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ACCORDING TO LIZ - At a time when the country is barreling towards a Trump-led autocracy, every Californian should have taken advantage of their right to vote in the Tuesday primary to ensure that all Americans maintain that ability after November. But less than 18% of registered Los Angeles County voters voted, reportedly even fewer statewide.
Although the official state results won’t be certified until April 12, there will be no surprises with the candidates for Prez:
Biden took almost 90% of the Democratic vote – “Uncommitted” and “No Preference” did not make a blip here – and Trump 78.6% of the Republicans.
If the rumors are true, we have the Schiff campaign to blame for the race for the newest Senator from California deteriorating into a run-off between Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey.
Covert support from somewhere for California’s geriatric candidate means all Californians lose out by not having the opportunity to vote for the far-better qualified Barbara Lee or Katie Porter. Shame!
In California’s 25th Senate District, it appears my choice, Renée Perez, will be in a run-off against Republican Elizabeth Wong Ahlers to replace the departing Anthony Portantino.
A solid third place doesn’t count so it looks like Portantino is out of the running in District 30 to replace Adam Schiff. Former State Assemblymember Laura Friedman will take on Republican Alex Balekian in a Dem-leaning District come November while LAUSD board member Nick Melvoin and ex-L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer and are thankfully also-rans.
For the State Assembly’s 52nd District, my choice of Jessica Caloza is ahead of the less politically seasoned Franky Carrillo with his compelling personal redemption story, pushing David Girón, my second choice, out of contention.
Unfortunately, here in Council District 14, the disgraced and disgraceful Kevin De León is leading – although with by far the lowest percentage of any City Council incumbent. Miguel Santiago is second but only a point and a half ahead of my preferred Ysabel Jurado. And they sit several points in front of ex-Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, with the rest of the wanna-bes languishing in the single digits.
CD 14 represents more than 264,000 people but less than 20,000 cast ballots. Hopefully, more will turn out in November when, if the Jurado, Santiago and Carrillo voters band together, there’s a fighting chance to kick @#$% King Lion out on his tush.
California Measure 1, which I strongly opposed as another waste of tax-payer dollars since it did not set forth clear parameters or effective accountability, risks squeaking through. Though, as of Wednesday evening, its lead was less than 0.3%.
Unfortunately, it looks like the wasteful Measure HLA which is based on the failed Mobility Plan 2035 and cobbled together by business-crats to favor the special interests some of our Councilmembers’ support will pass, garnering 63% of the vote.
Jimmy Gomez is sitting a shade over 51% in the election for District 34 of the House of Representatives and, all things being equal, will hold on to avoid a run-off in November so he can get back to working for the District instead of defending his seat for another eight months.
In the L.A. County District Attorney race, George Gascón is leading at 22%, ahead of two arch-conservatives – Nathan Hochman at under 18% and Jonathan Halami with a bit over 13% – as the only contenders in the large field to break out of single digits. With my other-than-Gascón choice Chemerinsky in fifth position, the current DA may suffer from a combined boot-him-out vote come November, a real threat for progressive reform.
In other City Council races:
My choice in CD 2, Adrin Nazarian has double the votes of his nearest competitor but, based on the current returns, will not pass the 50% mark so will face a run-off with one of neck-and-neck candidates Sam Khushyan and Jillian Burgos.
CD 4 incumbent Nythia Ramen is ahead of my first choice Ethan Weaver by 3.6% and has fallen short of the 50% to avoid a fall run-off… which says a lot about how much her stakeholders want the incumbent gone. For whatever reason.
Imelda Padilla has a significant majority in CD 6. After less than a year in office she clearly has not pissed off enough people to face a fall campaign.
CD 8’s Marqueece Harris Dawson did not have the quality opponents to oust him in response to his less-than-leadership quality redistricting squabbles over which Council District should represent USC and his blocking of Jamie York’s nomination to the Ethics Commission, preventing enforcement of campaign finance, contracting, lobbying and conflict of interest laws.
Although Heather Hutt, appointed to replace convicted felon Mark Ridley-Thomas, currently leads in CD 10 she is no runaway and my favorite, Grace Yoo, is solidly in second position and will have a fighting chance in November.
Not unsurprisingly, John Lee coasted to victory in CD 12.
If anybody cares, the all the County Board of Supervisor incumbents handily won re-election.
For those interested in any of the L.A. Superior Court races, Lynn Olson won Office 12 of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, but it looks like Manhattan Beach Councilmember Steve Napolitano will face a run-off against my favored George Turner for Office 39.
My first and second choices for Office 48, Renee Rose and Ericka Wiley are also headed for a November run-off.
Yup, I wrote in Michael Connelly’s fictional lawyer Mickey Haller for Office 93 but the sole candidate, Victor Avila, is coasting to victory with... a solid 100% of the votes counted.
In Office 97, Sharon Ransom is currently 0.74% under the 50% needed to avoid going to November with the other two candidates splitting the remaining half of the votes.
Keith Koyano and Christmas Brookens, either of which would be an excellent judge, are neck-and-neck for Office 115 while, for Office 124, my selection, Kimberly Repecka, is lagging 5% behind incumbent Emily Spear who deserves to be booted off the bench for unprofessional behavior in 2021 which impacted rulings in her court.
It looks like Leslie Gutierrez will win Office 130 with a little less than 60% of the vote, almost twice what the infamous Christopher Darden has accumulated.
For Office 135, my selection Georgia Huerta is 5% off 50% at the moment, almost certainly headed for a fall run-off with Steven Yee Mac.
Wrapping up the judges, it looks like my favorite for Office 137, Luz Herrera, currently in second place will face off in November against my second choice, Tracy Blount.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)
