PATRICK ''CORK'' IRWIN                                        3,277            14.68%
CYNTHIA L. BARRINGTON                                     3,207            14.36%
PERRY ''ROCKY'' BRAY                                         1,808              8.10%
KEN SANDEFUR                                                   1,301              5.83%
Total 22,328 100.00%

 

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