California Assembly District 40
Job Description
This fall, California’s lower legislative chamber will again be filling all 80 of its elected member positions.
Working conditions will depend on the partisan breakdown of all new hires. With the current composition of the Assembly—55 Democrats and 25 Republicans—Democrats are holding on to their two-thirds supermajority by only one seat. A supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate would allow Democrats, if united, to raise taxes, override vetoes, place constitutional amendments on the ballot, and largely ignore their Republican colleagues.
Job duties include:
- Spend months drafting, discussing, and haggling over bills that will affect the lives of all Californians
- Retain the option of waiting until the very last week of session before passing or dumping most of said bills in a flurry
- Spend months drafting, discussing, and haggling over resolutions that will affect the lives of virtually no Californians
- Help craft a multi-billion-dollar budget for the state
- Strive to represent the interests of 500,000 constituents, most of them strangers
Applicants
James C. Ramos
County Supervisor/Businessman
Henry Gomez Nickel
Councilman/Small Businessman
HR Note
Incumbent Party: Republican
Democratic vs Republican Voter Registration: 7.2% D
Trump vs Clinton Margin, 2016: 14.1% Clinton
Margin of Victory in Last Election: 1.2%
Top Two Primary Applicants, June 2018: Henry Gomez Nickel (45.7%), James C. Ramos (40.7%)
Democratic vs Republican Vote Share, June 2018: 8.6% D
Democrats are trying to win this seat after Republican Assemblyman Marc Steinorth announced that he would not seek re-election earlier this year. The San Bernardino County district has been a purple battleground for the last few years but has grown more heavily Democratic since 2016. Democrat James Ramos has staked out a reputation on the county’s Board of Supervisors as a relative moderate and is hoping to be the first Native American to serve in the state Assembly. His opponent, Henry Nickel is a San Bernardino City Council member. His campaign may represent the best chance for a Republican member of the LGBT community to win a seat in the state legislature this year.
