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California Elections Code Section 13108

Legal Research Home > California Lawyer > Elections Code > California Elections Code Section 13108

(a) At the first elections for Representative in Congress,
State Senator, Assemblyman and Members of the Board of Equalization
in each congressional, senatorial, Assembly, and Board of
Equalization district following reapportionment acts of the
Legislature redefining the boundaries of the congressional,
senatorial, Assembly, and Board of Equalization districts pursuant to
Section 6 of Article IV, Section 17 of Article XIII, and Section 1
of Article XXI, of the California Constitution, that candidate who
shall be deemed the incumbent in a given district for purposes of the
election shall be that candidate who is running for the same office
which he or she then holds, and who is running for reelection in a
district that has the identical boundaries and number as the district
from which he or she was last elected.
   (b) In the event there is no candidate to whom subdivision (a)
applies, the incumbent shall be that candidate who is running for the
same office which he or she then holds, and who is running for
reelection in a district that has the identical boundaries as the
district from which he or she was last elected, but which has a
different number.
   (c) In the event there is no candidate to whom subdivision (a) or
(b) apply, the incumbent shall be that candidate who is running for
the same office which he or she then holds, and who is running for
reelection in a district that has the identical number as the
district from which he or she was last elected.  However, a candidate
for the office of Member of the Assembly shall be considered the
incumbent in this case only if the district bearing the same number
is located in the same county as the district which previously bore
that number.
   (d) In the event there is no candidate to whom subdivision (a),
(b), or (c) apply, the incumbent shall be that candidate who is
running for the same office that he or she then holds, and who is
running for reelection in a district that contains some portion of
the territory previously contained within the district from which he
or she was last elected.  However, in a new district that contains
portions of the territory of more than one former district, the
incumbent shall be that candidate the greater portion of the
territory of whose former district is included within the new
district.
   (e) If there is no candidate in a given district to which any of
the above provisions apply, the incumbent shall be any person who is
a candidate for the same office that he or she then holds who
fulfills the residential requirements of law for candidacy within the
district.

Last modified: January 12, 2009