Supermajority

The Republican supermajority in West Virginia’s House of Delegates grew bigger on Monday after first-term Del. Elliott Pritt switched to the Republican Party, making him the fourth Democrat to change parties nationwide in less than two months.

The former president of Planned Parenthood and a Black Lives Matter co-founder are joining with the director of a domestic workers’ advocacy group to launch a new political action group in advance of the 2020 election.

California lawmakers will begin their new legislative session Monday with Democrats holding a three-fourths majority in the State Assembly, and one vote less than three-fourths in the State Senate — the biggest Democratic majority since 1883, the Associated Press notes.

The supermajority will give Governor-elect Gavin Newsom the ability to push his agenda through the legislature with minimal opposition.

The “shadow presidency” of California Governor Jerry Brown scored a win Monday night as eight Republican legislators crossed the political aisle and voted with most Democrats to extend a key component of the “cap- and-trade” program that has literally shifted $4.42 billion from the private sector to the government since mid-2012.

Outside money is pouring into the campaign to recall first-term State Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who voted in favor of the hugely unpopular gas tax, giving Republicans a chance at breaking the Democrats’ supermarjority in the State Senate.

Governor Brown is on the eve of a self-appointed April 6 deadline to push what he has titled the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, which seeks to impose new gasoline taxes and car registration fees to bring in an estimated $52.4 billion in increased tax revenues over the next decade alone.

California continues to cement its place as a national outlier, with Hillary Clinton clobbering Donald Trump by nearly 30 points as the last ballots are counted. Now, California Democrats looked to have gained a supermajority in the state legislature as well.

Election Day for Republicans, nationally, was a very good night. Not only did the GOP win the presidency with the election of Donald J. Trump, but it also retained control of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, and won gains at the state level across the country.

The California Democrat Party believes it will pick up a legislative super-majority that would allow them to raise taxes despite Republican opposition, but they may find themselves blindsided by Trump “stealth voters” who clandestinely support his policies.

California Democrats eager to restore the slim supermajority they lost in 2014 are concerned for their prospects for 2016.