The best example of that was in the 35th Assembly District. Four of the 12 winners were UCSB students -- two undergraduates and two graduate students. All the winners were from Santa Barbara County, and 10 of the 12 will become first-time delegates to the California state party conventions..

Jay Kapitz of Oak Park, the only candidate from Ventura County in the 41st Assembly District, finished first in the balloting. For Kapitz, this will be his third term as a party delegate, but he said the dynamics have clearly changed. "Activists came out of the woodwork during the Obama campaign," he told me, "and they have stayed out of the woodwork."

One measure of that: Kapitz has organized a dinner in Washington, D.C., next week for an estimated 50 activists from Ventura County who will be attending the inauguration.

In the Ventura County-dominated 37th District, among the winners was Roni Flowers of Thousand Oaks, a newcomer to party politics who earned rave reviews from local Democrats for her performance as a deputy regional field organizer and phonebank coordinator for Obama for America. Most of the others have been active for a least a few years in local Democratic clubs, including: Joan and Ron Adams, Susan Boloorchi, Kim Stephenson and David Maron, all of the Camarillo Democratic Club; Judy Avery Smith, Deborah Birenbaum, William Carter and Celofas Navarro of the Conejo Democratic Club. Also on the winning slate were Sean Keenan of the Ojai Democratic Club and Paul Markowitz from the San Fernando Valley portion of the district.

The state's Young Democrats organization actively solicited candidates, and among those seeking seats in the local delegations are several college students and other youthful activists.

Democrats who wish to participate in the voting are urged to are urged to register at the state party Web site . They can also register on site, beginning at noon, for the meetings that begin at 2 p.m. A list of the candidates certified thus far can be found here.

Following are details for the local district elections:

SATURDAY

37th District (20 candidates): Newbury Park Library, 2331 Borchard Road.

38th District (24 candidates: Nobel Middle School in Northridge, 9950 Tampa Ave.

41st District (30 candidates): Topanga Community House in Los Angeles, 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.

SUNDAY

35th District (21 candidates): Eastside Library in Santa Barbara, 1102 E. Montecito St.

Strickland told me last month that he does not agree with the provision in his fellow legislative Republicans' budget proposal that calls for a delay in implementing California's landmark global warming law. That regulations to implement that law, AB 32, call for aggressive steps to promote alternative energy, including a requirement that utilities purchase a third of their electrical power from renewable sources such as solar and wind energy.

Furthermore, Strickland said he intends to soon introduce a package of clean-energy legislation.

During the campaign, Strickland told me that he could not point to a single thing he did to promote renewable energy during his six years in the Assembly from 1999-2004. It was only after that time, he said, that the weight of evidence convinced him that global warming was a real problem and that the development of alternative energy was not only environmentaly important but also something that could stimulate California's economy.

It will be interesting to watch as issues arise in the coming legislative session how far Sen. Strickland will be willing to stray from his Republican colleagues to support clean-energy policies.

The suggestion is intriguing for two reasons: (1) Brown has been a long-time mentor to O'Connell. The two have been close since their days in the Assembly, when O'Connell, who represented Ventura County in the Legislature for two decades, served as speaker pro tem under Brown. And, (2) O'Connell has publicly insisted that the only political office he's interested in seeking in 2010 is governor.

Was Brown using his column to tell O'Connell that he should lower his sights? Or was he using it to prop up a fallback position for his protege?

Brown notes that Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is certain to run for governor in 2010 -- even if Sen. Dianne Feinstein were to decide she wanted the job. If Jerry Brown is in, and Feinstein is out (as is likely, now that she's taken over as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee), then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will also likely get in. That would make it a very formidable field for O'Connell to crack without huge resources.

Willie Brown seemed to be using his column to send a message to his successor in the San Francisco mayor's office. If Newsom thinks he can use the lieutenant governor's position as his fallback position, Brown writes, he should think again -- because O'Connell would be hard to beat for that post.

There will be some interesting gamesmanship being played among the state's top Democrats in the months ahead over who is going to run for what office. It should be no surprise that Willie Brown is using his column to insert himself into the game.

In Sacramento, 55 Democrats handpicked by Democratic members of Congress and, in districts represented by a Republican, the 2008 Democratic Party nominee, cast their votes for Obama.

The honorary positions are typically given to party loyalists, family members or personal friends of members of Congress. For instance, Congressmen Joe Baca and Jerry McNerney selected their sons as electors. Sen. Barbara Boxer picked Lou Paulson, head of the California Professional Firefighters union. And so on.

And what about the 23rd and 24th Districts, the two that include portions of Ventura County?

In the 24th, Democratic nominee Marta Jorgensen picked longtime Central Coast party official Bob Handy of Santa Barbara. And in the 23rd, Rep. Lois Capps selected her son-in-law Nathan Brostrom of Berkeley, whose wife, Lisa Capps, died tragically from cancer at age 35 nearly nine years ago. Lisa Capps had been a psychology professor at UC Berkeley.

If the was the fifth consective election in which California electors cast their votes for the Democratic candidate.

That official was new Ventura County Sen. Fran Pavley, who was a co-author of the landmark law as a member of the Assembly in 2006.

Pavley's presence in the auditorium was noted by board Chairwoman Mary Nichols. "It's always good to have the author of the bill you're implementing in the room," she said. "If we don't do it right, I'm sure we'll be hearing about it."

Nichols then asked Pavley if she'd like to make a public comment, but -- remarkably -- the senator demured. "I don't want to take up your time," she said from her seat near the back of the auditorium.

Before the implementation process is over, rest assured, Pavley intends to have plenty to say. The first bill she introduced in the Senate is a measure that will become the vehicle to implement whatever fees are ultimately included in the Air Board's plan.

In California's Capitol, thank goodness, guvernatorial corruption is not an issue.

Still, it sometimes seems the state is paralyzed in part because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has embraced the opposite extreme -- a reluctance to exert his power and influence, not for private gain, but for public good.

If Schwarzenegger could line up just six fellow Republican legislators to support him on budget proposals, he could leverage that to gain extraordinary concessions from Democratic leaders and prevent the state's imminent fiscal catastrophe. But he has not shown any outward signs that he's making much effort to cajole, entice, threaten or otherwise persuade individual lawmakers to join with him.

The sticking point, of course, is new revenues. With the state's current year budget shortfall now pegged at nearly $15 billion, Schwarzenegger has concluded that the hole cannot be filled through spending cuts alone and that the solution must also include some tax increases. To that, all GOP lawmakers have thus far said nyet.

One would think he might host a few holiday parties, perhaps provide an opportunity for some targeted lawmakers to mingle with some of his Hollywood friends. Or perhaps he might call some Republican campaign contributors and ask them to suggest to certain GOP lawmakers that the governor could use a little cooperation. Or maybe he could go into some of their districts and host public events to call attention to the deep and unpopular cuts that would be necessary if there are no new revenues to help balance the budget.

But Schwarzenegger seems uninterested in this part of the job -- the ordinary, nitty-gritty excercise of gubernatorial influence and power.

His reluctance to do those things has clearly frustrated Democratic leaders of the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass put it bluntly this afternoon: "It is past time for Gov. Schwarzenegger to break the logjam created by his own party and produce Republican votes for a package of cuts and revenues. The 2/3 vote requirement means Democrats can't do it alone. With 51 Democrats we only need three Republican votes in the Assembly. But we need real leadership from Gov. Schwarzenegger to convince even a few of his Republican colleagues to compromise."

At 37, Smyth, whose district includes about half of Simi Valley, is one of the Legislature's rising young Republican stars. The promotion could be a stepping stone for Smyth to advance to the top post, as Villines will be termed out in 2010 and Smyth is eligible to serve through 2012.

Smyth becomes the second Ventura County lawmaker in recent years to hold the post. Sen. Tony Strickland held the same position when he served in the Assembly.

But elections officials tell my colleagues (I'm off this week) that only a few hundred ballots remain. The race may now belong to Strickland.

It's possible he will be able to claim the seat in time to take the oath on Monday when other new members of the Legislature are sworn in. However, Democratic Party officials will have to decide whether a .02 percent margin is close enough that it's worth forking over a million bucks or so for a recount.

Meanwhile, in the Legislature's other election cliff-hanger, in an Assembly race south of Sacramento, Democrat Alyson Huber, who had trailed Republican Jack Sieglock since election night, surged to an unexpected lead and is now the apparent winner in that race. If that is the case, Democrats will hold 51 seats in the Assembly, three short of a two-thirds majority. In the Senate, the outcome of the Strickland-Jackson race will make the difference between 25 or 26 Democratic Senate seats -- either two seats or one shy of a two-thirds majority.

The Republican hopeful may benefit from the fact that state Democrats made a run against incumbent Audra Strickland (who will be termed out in 2010) this fall. Although Strickland won with relative comfort (about 6 percentage points), the fact that Democrats put money into the contest makes it more likely that Republicans will start funding Gorell early.

On the flip side, Jackson may be running out of ballots. There are only about 3,000 more provisionals in Santa Barbara County, meaning that if Jackson does as well in the second batch as she did the first, she could pick up another 700 votes or so.

That would still leave Strickland with a 1,000-vote lead.

Ventura County started counting the first of its 14,000 provisional ballots yesterday. Jackson would need to win those by 7 or 8 percentage points to stay in the game. In order for that to happen, a big chunk of those provisionals will have to be from first-time voters who registered late in the process -- and did so because they wanted to vote for Barack Obama.

There are still a whole lot of "if's" involved, but so far the vote-counting is playing out as Jackson consultant Parke Skelton said needed to happen for his candidate to have a chance: Strickland's lead had to be 2,500 or less (it got up to 2,400 and change) after the late vote-by-mail ballots had been tallied.

The advantage at this point is clearly Strickland's, but don't be surprised if the final margin of victory -- for either candidate -- is less than 500.

However, Nava's calculations might have been based on the hope that San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, one of President-elect Barack Obama's earliest and most committed California supporters, would seek a job in the Obama administration.

Instead, Harris announced last week she will be a candidate for California attorney general if Brown vacates the post. Harris may have some liabilities -- she's from San Francisco, and some in the law enforcement community will never forgive her for not seeking the death penalty in a police-officer killing -- but she also has the formidable strength of being a Friend of Barack.

There are likely only a few candidates around the country who earned enough good will in the Obama campaign to get the benefit of Obama's vast e-mail list of supporters and contributors for a 2010 campaign. But given Harris' role in the campaign, she could very well be one.

Jackson's camp still believes it can make up 2,000 or more votes from the pool of about 15,000 provisional ballots, but Strickland's lead may be now pressing the outside of the envelope of what Jackson can make up.

The results so far validate a redistricting decision made in 2001. The first maps of the district, approved by the Senate Elections Committee, included the Santa Clara River Valley in Ventura County. But some GOP insiders suspected the district as it first existed wasn't quite Republican enough to ensure a GOP victory. As a result, Santa Paula and Fillmore were sliced out of and a sliver of Los Angeles County that was rich in Republican voters was pasted on.

So here's how that worked out. In 2008, Jackson is up by nearly 2,000 votes in the main portion of the district in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. But Strickland is up by more than 4,000 (out of only about 27,000 total votes) in Los Angeles County.

The national popular vote now stands at 53 percent for Barack Obama, 46 percent for John McCain. The Ventura County vote was close to that: 55 percent to 43 percent, or slightly more Democratic than the nation at large.

That means Ventura County has now voted for the winner in all but one presidential election over the last 68 years, so expect more media coverage of the county's bellwether status in 2012...

One more thing: I will be speaking about the election results tonight at the GOOD Club (the Greater Oxnard Organization of Democrats). The meeting begins at 7 at the Cafe at A, 438 South A Street in Downtown Oxnard. I can't promise a great speech, but I do know from past experience that the question-and-answer sessions with this group can get pretty lively.

Here's a situation that Santa Barbara County Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters Billie Alvarez told me about today that has happened more than once in her county:

Every vote-by-mail ballot is individually coded when sent to voters. In some households there are multiple vote-by-mail voters, such as a husband and wife. What happens if they get their envelopes mixed up? What if he puts his ballot in her envelope and vice versa?

The first thing that happens is the clerk who intially reviews the ballot sets it aside. The code on the envelope says this should be John Jones ballot, but that's not his signature. Same thing happens with Mary Jones' ballot.

Later, when elections supervisors review all the rejected mail-in ballots, they discover the problem.

Should they count the votes? What if the two people are not husband and wife, or even related, but simply roommates? If they were your votes, would you want them to be counted?

In the end, that's why there are still some judgment calls involved. And why, it seems nearly inevitable, that some judges are going to be called upon to make some voting decisions before the final outcome is decided.