[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Filing for Assembly and State Senate seats opens Monday!

By Frank D. Russo

With the defeat of Proposition 93 on term limits, at least 24 of California’s 80 Assembly seats and 10 of 40 Senate seats will have new occupants—and many of these races will be decided in the June 3, 2008 primary that is 128 days down the road.

Haven’t caught your breath from yesterday’s Super Tuesday presidential primary where the votes are still being counted? Filing for this next round—more important now in filling the state legislature begins Monday and closes March 7 for all of these 34 races.

Candidates have already been busy for months raising substantial money and planning for the June election in the anticipation that term limit changes would fail on yesterday’s ballot. Now it will be official and as soon as we will begin covering these races.

Because most of these districts are strongly Democratic or Republican, nomination by the majority party in most of them will be tantamount to election in November.