Wave Staff and Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES — City Councilwoman Heather Hutt will race Grace Yoo in a November runoff election for the 10th City Council District after the unofficial results of the March 5 primary were announced.
Hutt and Yoo were well ahead in the five-candidate field in primary voting with pastor and community organizer Eddie Anderson in third, small-business owner and environmental activist Aura Vásquez in fourth and Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer in fifth.
Unofficial results showed Hutt with 37.3% of the vote, followed by Yoo with 27.8%. Anderson was third with 14.7%.
Hutt was appointed as caretaker councilwoman for District 10 last year following the indictment and conviction of Mark Ridley-Thomas on federal corruption charges. Yoo finished a distant second to Ridley-Thomas in the 2020 10th District election.
The 10th District encompasses the Central L.A. neighborhoods of Arlington Heights, Koreatown, Mid-City, Palms, South Robertson, West Adams and Wilshire Center.
Also headed to a runoff election is the District 1 seat on the Los Angeles school board being vacated by the retirement of longtime local educator George McKenna.
After early results, Khaliid Al-Alim and Sherlett Hendy Newbill were neck-and-neck in the District 1 race, followed closely by DeWayne Davis, an educational strategist, and then by Didi Watts, chief of staff to school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin; Rina Tambor, a tutor; Christian Flagg, a community organizer; and John Aaron Brasfield.
Khaliid Al-Alim, a community activist, is calling for more parent engagement and ending the “school to prison pipeline.” He was endorsed by the influential United Teachers Los Angeles teachers union, but he came under fire recently for resurfaced social media posts, including one that suggested assigning an antisemitic book to students. The candidate apologized for the posts.
In response, UTLA’s Board of Directors voted to suspend campaign activities in District 1.
Newbill has been a teacher and coach at Dorsey High School and had been endorsed by KcKenna.
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson will return to a third and final term as City Councilman from District 8 with resounding support from voters who handed him an easy win in his bid for reelection.
Unofficial results show Harris-Dawson with 78.5% of the vote, trouncing his two opponents, Cliff Smith and Jahan Epps, who were a distant second and third with 14.2% and 7.2% of the vote, respectively.
He will be barred by term limits from seeking the seat again.
County Supervisor Holly Mitchell also easily won election, receiving more than 65% of the vote to defeat Clint Carlton, founder and CEO of Safe Squad Inc., an online safety platform for children and seniors; Daphne Bradford, an education consultant and community organizer; and Katrina Williams, CEO of Changing the Faces of Homelessness, a nonprofit organization.
“From the first time I decided to run for office, I have been driven by a commitment to use public policy and service to make a positive impact that can be seen and felt,” Mitchell said on her campaign’s website.
In other races, District Attorney George Gascón will be heading to a November runoff election in his bid to retain his position, squaring off against Nathan Hochman, a former U.S. assistant attorney general who was the Republican candidate for state attorney general in the 2022 general election.
Gascón topped the field of 11 challengers, but unofficial results showed him with just 21.4% of the vote. Hochman placed second with 17.7%, with the 10 other challengers splitting the remaining ballots. Jonathan Hatami, a child abuse prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office, placed third with 13.4%.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican former Dodger Steve Garvey are preparing for a November runoff election after topping a crowded field of candidates looking to claim the U.S. Senate seat previously held by the late Dianne Feinstein.
Schiff, D-Burbank, led the way among the more than two dozen candidates, earning 33.2% of the vote. Garvey was only about 30,000 votes behind, earning 32.4% of the tally. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, was a distant third at 13.8%, and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, placed fourth at just 7.4%.
In other races of note, a November runoff will be held to decide who replaces state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Inglewood in the 35th state Senate District.
Former U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, will face former Compton City Councilwoman Michelle Chambers in November. The two were the leading vote-getters in a field of eight candidates. Richardson received 26.46% of the vote to Chambers’ 22.67% in unofficial returns.
Bradford could not seek reelection due to the state’s term limit restrictions.
The 57th Assembly District also was impacted by term limits. Incumbent Reggie Jones-Sawyer couldn’t seek reelection.
Headed for a November runoff are Efren Martinez and Sade Elhawary, both Democrats. Martinez received 35.94% of the vote and Elhawary received 27.68%.
