California Senate: Wikis

Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles.

Did you know ...

in 2004, a California Senate committee passed a youth suffrage constitutional amendment called Training Wheels for Citizenship to give 14-year-olds one-quarter of a vote and 16-year-olds one-half of a vote in state elections?

More interesting facts on California Senate

Include this on your site/blog:

Encyclopedia

Updated live from Wikipedia, last check: May 30, 2012 15:37 UTC (52 seconds ago)

(Redirected to California State Senate article)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

California State Senate

Type
Type	Upper House
Leadership
President of the Senate	Vacant since November 5, 2009
President pro tempore	Darrell Steinberg, (D) since November 30, 2008
Minority Leader	Dennis Hollingsworth, (R) since February 18, 2009
Structure
Members	40

Political groups	Democratic Party Republican Party
Election
Last election	November 4, 2008
Meeting place

Senate Chamber California State Capitol Sacramento, CA, US
Website
http://www.sen.ca.gov

The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the state capital, Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote. The officers of the Senate, elected at the start of each legislative session, are the President pro tem Darrell Steinberg, Secretary of the Senate Gregory Schmidt, and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Tony Beard.

Prior to 1968, state senate districts were restricted such that one county could only hold at most one seat. This led to the situation of Los Angeles County, with 6 million residents as of 1968, receiving 600 times less representation than residents of Alpine County and Calaveras County, some of California's least populous counties. The federal Reynolds v. Sims decision by the United States Supreme Court compelled all states to draw up districts with equal populations. As such, boundaries were changed to provide more equitable representation.^[1]

Senators are limited to serving two four-year terms, which are staggered so that half the membership is elected every two years. The Senators representing the odd-numbered districts are elected in years evenly divisible by four. The senators from the even-numbered districts are elected in the intervening even-numbered years.^[2]

Each senator represents approximately 846,791 Californians, which is more than the approximately 639,088 residents in each of California's congressional districts.

1 Senators
2 Current composition
3 Seating chart
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Senators

See:

Current composition

Affiliation	Party (Shading indicates majority caucus)		Total

	Democratic	Republican		Vacant
End of previous legislature	25	15	40	0

Begin^[3]	24	15	39	1
June 8, 2009^[4]	25	15	40	0
November 30, 2009^[5]	25	14	39	1
Latest voting share	64.1%	35.9%

Seating chart

Vacancy

Hollingsworth

Steinberg

References

^ http://web.mit.edu/polisci/research/representation/apsa_99_v2.pdf
^ Cal. Const. Art. IV. §2(a)
^ Democrat Mark Ridley-Thomas (District 26) resigned December 1, 2008 after being sworn into the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
^ Democrat Curren Price sworn in to succeed Ridley-Thomas
^ Republican John J. Benoit (District 37) resigned to become a member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors

External links

Legislatures of the United States

United States Congress	United States House of Representatives · United States Senate

State legislatures	Alabama (H, S) · Alaska (H, S) · Arizona (H, S) · Arkansas (H, S) · California (A, S) · Colorado (H, S) · Connecticut (H, S) · Delaware (H, S) · Florida (H, S) · Georgia (H, S) · Hawaii (H, S) · Idaho (H, S) · Illinois (H, S) · Indiana (H, S) · Iowa (H, S) · Kansas (H, S) · Kentucky (H, S) · Louisiana (H, S) · Maine (H, S) · Maryland (H, S) · Massachusetts (H, S) · Michigan (H, S) · Minnesota (H, S) · Mississippi (H, S) · Missouri (H, S) · Montana (H, S) · Nebraska · Nevada (A, S) · New Hampshire (H, S) · New Jersey (GA, S) · New Mexico (H, S) · New York (A, S) · North Carolina (H, S) · North Dakota (H, S) · Ohio (H, S) · Oklahoma (H, S) · Oregon (H, S) · Pennsylvania (H, S) · Rhode Island (H, S) · South Carolina (H, S) · South Dakota (H, S) · Tennessee (H, S) · Texas (H, S) · Utah (H, S) · Vermont (H, S) · Virginia (H, S) · Washington (H, S) · West Virginia (H, S) · Wisconsin (A, S) · Wyoming (H, S)

Territorial legislatures	American Samoa (H, S) · District of Columbia · Guam · Northern Mariana Islands (H, S) · Puerto Rico (H, S) · U.S. Virgin Islands

Obsolete	Philippine Islands (A, H, NA)

Categories: California State Legislature | State upper houses in the United States

Hidden categories: California articles missing geocoordinate data | All articles needing coordinates

The Full Wiki

Search:

More info on California Senate

Related topics