Number of seats needed to be held by one party for a two-thirds supermajority:
— Assembly: 54
— Senate: 27
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Partisan split after the November 2012 election:
— Assembly: 55 Democrats, 25 Republicans
— Senate: 29 Democrats, 11 Republicans
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Partisan split as of Sept. 22:
— Assembly: 55 Democrats, 25 Republicans
— Senate: 25 Democrats, 12 Republicans (two Democrats are suspended and one Democrat resigned after being sentenced to jail; Republicans picked up a Central Valley seat during a 2013 special election).
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Key races in the Senate:
12th Senate District
Incumbent Anthony Canella, R-Ceres, outpolled his Democratic challenger by a wide margin, 64 percent to 36 percent, in the primary despite the district’s Democratic bias. The district extends from the Salinas Valley east into the Central Valley and represents large communities of Latino farm workers. The largest city is Merced.
Voter registration: 45 percent Democrat, 32 percent Republican and 18 percent no party preference. Canella, the son of a former Democratic lawmaker, was elected to the Senate in 2010. The Democratic challenger is Shawn Bagley, a produce broker and party activist.
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14th Senate District
Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, is being challenged in a district with a Democratic voting edge, but the incumbent was the top vote-getter in the June primary with 61 percent.
The Central Valley district encompasses all of Kings County and portions of Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties, including parts of Fresno and Bakersfield. Voter registration: 47 percent Democrat; 30 percent Republican; 19 percent no party preference.
Vidak won a July 2013 special election under the old district lines after Democratic Sen. Michael Rubio resigned to take a job with Chevron. The Democratic candidate is Luis Chavez, a member of the Fresno Unified School District Board of Education. Senate Democrats had contributed more than $258,000 to the Chavez campaign as of July 31.
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26th Senate District
Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, is running for Congress, which has left two Democrats fighting to succeed him. Sandra Fluke, the former Georgetown University law student who gained national attention for being denied a chance to testify in Congress for health plan contraception coverage — and then was subjected to degrading comments by radio host Rush Limbaugh — is running as a first-time candidate to represent some of the most affluent communities of Los Angeles County. They range from the Hollywood Hills to the Palos Verdes peninsula.
Fellow attorney Ben Allen was the top vote-getter in the June primary, with 22 percent of the vote. Fluke came in second in a field of eight candidates and had 19.5 percent of the vote.
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34th Senate District
Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, is termed out. The district includes the coastal city of Seal Beach, Santa Ana and a southeastern portion of Anaheim in Orange County as well as a portion of Long Beach in Los Angeles County.
Voter registration: 38 percent Democrat; 35 percent Republican; 22 percent no party preference. Ethnic voter registration: 25 percent Latino, 21 percent Asian (14.5 percent Vietnamese).
The Democratic candidate is Jose Solorio, a former member of the Assembly and member of the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board of Trustees. Republican candidate Janet Nguyen, a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, beat fellow Republican Long Pham in the primary.
Nguyen placed first with 52 percent of the vote, followed by 33 percent for Solorio and 15 percent for Pham.
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Key races in the Assembly:
32nd Assembly District
Incumbent Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, is running in a competitive district targeted by Republicans.
The Central Valley district stretches from Hanford to portions of southern Bakersfield, encompassing portions of Kern and Kings counties. Voter registration: 48 percent Democrat; 29 percent Republican; 19 percent no party preference.
Salas was the first Latino elected to the Bakersfield City Council in 2000. He is being challenged by Pedro Rios, a teacher and former mayor of Delano who unsuccessfully challenged Salas in 2012. Salas led the primary with 44 percent of the vote, followed by 35 percent for Rios.
Another Republican, Romeo Agbalog, a Delano Union School District trustee who was backed by Republican leadership, came in third with 21 percent of the vote.
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36th Assembly District
Incumbent Steve Fox, D-Palmdale, is being targeted by Republicans after winning by just 145 votes in 2012 and placing second in the primary. The district encompasses Palmdale and Lancaster in Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley, as well as a small portion of Kern County and the mountain community of Wrightwood in San Bernardino County.
Voter registration: 38 percent Democrat; 36 percent Republican; 15 percent no party preference.
Of five candidates who ran in the primary, Republican candidate Tom Lakey, a member of the Palmdale City Council and a retired California Highway Patrol sergeant, finished first with 41 percent of the vote, followed by 33 percent for Fox.
The freshman Democrat is facing legal troubles that could tarnish his campaign. A former legislative director filed a discrimination lawsuit alleging that he forced her to perform tasks for his private law practice and created a hostile work environment. Another former worker filed a complaint, claiming she was forced to work for free.
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44th Assembly District
Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, R-Thousand Oaks, is running for Congress, leaving this seat up for grabs in a competitive district that is shifting Democratic because of the growing concentration of Latino voters in Oxnard.
The coastal Ventura County district spans Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, as well as a small part of Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley. Voter registration: 38 percent Democrat; 36 percent Republican; 21 percent no party preference.
Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Jacqui Irwin was the sole Democrat in the race and placed first with 45 percent of the primary vote. Rob McCoy, a senior pastor at Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, who received support from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s RAND PAC, outpolled fellow Republican candidate Mario de la Piedra, 31 percent to 24 percent.
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57th Assembly District
Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier, is running in a safe Democratic district but faces a level of uncertainty because of his family’s legal troubles.
Ian’s uncles, suspended state Sen. Ron Calderon and former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, face federal corruption charges. His father, former state lawmaker Charles Calderon, lost his bid to be a judge.
The district in southeast Los Angeles County includes the cities of Norwalk, Whittier, Hacienda Heights and La Puente. Voter registration: 47 percent Democrat; 26 percent Republican; 17 percent no party preference.
Calderon is being challenged by Republican Rita Topalian, a family law attorney who ran against Ron Calderon in 2004. She is making public corruption a key campaign issue.
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65th Assembly District
Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, is being targeted by Republicans. The Orange County district includes Fullerton, Buena Park, La Palma, Cypress and Stanton.
Voter registration: 37 percent Democrat; 36 percent Republican; 24 percent no party preference.
Quirk-Silva was a Fullerton City councilwoman when she unseated incumbent Republican Chris Norby in 2012. The Republican candidate is Young Kim, an aide to Congressman Ed Royce. She has been identified as a “California Trailblazer,” a Republican Party effort to recruit a new generation of fiscally conservative leaders.
During the primary, Kim outpolled the incumbent, 55 percent to 45 percent.
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66th Assembly District
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, is running for re-election but trailed Republican challenger David Hadley in the primary. Hadley narrowly outpolled Muratsuchi 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent.
The Los Angeles County coastal district extends from Manhattan Beach to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and extends inland to the district’s largest city, Torrance. Voter registration: 40 percent Democrat; 33 percent Republican; and 18 percent no party preference.
Hadley is the founder of an investment banking firm, newspaper columnist and a Republican activist. Muratsuchi, a Japanese-American, was a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice before being elected to the Assembly.
