Democrat Josh Newman defeated Republican Assemblyman Ling Ling Chang for a seat in California's state senate Monday, giving the party a two-thirds "supermajority" in both houses, as The Sacramento Bee reported.
Newman won the 29th Senate District, giving Democrats 27 seats in the state senate. The upper house is made up of 40 state senators, while the lower house has 80 representatives. All 80 seats in the lower house were up for grabs in the 2016 election, and Democrats gained three seats to take 55 total.
In theory, with a supermajority, a party can place measures on the statewide ballot, enact laws with an "urgency" clause, override a governor's veto and raise taxes without a vote of the people. But that is all dependent on party members voting in unity.
Still, it helps leadership "gain the majorities they need for majority-vote bills when there's disagreements within the caucus, which is inevitable . . . but it's not a magic wand. You have differences within the caucus. It can be a bit overrated when it comes to passing a lot of two-thirds bills," former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told The Sacramento Bee.
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