Staff and Wire Reports
On an Election Day when the race for president remains too close to call, several area races also will be decided by ballots counted after the election.
The race for Los Angeles County District Attorney may or may not be one of the races.
George Cascón, the former San Francisco district attorney, was leading two-term incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
Gascón had 53.8% of the vote and led Lacey by more than 200,000 votes, but Lacey was not ready to concede the race, telling ABC7, “I expect those numbers to change and to change in my favor.”
Gascón said he was ready to lead criminal justice in a new direction in Los Angeles.
“I think that this has been a campaign that has been driven by passion, by an honest commitment to reimagine our criminal justice system, moving away from punishment,” he said. “It’s really about redemption.
Another county race saw a surprise as state Sen. Holly Mitchell easily defeated Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson. Mitchell had more than a 100,000-vote lead on Wesson after the vote count concluded Nov. 3, with thousands more votes waiting to be counted.
In local race, several incumbent city council members appeared to be losing in unofficial tallies.
In Alhambra, incumbent Jeff Maloney was reelected in District 3 while incumbent David Mejia was being unseated by Sasha Renee Perez in District 4. Perez had a 5,000-vote lead.
Bell Gardens had a race that was too close to call, with three candidates within 300 votes of each other for the second open seat. Jorge Chaves had almost a 600-vote lead over Jennifer Rodriguez, a former council member who resigned her seat. Maria Pulido was nine votes behind Rodriguez and Christian Mendez was 235 votes behind Pulido.
Incumbent Pedro Aceituno was running fifth, 360 votes behind Mendez.
In Bellflower, Victor Sanchez easily won election in the open District 4 seat, defeating four other candidates. Ray Hamada and Dan Coops were unopposed in Districts 1 and 2.
In Cudahy, Daisy Lomeli and incumbent Jose Gonzalez were the leaders in a five-candidate field. Chris Garcia did not seek reelection.
In Downey, Mayor Blanca Pacheco was reelected to her District 1 seat. Catherine Alvarez has a 414-vote lead over Eric Pierce in District 3 and Mario Trujillo had a big lead in District 5.
In Lynwood, where incumbents Sal Alatorre and Aide Castro were termed out of office, Rita Soto and Oscar Flores were the two leading vote-getters. Flores led Lorraine Avila Moore by 580 votes.
In Maywood, Jessica Torres appeared headed to victory as the top vote-getter with Frank Garcia, Carmen Perez and Carlos Alvarez all in the running for a second open seat.
In Montebello, incumbent David Torres appeared headed for reelection but incumbent Jack Hadjinian lost his reelection bid. Scarlett Peralta was the leading vote-getter with Hadjinian a distant third.
In Pico Rivera, appointed incumbent Monica Sanchez and challenger Erik Lutz were apparent winners in two of three open seats, while incumbent Brett Tercero was locked in a three-way battle for third place.
Andrew Lara, who ran on a slate with Tercero, had 5,823 votes, followed by Luis Alvarado with 5,624 and Tercero with 5,555.
In Santa Fe Springs, incumbents Joe Zamora and William Rounds were locked in a three-way race for two seats. Zamora had 2,483 votes, Jay Sarno had 2,474 votes and Rounds had 2,399.
Democrats won across the board in area congressional and state Assembly races.
The Calderon family continued its run of having a member in the state Legislature since 1983 when Liza Calderon was elected to the 57th Assembly District seat, replacing her stepson, Ian who stepped down after four terms.
Liza’s husband and Ian’s father Charles Calderon served in the Assembly from 1983 to 1991, the state Senate from 1992 to 1998 and the Assembly again from 2006 to 2012.
Charles’ two brothers, Tom and Ron, also served in the Legislature.
