California: Nicole Parra

Dear Big Daddy,
Am I the only one who’s troubled by all these former legislators getting appointed to lucrative board slots? As a longtime Dem staffer, I’ve had enough of the likes of Migden and Parra.
--Put ‘em out to pasture

Dear Pasturized,

If there’s one thing that politicians hate more than kissing babies, its term limits. I mean, would you want to take a job where you were told that no matter what, you’re out in a few years? Oh wait, if you’re a longtime staffer, you’ve probably done that a few times already. And if you were a Midgen or Parra staffer, the thought of a finite job tenure might have been your only reason to get out of bed in the morning.

A Democratic candidate narrowed the gap a bit in Assembly District 10 Friday, but another one in AD 30 slipped further behind and had her race dropped from the Secretary of State's close races watch.

In AD 10, Alyson Huber, an attorney from El Dorado Hills, trailed Lodi Republican Jack Sieglock by 506 votes on Friday evening, with 46.4 percent of the vote to 46.8 percent for Sieglock.

Thousands of ballots remain to be counted in that race, particularly from the Sacramento County base for Huber and the San Joaquin County base for Sieglock.

Final registration numbers for the Nov. 4 election show that Democrats narrowed the lead Republicans had in some contested Northern California districts, but none of those districts outright flipped from one party to another in the last weeks of the race.

In the 4th Congressional District, Democratic registration was nearly unchanged from the 60-day election report, with just over 31 percent. Republican registration dropped from 40 percent to 39.8 percent, while decline-to-state voters - which rose in most districts - went from 17.8 percent to 18.4 percent.

SACRAMENTO - The sliding economy and other factors are giving a lift to Democrats in key legislative races that are coming down to the wire, according to consultants working with those races.

In polls that ask whether likely voters would vote for a generic Democrat or Republican in five state Assembly districts with open seats, Democrats get the nod in all five.