Though less contested than the high-profile races for who will represent Long Beach in Congress, residents today will also be voting on their State Assemblymembers as well as their State Senators.
The California State Senate is the upper house of our state’s bicameral legislative system and even post-redistricting, Long Beach still consists of three districts—the 33rd, the 34th and the 35th.
Ricardo Lara, a Democratic assemblymember from Bell Gardens, is the front-runner in the 33rd, which makes up a major chunk of the city of Long Beach along with portions of Commerce, Bell Gardens, Lynwood, Huntington Park and South Gate. With an early endorsement from the California Latino Legislative Caucus and nearly half of households in the district Latino, Lara’s opponent Lee Chauser would need an unprecedented third-party turnout to win. Chauser is a write-in candidate with the Peace and Freedom party and a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher whose website lists him as advocating “free education, free healthcare and fair housing for the needy.”
In the 35th State Senate District—which includes Inglewood, Torrance and a small sliver of west Long Beach—Democrat Rod Wright and Republican Charlotte Svolos are running. With only 15 percent of registered voters being Republican, the district is heavily Democratic and despite his pending voter fraud charges (and a career-long list of other charges of political misconduct), Wright is expected to be re-elected over special education teacher Svolos for a second and final Senate term. There is no election this year in the 34th State Senate District.
{loadposition latestnews}In the State Assembly, or lower house, there are also three districts that comprise the City of Long Beach—the 64th, the 63rd and the 70th.
The largest portion of Long Beach is within the new 70th District, which takes the place of the pre-redistricting 54th minus a portion of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The race is also nearly the same as it was in the 54th two years ago with Democratic incumbent Bonnie Lowenthal facing off against former social worker and current substitute teacher, Republican Martha E. Flores-Gibson. Flores-Gibson lost the election 43.4 percent to Lowenthal’s 56.6 and many are predicting that Lowenthal’s solid footing in the district will produce a similar outcome this time.
The 64th and 63rd State Assembly Districts split North Long Beach nearly down the middle. Incumbent Democrat Isadore Hall, III is running unopposed in the 64th, which is comprised of much of his current 52nd District, while Democrat Anthony Rendon and Republican Jack Guerrero run against each other in the 63rd. Rendon is a Lakewood educator and environmentalist; Guerrero is a Cudahy CPA. The 63rd consists mainly of gateway cities such as Lakewood, South Gate and Lynwood and is a safely Democratic district.