The dust was settling Thursday across Los Angeles County, where voters on Tuesday cast their ballots on an array of local, state and congressional races across the region.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters continued its regular process of tabulating, including the count of vote-by-mail ballots returned by Election Day and received within seven days of Election Day, conditional voter registration (same-day registration) ballots, provisional ballots and ballots requiring additional review or verification.
Updated results from the count came shortly after 4 p.m., showing fresh results in races across the county. The state’s Secretary of State’s office also updated their results shortly after 5 p.m.
Most races across the region appeared relatively unchanged since early results were posted Tuesday night. Frontrunners mostly stayed front-runners.
- Also see: June 2 Primary Election Results
But there were a handful of close contests at the local, state and congressional levels as semiofficial results showed Thursday afternoon. In most cases, the front-runner was set, but in some contests, the race for second spots, whether it be for a challenger in the November runoff or for a second city council seat, remained a question mark.
The following updates show the closest races so far, as well the latest on some of the region’s most high-profile contests, including measures.
City Government
Los Angeles
• Mayor
The Los Angeles mayoral race remained one of the most closely watched contests as election officials continued counting ballots. As of Thursday’s semiofficial results, Mayor Karen Bass led with 35.1% of the vote and had already been projected by The Associated Press to advance to a November runoff. Former reality television star Spencer Pratt continued to hold the second position ahead of Councilmember Nithya Raman, with 29.4% and 23.4% of the vote, respectively. Pratt’s lead narrowed to roughly 33,000 votes, down from about 37,000 votes following Wednesday’s update.
Fourth-place finisher Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur and nonprofit leader, issued a statement Thursday thanking supporters and pledging to remain active in addressing city issues.
• City Attorney
As of Thursday’s semiofficial results, Deputy Attorney General Marissa Roy and Deputy District Attorney John McKinney continued to hold the top two positions in the city attorney race, while incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto remained in third place and attorney Aida Ashouri in fourth. Roy led with 38.5% of the vote, followed by McKinney at 32.1%. Feldstein Soto received 19.3%, while Ashouri garnered 10.1%.
• Los Angeles City Council
Most Los Angeles City Council incumbents appeared headed for reelection as of Thursday’s semiofficial results, with several holding comfortable leads well above the threshold needed to avoid November runoffs. The city’s two open-seat contests, however, remained unsettled and appeared likely to continue into the fall.
• Council District 3
As of Thursday’s semiofficial results, businessperson Tim Gaspar continued to lead the race to succeed termed-out Councilmember Bob Blumenfield with 48.7% of the vote, followed by Barri Worth Girvan, former director of community affairs for Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, with 39.5%. Adviser Christopher Robert “C.R.” Celona received 11.8%. Gaspar remained just below the majority threshold needed to avoid a November runoff.
• Council District 9
As of Thursday’s semiofficial results, former Council District 9 deputy chief of staff Jose Ugarte continued to lead the race to succeed termed-out Councilmember Curren Price with 41.0% of the vote, remaining below the threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Co-Director Estuardo Mazariegos followed with 22.9% of the vote, while Jorge Nuño, Martha Sánchez, Elmer Roldan and Jorge Hernandez Rosas trailed behind.
• Measures CB, TC and TT
Los Angeles voters appeared poised to approve Measures CB and TC while rejecting Measure TT. As of Thursday’s semiofficial results, Measure CB, which would apply cannabis business taxes to unlicensed cannabis businesses, received more than 70% support, while Measure TC, which would apply the city’s transient occupancy tax to online travel companies, remained above the majority threshold needed for approval. Measure TT, which would increase the city’s hotel occupancy tax to fund city services, continued to trail, with a majority of voters opposing the proposal.
La Cañada Flintridge
By Thursday, semiofficial returns showed Mayor Kim Bowman had garnered 42.5% of the vote, according to the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder’s Office. But the race for a second available seat was exceedingly close, with Planning Commissioner Nerses Aposhian at 28.9% of the vote hanging on to a slim lead against Quemars Ahmed, a member of the city’s Sustainability and Resilience Commission, at 28.6% — only a 22-vote difference.
Covina
Two political newcomers are vying for the city clerk post, and were in a virtual dead heat, as of release of latest results at 4:11 p.m. Thursday. Susan Zermeno, a 59-year-old retired city planner and land use consultant is in a tight contest with Rosie Richardson, 37, a community outreach manager. The latest results had Zermeno, with 50.4% of the vote and Richardson close behind at 49.5%.
Less than 65 votes separate the two, as of Thursday afternoon, according to the L.A. County Registrar of Voters Office, although Zermeno’s slim lead has been widening since Election Day.
The winner in this contest would succeed Andrew Aleman, who served as city clerk until March, when his term ended. Aleman appears headed to winning the District 5 council seat vacated by Councilmember John King, who is retiring. As of the latest results released on Thursday, Aleman has 62.2% of the vote, in the two-candidate race.
Monterey Park
Here’s one that wasn’t close. But it is high-profile, given that it’s the first of its kind. A community-driven effort in Monterey Park to ban data centers from the city was headed for an historic victory. As of the L.A. County’s latest results posted on Thursday showed, yes on Measure NDC had 86.6% of the votes. The measure appeared on its way to becoming the first instance of a California city instituting a data center ban. Strong local opposition to a proposed data center project late last year in Monterey Park resulted in the measure being placed on the ballot.
Torrance
The Torrance mayoral race was still close as of 4:11 p.m. Thursday, with incumbent Mayor George Chen appearing to maintain a slight lead over City Councilmember Sharon Kalani. According to the Los Angeles County registrar’s most recent update, Chen had 51.35% of the votes while Kalani had 48.65%.
Kalani challenged Chen in the middle of her four-year city councilmember term, speaking out against many of the current mayor’s policies when it comes to public engagement and international relations. Should Kalani win, the District 4 seat will be left vacant. This election acts as Torrance’s General Municipal election, so whomever wins will go on to be the mayor for the next four years.
County Government
• Sheriff
In the race for L.A. County sheriff, incumbent Robert Luna was leading with 44.5% of the vote over the man he defeated four years ago, Alex Villanueva, who had 23.7%, according to the latest returns from the June 2 primary on Thursday.
Eric Strong, who had experience in both the Compton and Pasadena police departments before joining the Sheriff’s Department in 2000, was a distant third with 11.9%.
If Luna does not go above 50% in this primary election, he will most likely face off against Villanueva in a two-person race in the November general election.
• Supervisor
State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo and incumbent Supervisor Lindsey Horvath continued to enjoy big leads, semi-official results from Thursday showed.
Durazo, a Democrat running for the District 1 seat in the San Gabriel Valley, had a commanding lead of 57.1% of the vote. Horvath, whose district spans from West Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley, had garnered 63.6%, enough for her to declare victory earlier this week.
• Measure ER
The half-percentage point sales tax raise for healthcare services in L.A. County was trailing, with 52.3% of votes against, and 47.7% in favor, according to semi-official returns on Thursday. Measure ER needs 50% of the vote plus one for approval.
Congress
For Congress, most races appeared unchanged from their initial result trajectories earlier in the week. But in a highly watched county contest, District 32, the Associated Press on this week called the race, meaning Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman and challenger Republican Larry Thompson survived the primary and are headed to a runoff in November to represent a district that spans from the Palisades on the coast to chunks of the San Fernando Valley. On Thursday, the latest results from the state Secretary of State, shortly after 5 p.m., showed Sherman with 36.7% of the vote, and Thompson with 36.1%.
In District 37, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat, was enjoying a large lead at 52.7% of the vote, in the contest for representing south and southwest L.A., including South Vermont and Culver City. But the race for who will run against her in November was definitely closer, with Republican Baltazar Fedalizo (12.9%) and Democrat Samantha Mota (10.4%) battling it out.
Assembly
• District 66
District 66 was tight among three candidates in the primary for who will be the top two to run-off in November. Four Democrats were competing for the seat, which includes many South Bay communities, stretching from El Segundo and Manhattan Beach southward through Torrance and San Pedro. Leading was Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Paul Seo, at 26.05%; then registered nurse Jessica Zonia Maldonado, 24%; School board trustee Sara Deen at 22.3%.
State Senate
• District 24
Things were close for the ordering of the top two in District 24, a coastal district, from Agoura Hills and Malibu down to Torrance and Rancho Palos Verdes in the South Bay, while stretching up to include Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. The race drew 10 candidates who are all vying to replace termed-out Sen. Ben Allen. And it’s been an expensive race. The Democratic candidates are: Eric Alegria, vice president of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified school board; Amaris Dordar, an attorney; John Erickson, a West Hollywood City Council member; Ellen Evans, a neighborhood association co-founder; Brian Goldsmith, a media consultant; Mike Newhouse, the owner of a small law firm; Dr. Sion Roy, a Santa Monica College Board trustee; and Zennon Ulyate-Crow, executive director of a nonprofit. Real estate agent Kristina Irwin and G. Rick Marshall, a chief financial officer, are running as Republicans. Early results showed the top finishers as Marshall at 19.6%, Goldsmith at 18.9%, Erickson with 17.2% and Irwin at 15.6%.
Staff writers David Wilson, Madeline Armstrong, Anissa Rivera, Teresa Liu, Linh Tat, Steve Scauzillo and Ryan Carter contributed to this report.