Catherine Baker Looks Ahead

Former Assemblyman Catherine Baker says while she isn’t running for a post in 2020, she doesn’t rule out a future run for elected office. Speaking at the Lamorinda Republican Women Federated February meeting, Baker represented the 16th Assembly District from 2014 to 2018 when she lost her seat in the blue wave of Democratic votes.

In looking at the data following her loss, Baker said she found that indeed the surge was real and primarily occured in the last few days prior to the election. While Baker lost the election by 2 percent of the vote, she pointed out, “there was a late surge in Democrats and a dropping off of Republicans….In this district voters repudiated Republicans.” Further the GOP voter rolls dropped by some 7000 from 2016 to 2018. 

Looking ahead, she sees an upswing statewide in the Republican Party with an increasing crossover to Republicans. But, she cautioned, going forward the redistricting and new legislative mapping that will come from the 2020 census will be a critical factor for the next 10 years. Baker urged members to show up at hearings on this as well as be activing in turning out the vote Nov. 3.

Above: Lisa Schoenhouse (L), LRWF board member, and Catherine Baker, featured speaker.