Wave Staff and Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES — Early voting continues throughout Los Angles as the March 5 primary election approaches.
Los Angeles County opened 119 early voting centers Feb. 24 for residents to cast in-person ballots. That number will grow to about 600 March 2. The centers are open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Election Day, the centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voters can cast their ballot at any center, regardless of where they live in the county. A list of locations can be found online at locator.lavote.gov.
County election officials say people who missed the voter-registration deadline but still want to vote can register at a vote center and cast a provisional ballot.
In addition to the presidential primary elections, the ballot contains two South Los Angeles City Council races, a race to replace veteran educator George McKenna on the Los Angeles school board and vacancies created by term limits in the state Assembly and Senate.
In the 10th Council District for the Los Angeles City Council, Heather Hutt is seeking her first full term in office after replacing Mark Ridley-Thomas in 2022.
Hutt is facing four challengers in the race including Korean businesswoman Grace Yoo, who finished second to Ridley-Thomas in 2020; and Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer who is termed out of the Assembly after 12 years.
Also on the ballot are Pastor Eddie Hernandez and Aura Vasquez.
In the 8th City Council District, incumbent Marqueece Harris-Dawson is being challenged by Cliff Smith and Jahan Epps.
District 1 of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education has no incumbent this year because McKenna is retiring at the end of his term.
Seven people have filed to replace him including Sherlett Hendy Newbill, DeWayne Davis, Didi L. Watts, John Aaron Brasfield, Kahlid A. Al-Alim, Christian Flagg and Rina Tambor.
The 35th state Senate District seat is being vacated due to term limits. Steven Bradford will step down next year after 12 years in the state Legislature. Seeking to replace him are former Compton City Councilwoman Michelle Chambers, former U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, former Carson Mayor Albert Robles, El Camino Community College District trustee Nilo Vega Michelin, Lamar Lyons, a financial housing consultant; Alex Montiero, a nonprofit director; James Arlandus Spencer, an environmental consultant; and Jennifer Trichelle-Marie Williams, an accountant small businesswoman.
Spencer is a Republican, the other seven are Democrats.
Seeking to replace Jones-Sawyer in the 57th Assembly District are Greg Akili, a nonprofit director; Sade Elhawary, an educator and community organizer; Efren Martinez, a business owner; Tara Perry, who describes herself as a gentrifiction crusader and reparationist; and Dulce Vasquez, a neighborhood council member.
County Supervisor Holly Mitchell is being challenged for re-election in the 2nd Supervisorial District by Daphne Bradford, an educator from Inglewood; Clint Carlton, a nonprofit director from Marina Del Rey; and Katrina Williams, a CEO who didn’t list a place of residence.
In area congresional races, Democratic incumbent Sydney Kamlager-Dove is being challenged in the 37th Congressional District by Adam J. Carmichael, a businessman and software architect; Baltazar Fedalizo, a private equity businessman; and John Thompson Parker, a working class advocate and a member of the Peace and Freedom Party. Carmichael is a Republican, Fedalizo is a Democrat.
In the 43rd Congressional District longtime U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters is being challenged by Gregory Edward Jackson Cheadle, a program educator; David Knight, an education business owner from Inglewood; Chris Wiggins, a state caucus chair, and Steve Williams, a businessman and community organizer from Torrance. Williams and Knight are Republicans, Cheadle and Wiggins are Democrats.
In the 44th Congressional District. which includes Compton and Carson, Democratic incumbent Nanette Diaz Barragan, is being challenged by Republican Roger Groh.
In other state Assembly races, Democratic incumbent Isaac Bryan is being challenged by Republican Keith Cascio, a software developer, in the 55th Assembly District.
In the 61st Assembly District, first-term incumbent Tina McKinnor is being challenged by restaurant owner Alfonso Hernandez. Both are Democrats.
Democratic incumbent Mike Gipson is unopposed for re-election in the 65th Assembly District.
A large field of candidates is running for the U.S. Senate seat formerly occupied by the late Dianne Feinstein, who died last September. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to replace Feinstein but Butler is not seeking a full term.
The four frontrunners in the Senate race are U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, all Democrats; and former Dodger Steve Garvey, a Republican.
In the Los Angeles County race for district attorney, controversial incumbent George Gascaón is facing 11 potential challengers.
The field includes Maria Ramirez, the head deputy district attorney; supervising district attorney John McKinney; and prosecutors Jonathan Hatami, Lloyd “Bobcat” Masson and Eric Siddall, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.
Nathan Hochman, a former U.S. assistant attorney general who was the Republican candidate for state attorney general in the 2022 general election; Jeff Chemerinsky, an assistant U.S. attorney; and criminal defense attorney Dan Kapelovitz are among the other potential candidates who have completed the filing process.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judges Debra Archuleta and Craig J. Mitchell also have filed to run. Under the California Constitution, judges are eligible to run for office as long as they take a leave of absence without pay, Rob Oftring, the communications director of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County told City News Service. David S. Milton, who retired as a Superior Court judge March 25, 2014, also has completed the filing process.
And in a judicial race of note, former Los Angeles County prosecutor Christopher Darden, who prosecuted the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995, is running for Office No. 130 in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Darden, who is now in private practice and also teaches law, is in a five-person field with D. Carlos Dammeier, Leslie Gutierrez, a deputy district attorney; Jacob Lee and Osman Taher.
