New Ex Officio Regents

Kounalakis

New (ex officio) Regents. Yesterday, well before CNN or anyone else, your truly "called" the California gubernatorial election for Gavin Newsom. It didn't take much political skill. We know from 2014 what happens in a gubernatorial race when a no-name underfunded Republican runs against a known Democrat; in 2014 it was Brown vs. Kashkari, 60% vs. 40%. In 2018, it was Newsom vs. Cox and the preliminary results as of this morning are 59.4% vs. 40.6%, essentially the same outcome.

Tuck

As lieutenant governor, and now as governor (as of January 2019), Newsom remains an ex officio Regent. But that means we will have a new lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, who will become an ex officio Regent. (She won against Ed Hernandez, 56% to 44% as of this morning with final tally yet to be completed; both are Democrats.) Lieutenant governors tend to show up at Regents meetings, since they have not much else to do.

The superintendent of public instruction is also an ex officio
Regent. It appears that the new superintendent will be Marshall Tuck, primarily noted for his support of charter schools. (He appears to have won narrowly over Tony Thurmond; as of this morning, the results were reported as 50.6% to 49.4%.) Tuck will replace termed-out Tom Torlakson. (Both Tuck and Thurmond are Democrats although the office is officially non-partisan. If the final result changes and Tuck is not the winner, we will so note in a later posting.)

Note: Election results are at https://vote.sos.ca.gov/.