Wave Staff Report
LOS ANGELES — The race for mayor between U.S. Rep. Karen Bass and billionaire developer Rick Caruso is the race drawing most of the interest on the Nov. 8 ballot, but there are other key local races.
In the race to replace City Councilman Mike Bonin in the 11th Council District in Los Angeles, civil rights attorney Erin Darling will face Traci Park, a municipal law attorney. Bonin chose not to seek reelection.
Another race with local interest is the battle to replace Sheila Kuehl on the county Board of Supervisors. It pits West Hollywood City Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath against state Sen. Robert Hertzberg.
Hertzberg has spent 14 years in the state Legislature, six in the Assembly from 1996 to 2002 and the last eight years in the state Senate. He was Assembly speaker from 2000 to 2002.
Horvath has served on the West Hollywood City Council since 2015 and served a previous two-year stint from 2009 to 2011. Kuehl has endorsed Horvath.
In Culver City, Alex Fisch is the only City Council incumbent on the ballot, facing five challengers. Daniel Lee is not seeking reelection.
Opposing Fisch are Denice Renteria, a prop master and designer; Khin Khin Gyi, a physician; Freddy Puza, a higher education administrator; Devin Yager, a Realtor and businessman; and Dan O’Brien, a small business owner.
In the race for Los Angeles city attorney, Faisal Gill and Hydee Feldstein Soto are battling to succeed incumbent Mike Feuer, who is termed out of office. Gill finished four percentage points ahead of Soto in a tightly contested June primary.
Certified public accountant and housing justice advocate Kenneth Mejia is running against City Councilman Paul Koretz for city controller. Koretz can’t seek re-election to the City Council because of term limits.
Mejia defeated Koretz by more than 20 percentage points in the June primary.
on their way to a November runoff. Mejia received 38.68% of the vote, compared to 24.98% for Koretz.
In another county race, incumbent Sheriff Alex Villanueva is facing a runoff against retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna.
In the 36th Congressional District. which includes Venice and Mar Vista, Democratic incumbent Ted Lieu will face Republican Joe Collins, a retired Navy man from Los Angeles.
The 28th state Senate District is an open seat because incumbent Sidney Kamlager is running for Congress. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, a Democrat community organizer and educator from Inglewood; is facing Democrat Cheryl Turner, an attorney from Los Angeles. The district includes Mar Vista, Palms, Culver City and parts of South Los Angeles.
In local Assembly races, Rick Chavez Zbur, a Democrat and civil rights attorney; will face Louis Abramson, a Democrat and a community organizer from Los Angeles; in the 51st Assembly District. The district includes parts of West Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Hollywood.
In the 55th Assembly District, Democratic incumbent Isaac Bryan will face Keith Girolamo Cascio, a Republican software developer from Los Angeles. The district includes Culver City, Mar Vista, Palms and parts of South Los Angeles.
The 61st Assembly District seat is open due to the recent resignation of Assemblywoman Autumn Burke. Tina Simone McKinnor, a Democrat and a nonprofit director from Los Angeles; won a June special election to replace Burke and is now running for a full two-year term. Robert Pullen-Myles, a Democrat and mayor of the city of Lawndale, is on the ballot, but Pullen-Myles quit campaigning for the seat in August, choosing to seek reelection in Lawndale. The district includes Venice, Westchester, Inglewood and Hawthorne.
The ballot also includes the race for governor and U.S. Senate as well as other state constitutional offices and county judge races.
Los Angeles County is operating 118 vote centers that will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Nov. 7, allowing residents to cast their in-person ballots. Beginning Nov. 5, about 640 vote centers will be open across the county.
Residents can visit any vote center throughout the county through Election Day Nov. 8, regardless of their place of residence.
On Election Day, the vote centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Residents can locate the nearest vote center by searching online at locator.lavote.gov.
Residents can also return their vote-by-mail ballots at drop boxes located throughout the county.
(Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article mistakenly listed Marina Torres as Faisal Gill’s opponent for Los Angeles city attorney. The Wave apologizes for the error.)
