Gaines wins state Senate seat; wife may run for Assembly

By Kathryn Reed

Lake Tahoe will have a new state Senator in Sacramento on Thursday and at the same time will be without a representative in the Assembly.

This is because on Jan. 4 Ted Gaines soundly won the special election for the 1st Senate District seat. He garnered 63. 2 percent of the vote (81,945 votes) to Ken Cooley’s 36.8 percent (47,743).

Ted Gaines

At 10:30pm, Gaines Tweeted, “Just received a very nice message from Ken Cooley. I’m honored to serve the 1st District in the Senate & looking forward to getting to work.”

The election was necessary to fill the seat left vacant by Dave Cox’s death in July. No one won more than 50 percent of the vote in November, necessitating the runoff between Republican Gaines and Democrat Cooley.

Gaines is from Roseville, but has a second home on the North Shore and is familiar with Lake Tahoe issues.

Cooley is the mayor of Rancho Cordova.

Gaines, 52, was re-elected in that same November election to his third term as assemblyman. He will now have to resign from that position. His wife, Beth, is considering running for that seat.

Gaines is familiar with much of his Senate district, with about a third of being part of his Assembly district. The Senate seat encompasses parts of Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento and Sierra counties.