Legislative Elections
The California State Legislature consists of 80 Assembly members and 40 state senators:
A state senator is elected to a four-year term, and is limited to serving two terms. Each senator represents about 744,000 people. A state senate district is comprised of two Assembly districts. Every two years, half of the senate seats come up for election; this year, voters who live in odd-numbered senate districts will vote in senate races. If you live in an even-numbered senate district, the next election for that seat will take place in 1998.
A state Assembly member is elected to a two-year term, and is limited to serving three terms. Each Assembly member represents about 372,000 people.
List of Candidates and Web Pages. To find out who's running in your district and get to their web page (if they have one), use the Assembly District keypad or Senate District keypad below. If you're not sure which state senate or assembly district you live in, you can use this zip code search to find out. Note: some zip codes are not wholly contained in a district; so you may need to contact your county elections office to find out which districts you live in.
Campaign Finance Data. All legislative candidates must file campaign finance disclosure statements with the California Secretary of State's office, which has published summary statistics for legislative campaign financing through the 1995 calendar year. Campaign finance disclosure reports are public records that can be accessed at the Secretary of State's office or at your local county elections office. For campaign finance statistics from the 1994 California legislative races, take a look at The Great Money Chase from California Common Cause. The Fair Political Practices Commission has a web site as well. Some legislative candidates have voluntarily disclosed their campaign finance records on the web.
Misc. The March edition of the California Journal features an excellent district-by-district summary of all 100 legislative races . . . the civic journalism project Your Voices Count offers an on-line scorecard showing which legislators and candidates have signed the legislative Statement of Accountability . . . if you want to find out what kinds of bills the incumbents in your area have authored, or check their vote on a specific bill, visit the California State Senate . . . if your local news organizations are on-line, you might also find information in their sites about legislative races in your area.
To find out who's running in your Assembly district and get to their web page (if they have one) and contact information, click on your district below.
