RLn 11-15-12 Edition

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RPV City Council Joins the Rancho LPG Fight p. 2 Parking Meter Gripes Abound, Even After Their Removal p. 2 Circus Vargas Comes to Town p. 11 Crafted at POLA Builds a Community p. 15

Harbor Turns Bluer Republicans Outnumbered 2 to 1, Says L.A. County Registrar’s Report By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

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By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

In 2002, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira wrote a book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, predicting the broad outlines of a demographic shift that would inexorably favor Democrats in the long run. On Election Day, Nov. 6, their prediction was confirmed. President Barack Obama won re-election with just 39 percent of the white vote, but still won by a comfortable margin—more than three million votes and counting, with 332 electoral votes. ally invigorated by GOP attacks. Obama won blacks 93 to 6, Hispanics 71 to 27, Asian-Americans 73 to 26, Women 55 to 44, and younger than 30 voters 60 to 37. The last two categories only supported Obama, however, because of the minority vote. Young and/or female white voters were significantly less pro-Romney than their older and/or male counterparts, but still gave him an edge. This not only mattered for the popular vote, it helped shift some states out of the “battleground” category into the Democrats’ base of safe states (most dramatically, New Mexico), while turning some former safe red states into battlegrounds. Virginia and North Carolina hadn’t been won by a Democrat since 1964 and 1976 respectively, before Obama took both Historic Election/ to p. 7

A Deeper Shade of Blue/ to p. 6

November 16 - 29, 2012

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bama won every battleground state except North Carolina, despite a massive spending edge—totalling hundreds of millions of dollars—held by outside pro-Romney groups funded by the likes of Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers and organized by operatives like Karl Rove. Half a dozen or so election forecasters who aggregate state level polls accurately predicted the outcome well in advance--Florida was the only state that gave some of them headaches--but none predicted it 10 years in advance the way Judis and Teixeira did. The growth of Democratic dominance and voter participation among Latinos and Asian Americans is a big part of these results, but so is the intensification of black participation and the durability of the gender gap. All of these were actu-

ith the 2012 election turnout hovering around 50 percent in Los Angeles County, this year’s election didn’t reach anywhere near the historic highs of 2008, when turnout exceeded 80 percent in most cities. While there weren’t many surprises in the Harbor during this election cycle, there were still quite a few noteworthy happenings. The 47th Congressional District race between Long Beach Councilman Gary DeLong and State Assemblyman and longtime Long Beach political figure, Alan Lowenthal looked more like an avalanche than a landslide, with Lowenthal garnering almost 60 percent of the vote to DeLong’s 34.27 percent district wide. Representative-elect Lowenthal is going to experience a culture-shock of sorts when he gets to Washington D.C., he will be in the minority party for the first time. Lowenthal said he was excited and hoped that the American people’s message to support President Barack Obama got through. “I think that that message was sent loud and clear,” Lowenthal said. “That was why the President was reelected. I hope that the Congress works with the President and I’m fully prepared to support and work with the President.” Lowenthal said that this is the first time since Reconstruction that gridlock has been this particularly bad. He hopes that ends. “We are going to see very quickly, whether the lameduck session is able to deal with the debt ceiling and the sequestration issues,” Lowenthal said. “We’ll get a clearer picture by the end of December whether this Congress and the leadership really want to compromise and work with the President.” The 44th Congressional race between Rep. Janice Hahn and Rep. Laura Richardson felt like a foregone conclusion after Hahn trounced Richardson by 60 to 40 percent margin in the primary. In some ways, it was foregone conclusion given that Hahn won by the same margin in the Nov. 6 general election. Hahn won every

The Local Publication You Actually Read

A Historic Election Foretold

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