1998–99 California special elections

The process was triggered by the mid-term retirement of U.S. Representative Ron Dellums and ended one year later with the unexpected election to the California State Assembly of Green Party candidate Audie Bock, by which time turnout had fallen to just 15% of registered voters.

Having represented the Oakland-Berkeley area since 1970 and first elected as anti-Vietnam War activist, the 61-year-old Dellums said: "Now I choose to make a personal decision and to empower myself to regain my life.

"[2] However, rather than serve the rest of his 2-year term (which was set to expire in January 1999), Dellums announced that he would step down effective February 1998.

Upon stepping down, Dellums endorsed a long-time aide, Barbara Lee, who at the time was representing the Berkeley and Oakland area in the California State Senate.

She was elected to Congress with 67% of the vote, defeating fellow Democrats Greg Harper and Randall Stewart, as well as Republican Charlie Sanders.

Because the California legislature has term limits, there were many politicians seeking higher office—and many viewed the special election as a rare opportunity to run for a Senate seat without risking their existing office.

Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris (who had represented the district from 1977-1991 in the state Assembly) entered the race, and was heavily supported by the California Democratic Party establishment.

But the California Democratic Party made a mistake that arguably created one of the biggest upsets in local political history.

[9] This created an outcry among voters who felt that it amounted to illegal vote-buying, and also deemed the offer racist and demeaning.

It was one of the largest political upsets in California history—as Bock became the first Green Party candidate in the country to be elected to a state legislative body.

Some argue that Ron Dellums should not have resigned in the middle of his term and that his decision to retire prematurely caused the chain reaction of special elections.

The previous law did not require a run-off at all, and whichever candidate in a special election who received a simple plurality of the vote won.

[12] However, in districts as overwhelmingly partisan as the districts of the East Bay, this meant that the candidate of the minority party had typically come in third or fourth in the special primary election, increasing the importance of the primary, and leading to possible upsets, like Harris unexpectedly losing to Green Party candidate Audie Bock, who had received less than 9% of the vote in the previous special election.

While Aroner, theoretically, could have challenged Perata two years later in the regularly scheduled election, political reality dictates that it is virtually impossible to defeat an incumbent legislator in a safe district.

In California Democratic Party v. Jones, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the blanket primary.