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Riverside County Supervisors seat will be filled leaving open state Senate seat
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Governor Arnold Swarzenegger is finally going to fill the vacant Riverside County Board of Supervisors seat by appointing state Senator John J. Benoit, the seat has been left vacant since the resignation of former Supervisor Roy Wilson prior to his death in August. As this appointment will leave an open state Senate seat there is a long line of candidates lining up for the position that will soon be vacated by Benoit in the 37th district. Benoit, a Republican from Bermuda Dunes, resigned his senate seat and will step down on Sunday (a seat he just won last November) to be sworn in as the new County Supervisor on Monday.
This will cost the county at the least a million dollars to hold a special election to fill the vacant senate seat and the cost could have been kept down significantly if Benoit would have waited three weeks to step down. Due to the states special election laws a vacate senate seat in the next three weeks will take up to two special elections to fill, a primary and possible general election (if one candidate does not get at least fifty percent of the vote). If this could have waited until after the last week in November the Governor could have put off calling the special election until December 10th and it would have been consolidated with the regular primary in June. An official with the Riverside County's registrar of voters went on record stating that this second option would have saved the county a lot of money. It looks like Benoit wanted to start off where he left off in the state Senate and bring a million plus dollar tab with him right away, building on his legacy of making the state budget crisis worse during his short stint in Sacramento.
There is quite a field lining up to take the place of the man who instantly will make the fiscal crisis facing Riverside County worse upon taking his seat on Monday, including many current state politicians and at least one comparative political outsider. As the open district is extremely Republican many party regulars are throwing their hats in the ring including current state Assemblymen, Bill Emmerson, Brian Nestande, and Jeff Miller as well as former state Assemblyman Russ Bogh. A few of these candidates will be facing the end of their state Assembly career due to term limits so this is a golden opportunity for them to extend the stellar job (budget crisis anyone?) they are doing for the state of California in the Capitol. There is one quixotic Democrat announcing his candidacy as well, Justin Blake, who is currently a member of the Palm Springs school board.
Depending on who gets elected or makes it past the primary this could trigger another special election as another seat may become instantly vacated costing the county even more money. It can make a person ill watching the ever dwindling cash reserves of the county being thrown away inexcusably and one hopes that when the special election does occur (as well as the regular election in June) the citizens of California remember who made such a mess of the state's budget this year. It would seem to be a mistake to move these men from one chamber to another expecting that to make any difference for the citizens of California and our dismal fiscal situation.
