By A� y. Emmanuel S. Tipon

Newsom...(From page 1)

In the same California election, Senator Alex Padilla made history by becoming the fi rst Latino from the golden state to win a seat for the US Senate, continuing his short stint since he was appointed to the post by Governor Newsom to fi ll the vacancy left by US Senator, now Vice President, Kamala Harris.

Padilla, 49,defeated GOP attorney Mark Meuser to win a term to complete the term up to January 3 of VP Kamala Harris and thereafter for a full six-year term of his own. He snatched 62 percent of the votes as against Meuser’s 38 percencent

At his victory party at the Hollywood Palladium, Padilla pledged to prioritize job creation, climate change, immigration reform, reproductive rights and the protection of Social Security and Medicare and defense against threats to democracy.

Filipino American lawyer Rob Bonta, another appointee of Governor Newsom to the post of Attorney General of the state out of the California State Assembly, easily disposed of his rival in the polls to claim a full term as Attorney General.

Meanwhile, 11 Filipinos won in the Hawaii elections, fi ve of them as State Senators and another fi ve as State Representatives. (See related stories.) while a Filipino American, Steven Raga, scored a milestone by becoming the fi rst Filipino to win a seat in the State Assembly of New York.

In Milpitas, lawyer Garry Barbadillo became the second FilAm to gain a seat in the City Council after Evelyn Quevedo Chua, as the city elected a new mayor to replace Vietnamese-American Richard Tranh whose term has expired.

Elsewhere in California and other states, more Filipinos either were reelected or elected to various posts. Some Filipinos, however, failed in their bids for some positions.

Just like in Hawaii, many Filipinos have been elected as mayor and to other posts in California, the US state with the second biggest population of Filipinos and Filipino Americans. Close to Filipinos, Governor Newsom, who has a doctorate in public management from the amantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila LM , thanked his supporters, leaders and all voters during a Sacramento victory party.

In a brief remarks in which he also acknowledged the approval of the abortion rights initiative Proposition 1, Newsom said he wanted to be a unifi er in his second term. “The dream is predicated on all of us living and advancing together across every conceivable di erence,” Newsom said in a statement. “We all have a responsibility to do a little bit more to meet people where they are.” In New York, Raga won the seat for District 30 in Queens, roundly defeating Republican challenger Sean Lally in the 2022 midterm elections with 58 percent of the vote.

Raga immediately thanked his supporters via Instagram.

“We are on the edge of history, and as a kid from Queens who grew up with a single mother, working three jobs while pursuing my education, the overwhelming support from all corners of the district means a lot to me,” he said.

Bonta faced Republican Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, in a campaign which focused on California’s crime rate.

Meanwhile, Dianne Feinstein has won another term as US Senator, adding to her almost 30 years already in the US Senate, becoming the longest serving woman in Senate history.

“It s an incredible honor,” said Feinstein in a statement the San Francisco Examiner. “I’m forever grateful to the people of California who sent me here to represent them. It has been a great pleasure to watch more and more women walk the halls of the Senate. ... We have seen tremendous progress, but we still have work to do.”

Feinstein was a San Francisco supervisor from 1970-78. She became mayor in 1978 after the assassination of Mayor George Moscone. She was elected to the Senate in 1992.

State treasurer Fiona was reelected to the post while Shirley Weber won as Secretary of State.

In the race for who will replace Congresswoman Jackie Speier to represent the 15th District in Washington, D.C., California Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin beat out his oppone nt San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa to seal his place on the safe Democrat seat representing the Peninsula.

In Washington, US President Joe Biden said he was happy with the results of midterm elections in which his fellow Democrats fared better than expected. Election Day was good for democracy but the results showed that Americans remained frustrated, he added in a statement from the White House.

“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” Biden said.

White House offi cials have expressed a sense of vindication that Democrats did better than expected after Biden focused his campaign pitch largely on preventing threats to US democracy, securing abortion rights and extolling his economic policies.

Republicans, however, made modest gains in the elections and are likely to take control of the House of Representatives, but control of the Senate still hangs as three races remained too close to call.

Biden said he was prepared to work with Republicans.

“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans be prepared to work with me as well,” he said.

Biden said he would veto e orts to pass a national ban on abortion and opposed tax cuts for the wealthy, two policy proposals Republicans may pursue.

He said when he returns from a trip to Asia he would invite Democratic and Republican leaders to the White House to discuss priorities going forward.