Local Bonds Fail, Sanders Takes California

Results are accurate as of press time, and may change as more votes are counted.

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Courtesy of Amkutzko / CC BY-SA

On Super Tuesday 14 states conduct primaries. Because incumbent presidents nearly always get their party’s nomination, Donald Trump obtained the lion’s share of Republican votes in California (92%). The contest mainly focused on Democratic primaries in these states to choose who will challenge Trump in November. At press time, the front runners were Sanders with 33% and with Biden 25%. They will proportionally share delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

Jack O'Connor, Photo Editor

The results are in for Super Tuesday, primaries held in 14 states nationwide including California.

Voters didn’t support Proposition 13, and two other local bond measures, H and I, that would have provided funds to improve school facilities. All of these fell short, dashing the hopes of many area schools in CUSD in need of repairs and upgrade. 

Before the beginning of Super Tuesday, previous Vice President Joe Biden received multiple, important endorsements from former presidential hopefuls; Pete Buttiegieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto O’Rourke as well as other influential Democratic Congressmen, Senators, and Governors. 

These endorsements helped Biden pull off multiple upsets throughout the night. In Minnesota, Maine, and Massachusetts Biden wasn’t expected to compete for first compared to either Senator Bernie Sanders or Senator Elizabeth Warren. On election day however, Biden not only won those states, but also won Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, gaining around 430 delegates in the process.

Sanders took four states, earning himself more than 330 delegates from Super Tuesday alone, according to the New York Times. Although Sanders was able to easily take the most populous state of California, he failed to achieve the results that many expected of him, but with a delegate total of more than 380 and Biden having around 430 delegates, Sanders is unlikely to drop out of the race.

Assuming neither candidate loses all of their support by the time of the Democratic Convention, Biden and Sanders are likely to continue to compete for the remaining delegates in the upcoming primaries in Idaho, Michigan, and Washington. If both Biden and Sanders fail to get enough delegates, then there will most likely be a divided Democratic convention to determine who will be the nominee for the Democratic Party in 2020.

In a more distant third and fourth place, Elizabeth Warren failed to win even her home state of Massachusetts, but ended the night with a little more than 40 delegates. After spending more than 230 million dollars on ads, Mike Bloomberg was only able to get around 30 delegates and only won the US territory of American Samoa.

Mike Bloomberg decided to suspend his run for the Democratic nomination after his disappointing Super Tuesday and announced that he would be endorsing Biden. 

I’m disappointed that [Proposition 13] didn’t go through because I think it is important that we invest in our public school system

— Elle Peloso (12)

“I’m glad that Bloomberg didn’t do too well in the Primary. It’s kind of nice to see that money can’t buy your way to the presidency,” said senior Tarik Assami. 

With the 2020 Democratic National Convention getting closer and closer, the results from this year’s Super Tuesday have shown that voters are beginning to coalesce around either Sanders or Biden.

For more local news, Measure H and Measure I, which would have increased taxes in order to fund improvements for Capistrano Unified School District schools like San Clemente High School, Aliso Niguel High School, or Dana Hills High School, were rejected by voters.

Proposition 13 would have authorized 15 billion dollars for construction and modernization of public education facilities by removing mold and asbestos from aging classrooms, hiring more school nurses, improve school drinking water, along with other measures to improve the health and safety of public schools; however, California voted to reject the proposition 55.9% to 44.1%.

“I’m disappointed that [Proposition 13] didn’t go through because I think it is important that we invest in our public school system,” said senior Elle Peloso.

In the primary election for the 73rd California State Assembly district, so far the embattled incumbent republican Bill Brough is in fourth place. Leading is Republican Laurie Davies, following behind is Democrat Scott Rhinehart in second, and in third is Democrat Chris Duncan. The top two will be voted on in the general election in November.