A little more than a year ago, Joaquin Arambula stumbled out of the political starting gate in his quest for the 31st Assembly District seat, saying he was a Democrat living in Kingsburg. At the time, he was neither. He was registered as an independent and living in Clovis.
On Tuesday, Arambula showed what a difference 13 months makes.
He put together a solid 31st District election victory that showed not only that he had matured as a candidate, but also how much a truckload of money – more than $1.6 million between Arambula's fundraising, the state Democratic Party and outside independent groups – can help win a tough election.