It came as little surprise that Democrats Ricardo Lara and Bonnie Lowenthal won their respective Long Beach seats in the State Senate and Assembly Tuesday night. Lowenthal ran against Republican Martha Flores-Gibson in a race that was eerily similar to the same face-off two years ago where Flores-Gibson lost by 20 points. And Lara ran against a third-party Peace and Freedom candidate who earned less than 20 percent of the vote.
Lara will represent the largely Latino, newly drawn 33rd State Senate District which includes a majority of Long Beach and Signal Hill, parts of Lakewood and Paramount, as well as Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood, South Gate, Vernon and Walnut Park. His landslide win—an overwhelming 80.5 percent of the vote—was expected given his opponent’s more radical stances.
The restructured 54th District became the 70th District this year for the Assembly and this election brought forth the two same opponents from two years ago: incumbent Lowenthal and Republican teacher Martha Flores-Gibson. After backing out of the running for the 33rd Senate seat late last year, Lowenthal opted to instead run for a final term in the Assembly, and succeeded with a 65.2 percent to 34.8 percent win over Flores-Gibson.