Wave Staff and Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES — Former City Councilwoman Jan Perry holds a 1,085-vote lead over Culver City Mayor Daniel W. Lee for the second spot on the Nov. 8 ballot in the 37th Congressional District, a seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Karen Bass.
State Sen. Sydney Kamlager leads the field of seven candidates seeking to succeed with 41.7% of the vote, according to unofficial results released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk early June 8. Updated figures will be released June 10.
Perry received 18.5% of the vote and Lee 16.2%. Each of the top three candidates is a Democrat. All four other candidates had less than 10% of the vote.
In another South Los Angeles election race, City Councilman Curren Price won re-election to a third term in the 9th Council District with a victory over Dulce Vasquez, director of strategic partnerships for Arizona State University.
Price received 66.46% of the vote.
Bass endorsed Kamlager to represent the predominantly Democratic district that stretches from South Los Angeles to Culver City.
Kamlager said she is focused on “expanding voting rights,” “reproductive justice,” “health care for all,” “criminal justice reform focused on diversion, redemption and rehabilitation,” “job creation to create economic justice and opportunities for all communities” and “innovative investment in housing.”
Kamlager was elected to the state Senate in a 2021 special election to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, after serving in the Assembly since 2018. Kamlager was a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees from 2015-18.
Perry pledged that, if elected, her top priorities as a congresswoman would be “preserving the environment, improving education, stopping an alarming increase in violent crime, expanding access to affordable, quality health care, and ensuring that America pursues a foreign policy that is sane, just, and maintains our strong support for our allies.”
“I look forward to a spirited exchange of ideas” leading up to November, Perry said. “We must discuss how to bring jobs and affordable housing into our community, address the homeless crisis that plagues our neighborhoods and debate ideas on how to provide much-needed relief from record-breaking gas prices and inlfation.
Perry served on the Los Angeles City Council from 2001-13. She unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2013 and the Second District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2020.
She served as general manager of the Los Angeles Economic & Workforce Development Department from 2013-2018.
Perry’s endorsements include Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and former Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, who represented the district from 2001-11.
In a special election to fill the seat vacated earlier this year by the resignation of Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, nonprofit director/businesswoman Tina Simone McKinnor held a 1,033-vote lead over Lawndale Mayor Robert Pullen-Miles.
McKinnor has 51.8% of the vote, compared to 48.2% for Pullen-Miles, a fellow Democrat, in the 62nd Assembly District. The winner will serve until Dec. 4.
The two will meet again in the Nov. 8 general election for the full two-year term representing the redrawn 61st Assembly District, with Pullen-Miles receiving 37.3% of the vote in the five-candidate field and McKinnor 29.6%.
The special election in the district stretching from Venice on the north, Lawndale on the south, the unincorporated Westmont and West Athens areas on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west was triggered by Burke’s resignation Feb. 1 citing family priorities.
She later joined the Sacramento-based integrated government affairs, strategic consulting and crisis communication firm Axiom Advisors as a principal.
McKinnor topped the field of four Democrats in the April 5 special election with 39% of the vote with Pullen-Miles finishing second with 34.6%.
McKinnor is the director of civic engagement for LA Voice, which describes itself as “a multi-racial, multi-faith organization with a mission to transform Los Angeles into a county that reflects the human dignity of all communities, with racial and economic equity and abundant life for all.”
McKinnor is a former operational director for the California Democratic Party and chief of staff to several Assembly members.
Pullen-Miles, Burke’s district director, announced his candidacy for the seat Feb. 1 and received Burke’s endorsement that day.
He was elected mayor of Lawndale in 2014, the first Black person to hold the position. He was previously elected to three terms on the City Council.
Pullen-Miles also worked on the staffs of then-Assemblyman Carl Washington and then-state Sen. Jenny Oropeza.
