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Voters again chose Mike Thompson for the California 1st district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the elections held on November 2, 2010. The results (which may not be final if some provisional ballots remain to be counted) were:
| Mike Thompson (Democrat) | 108,118 |
62.6% |
| Loren Hanks (Republican) | 54,556 |
31.6% |
| Carol Wolman (Green) | 5,836 |
3.4% |
| Mike Rodrigues (Libertarian) | 4,317 |
2.4% |
While this is be standard definition a landslide for Thompson, it actually goes against the tendency of the district, which was gerrymandered to be a safe district for Thompson, to become more in the Democratic Party column over time. Loren Hanks actually ran a serious campaign in the district, something no Republican candidate has tried in about a decade.
Compare, for instance, the results of the November 4, 2008 election for this office:
| Mike Thompson (Democrat) | 197,812 |
68.2% |
| Zane Starkewolf (Republican) | 67,853 |
23.3% |
| Carol Wolman (Green) | 24,793 |
8.5% |
| No Libertarian candidate |
There were two big differences between 2008 and 2010. 2008 was a presidential election year, so a lot more people voted. Democrats tend to be less regular voters than Republicans, and Green Party voters are notorious for not bothering to vote. With progressive excitement in 2008, Carol Wolman did much better than she did in 2010. Also, independents and alternative party registered voters tend to vote for any non-Democrat, non-Republican in order to register a protest, so Dr. Wolman probably lost a lot of votes to Mike Rodrigues this time around.
Other than that, it really was a Republican year. Mike Thompson dropped 5.3% from 2008 to 2010. In a swing district that was not gerrymandered for incumbent safety, that might have cost him the election.
Except that, as far as I can tell, Mike Thompson did relatively little campaigning. I doubt he spent very much of his campaign war chest in the district. If he had thought he was in any real danger of being defeated, he could have spent a lot more money on the campaign. I did not even see any Thompson yard signs in my area.
And the silver lining is ... I don't have to change Mike Thompson Watch to Carol Wolman Watch or Loren Hanks watch. But I'll keep helping the citizens watch Mike, and remember watching him is not enough. Send him your letters and do what you can to support citizen groups that are lobbying for better laws from Congress.
Coming up soon: Who gets to keep their Bush Tax Cuts? The rich, the middle class, no one, everyone?
Mike Thompson is the current elected member of the United States House of Representatives for California's 1st Congressional District.