Our democratic system of self-government has several steps that ensures the integrity of our elections. However, some of the intricacies can be manipulated by leaders to keep power.

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The California Assembly

California Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown

In 1995, Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown kept power, even after Republicans won a 41-39 seat majority in the lower chamber in the 1994 elections. [1] The political and parliamentary maneuvering was legendary, but there’s a lesson to be learned as we head into the 2026 election cycle.

In 1994, the Republican political wave swept the GOP into power in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years; Newt Gingrich was eventually elected House Speaker. [2] In California, the anti-immigrant initiative Proposition 187 passed with an 18-point margin – 59% to 41%. An injunction was imposed against Proposition 187 within weeks of the initiative’s passage; ultimately, the initiative was ruled unconstitutional as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. [3]

This Republican Revolution created the political environment for the GOP to flip nine seats in the 80-member California Assembly, capturing a majority in the lower chamber for the first time since 1970. [4]

But power doesn’t transfer by itself; the details of transferring power are worth watching.

One quirk of the 1994 Assembly elections occurred in Southern California. Richard Mountjoy, a GOP Assemblyman from Arcadia and a sponsor of Proposition 187, [5] ran for reelection, but he also ran as a Republican candidate in a special election to fill a State Senate vacancy.

California State Senator Frank Hill was convicted in 1994 on federal extortion and money laundering charges stemming from a $2,500 payment he took from federal undercover agents; the payment was videotaped by the FBI, and Hill ultimately served a 46-month sentence. [6] Hill resigned in July 1994, and a special election was held to determine who would fill his seat. Normally, candidates cannot run for two separate offices at the same time, but through a quirk in California elections law and the nature and timing of the special election, Mountjoy was allowed to run for both seats in November 1994.

Mountjoy finished first among Republicans in a September primary, finishing ahead of third-place finisher and fellow GOP Assemblyman Paul Horcher (remember that name…). From the Los Angeles Times reporting: [7]

Mountjoy spent most of his campaign dollars touting his conservative credentials, including his strong support of Proposition 187, which would cut benefits to illegal immigrants.
Horcher wooed the Democratic vote, saying he is the only candidate who can stop the “Rush Limbaugh Republicans,” Mountjoy and [wealthy businessman Gary] Miller.

When the new Assembly convened in December 1994, the first items raised were points of order about whether Richard Mountjoy could rightly vote on Assembly matters, since he had eventually won the seat in the State Senate.

When the first vote for Speaker was held, Republicans couldn’t take control; Assemblyman Paul Horcher resigned from the Republican Party, registered as an independent, and cast his vote for Speaker for Willie Brown. With the vote between Brown and GOP Assemblyman Jim Brulte tied at 40-40, no one was yet elected Speaker, but as “Senior Member of the Assembly,” Brown continued to preside. [8]

Brown allowed for bills to be introduced for the next month, and in January, Brown arranged for a vote to force Richard Mountjoy to take his seat in the State Senate, ruling that Mountjoy was ineligible to serve in the Assembly. From the Journal of the Assembly: [9]

Assembly Member [from Palo Alto Byron D.] Sher moved that Assembly Member Richard Mountjoy is not duly elected and qualified to be an Assembly Member representing the 59th Assembly District and therefore is not eligible to participate in the business of the Assembly.

After a series of points of order and tie votes, unable to amend Sher’s original motion to oust other Assembly members, a final point of order was offered: Is Assembly Member Mountjoy able to vote on the motion of his eligibility? Brown ruled that that he was not able to vote on this motion, and that ultimately tipped the balance. [10]

Assembly Member Brulte appealed Brown’s ruling, which failed on a 40-40 vote. [11] After several more points of order, the Speaker vote was called (with Mountjoy excluded), and Brown was elected Speaker with a 40-39 vote. [12]

So, in the Republican wave of 1994, Democrat Willie Brown solidified his political legend by maintaining his position as Speaker of the California Assembly.

The Thousand Oaks City Council

At the local level, even though vacancies occur on city councils from time to time, sometimes elections aren’t even called to fill those positions.

In Thousand Oaks, this happened twice in the course of seven years, where a three-member Council majority, which included current Democratic California Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin, voted to keep and expand their political power, filling three years of a four-year term by appointment instead of holding elections. [13]

The local Ventura County Star condemned the Council votes at the time, stating that “current council members weren’t elected to hand-pick who should sit next to them on the dais making like-minded decisions for the next three years. That’s not their job.” [14]

The Thousand Oaks Acorn felt that “[R]esidents and voters of Thousand Oaks have every right to be infuriated… our city council acted irresponsibly and selfishly regarding the democratic process.” [15]

This story, which led to the successful Thousand Oaks Right to Vote Initiative, guaranteeing that elections are held for Thousand Oaks City Council, is provided in full in my book Local Democracy in America. [14] The paperback version of Local Democracy in America is scheduled to launch at the end of this month.

The GOP’s Cling to American Power

Video essay by *New York Times* columnist Ezra Klein [18]

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein recently (and I’ll argue, belatedly) highlighted that Trump and his administration are claiming powers that he doesn’t have, and a concerted opposition must get cracking, since “authoritarianism [is] happening.” [17][18]

We’ve watched Trump deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles and then to Washington, with more cities expected to come under federal military occupation soon. We’ve watched masked ICE agents conducting raids all over the country, refusing to reveal badge numbers or warrants. We’ve watched Trump systematically purge the government of inspectors general, of military JAGs and officers, of federal prosecutors — anyone who might stand in the way of his corruption or his accumulation or exercise of power. It is astonishing that the Jan. 6 rioters have been pardoned and that dozens of the Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted them have been fired.
This is not just how authoritarianism happens. This is authoritarianism happening.
…
…Trump is not losing in the Supreme Court, which has weighed in again and again on his behalf. Instead of reprimanding Trump for his executive order unilaterally erasing the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to all born here, it reprimanded the lower courts for imposing a national freeze on his order in the way they did. It has shown him extraordinary deference to the way he is exercising power. I recently asked Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, what powers the recent Supreme Court decisions seem to grant Trump that Barack Obama or Joe Biden just didn’t think they had when they were president.
Here’s what she said: “Refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress. Remove heads of independent agencies protected by statute from summary firing. Fire civil servants without cause. Dismantle federal agencies. Call up the National Guard on the thinnest of pretexts. That’s a preliminary half-dozen powers.”

The Republican Party’s route to clinging to power with Trump at the helm is to steamroll our constitutional framework with the Supreme Court and Congressional majorities as complicit enablers.

Trump and the GOP has declared war on the American people who do not agree with them. In fact, he’s recently alluded to war on Chicago literally and not merely figuratively - by invading Illinois with National Guard troops from other states. [19]

Post from Illinois Governer JB Pritzker [19]

By the way, Chicago is not having it – they just held one of its largest protests in city history over the weekend. [20]

People march during Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights’ “Chicago Says No Trump No Troops” protest Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The former leader of the Illinois National Guard thinks deploying military forces into American cities is a bad idea. [21]

“The military is the most highly revered organization in the nation,” says Richard J. Hayes Jr., who retired as Illinois adjutant general in 2019. “You are going to pit citizens against the military.”

Trump is so desperate that he’s leaning on Republican-led states to gerrymander Congressional districts to keep his thin House majority. He’s called for Texas and Missouri to engage in the mid-cycle redistricting, and California, with Proposition 50, is attempting to give California voters the opportunity to counter these moves.

The League of Women Voters of California supports Proposition 50.

But watch for these and other behind-the-scenes procedural actions for foul play, all the way until January 2027. Trump’s supporters tried these tactics before, and their ambitions and desperation to keep power could lead to similar maneuvers.

One example: They tried it in 2020 – Wayne County Board of Canvassars, Michigan’s most populous county containing the city of Detroit, voted 2-2 when the two Republican board members refused to certify the vote. [22]

President-elect Joe Biden carried 68% of the vote in Wayne County. And in Detroit specifically, where [Board members] Palmer and Hartmann focused their objections to the results, more than 78% of the city's population is black — a point that was not lost on critics.

On January 6, 2021, Republican members of the House and Senate coordinated objections to prevent Biden electoral votes from being counted, in hopes that Trump could be declared the winner through parliamentary maneuvering. For example, Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas objected to the 11 electoral votes from Arizona being counted for Joe Biden. [23]

For the 2026 midterms, we should pay heed to the lesson from Willie Brown’s political plays in 1994 and 1995 – power isn’t controlled after the election is won. We can’t take for granted that winning the election means that power will be given up willingly - this happens at all levels, even local city councils.

Beware of a strategy to cast doubts on 2026 Democratic electoral victories through “fraud” (i.e., strong support via mail-in voting) and then use those manufactured doubts to refuse seating victorious Democratic candidates.

Narratives

The book I’m reading or movie I’m watching

The Dark Forest (by Cixin Liu)

This is the second book from the trilogy that serve as the inspiration to Netflix’s 3 Body Problem series. Here’s an overview from Amazon: [24]

In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion-in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret. This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

GIF Game

Notes and Sources

[1] Dan Morain and Jerry Gillam, “Brown Regains Speaker Role, Shares Power,” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 1995, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-25-mn-24204-story.html

[2] “The Republican Revolution,” History.com, February 09, 2010, retrieved June 14, 2025, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-8/the-republican-revolution

[3] “1994: California's Proposition 187,” A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States, Library of Congress, retrieved June 14, 2025, https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/california-proposition-187

[4] “Political party strength in California,” Wikipedia, retrieved September 7, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_California

[5] Dan Walters, “Richard Mountjoy, GOP legislator, dies at 83,” Sacramento Bee, May 20, 2015, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article21392394.html

[6] John Howard, “Where are they now? Former state Senator Frank Hill,” Capitol Weekly, March 9, 2006, https://capitolweekly.net/where-are-they-now-former-state-senator-frank-hill/

[7] Rick Holguin, “LOCAL ELECTIONS / 29TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT : Mountjoy Top Vote-Getter in Bid for Hill Seat,” Los Angeles Times, September 14, 1994, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-14-me-38405-story.html

[8] “Journal of the Assembly, Legislature of the State of California, 1995-96 Regular Session, December 5, 1994, to November 30, 1996,” State of California, Assembly, 1996, p 5-19.

[9] Ibid., p 127.

[10] Ibid., p 127-130.

[11] Ibid., p 131.

[12] Ibid., p 138.

[13] Mic Farris, “Democracy in Thousand Oaks: The Right to Vote,” December 12, 2022, https://www.micfarris.com/articles/democracy-in-thousand-oaks-the-right-to-vote

[14] “Don’t appoint, let voters vote,” Ventura County Star, December 11, 2005.

[15] “The people should have decided who replaces Masry,” Thousand Oaks Acorn, December 8, 2005.

[16] Mic Farris, Local Democracy in America, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, 2025.

[17] Ezra Klein, “Stop Acting Like This Is Normal,” New York Times, September 7, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/opinion/trump-senate-democrats-shutdown.html?unlocked_article_code=1.kE8.3Y3U.BM1rBK5j3zFe&smid=url-share

[18] Ezra Klein, “If Democrats Have a Better Plan, I’d Like to Hear It,” New York Times, September 7, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010381405/if-democrats-have-a-better-plan-id-like-to-hear-it.html?smid=url-share

[19] JB Pritzker [@govpritzker], Threads, September 6, 2025, https://www.threads.com/@govpritzker/post/DORI2G3kaD5?xmt=AQF0tLaJueiEpIOS9qdoMhawUmq-_1o4TXsjzL2X0pwqrw

[20] Carolyn Kaster, “Photos capture Chicagoans’ protest against ICE and Trump’s intervention plans, Associated Press, September 6, 2025, https://apnews.com/photo-gallery/chicago-protest-photos-ab99f57029057aa9919be802f85876c2

[21] Frank Main, “Putting national guard troops in Chicago to fight crime could stain military’s image, former general says,” Chicago Sun Times, September 5, 2025, https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/09/05/national-guard-richard-hayes-trump-pritzker

[22] Colin Dwyer, “Michigan's Wayne County Certifies Election Results After Brief GOP Refusal,” NPR, November 18, 2020, https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-2020-election-results/2020/11/18/936120411/michigans-wayne-county-certifies-election-results-after-brief-gop-refusal

[23] “January 6, 2021 - Issue: Vol. 167, No. 4 — Daily Edition 117th Congress (2021 - 2022) - 1st Session,” Congressional Record, Volume 167, No. 4, January 6, 2021, https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-167/issue-4/house-section/article/H76-4

[24] Cixin Liu, The Dark Forest, Tor Books, 2016, https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Forest-Remembrance-Earths-Past/dp/0765386690

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