LA County Voters to Head to Polls Tuesday

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Los Angeles County voters will go to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in local, state and national political races, as well as on two statewide ballot initiatives and several local initiatives.

Without a high-stakes presidential primary -- Republican Mitt Romney has already earned the delegates he needs to claim the GOP nomination -- voter turnout is expected to be low.

The county's 4.5 million registered voters will have the chance to select a presidential candidate, a U.S. Senate candidate and whether to approve two state ballot measures -- one to add a $1 tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research and another to reduce the amount of time politicians can serve in the
state Legislature from 14 years to 12 years.   

Six candidates are vying to become Los Angeles County's top prosecutor. Voters across the county will also weigh in on a total of 18 U.S. House, seven
state Senate, 24 state Assembly and three Los Angeles County supervisorial
races.

The election will mark the first major test of the state's "top two" primary system approved by California voters in 2010. Under the system, only the top two vote-getters, regardless of political party, will advance to a Nov. 6 runoff. The system does not apply to local, presidential or central committee races.

The system was intended to produce more moderate candidates, said Fernando Guerra, a Loyola Marymount politics professor and director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles.

The intention, however, is likely to be counteracted by low voter turnout.

"Voters that are motivated by ideology are still going to dominate this election," Guerra said.

Guerra said the "top two" runoff system is also likely to devastate third parties.

"I predict there will not be a single third-party candidate on the (runoff) ballot in November for the first time in decades, in almost 50 years," Guerra said.

In some cases that could leave as much as 10 percent of the electorate up for grabs during a runoff election.

Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, said it could force candidates to communicate more with voters.

"It's not just a quantity of voter communication. It's the nature of that communication as well," Schnur said. "Candidates will find that they can no longer rely solely on the most ideologically intense members of their own party. They will be forced to reach out to a broader range of voters."

The results of the every-10-year redistricting process also affected the makeup of candidates on Tuesday's ballot. The 2010-11 redistricting, the practice of redrawing political district boundaries to reflect changing demographics, was conducted by a non-partisan citizens commission, rather than lawmakers. In some cases the process forced incumbents of the same party into the same district.

Baldwin Park will vote for new representatives for Congress and Assembly.

The local races and the candidates include:

United States Representative – 32nd District (Includes Baldwin Park, Glendora, Azusa, Covina, and San Dimas)

Grace F. Napolitano - Democratic
P.O. Box 408, Norwalk, CA 90650
(562) 801-2134

G. Bill Gonzalez – Democratic
527 N Azusa Ave. 365, Covina, CA 9172

David L. Miller - Republican
1146 E Route 66, Glendora CA 91740
david@vote4miller.net
www.vote4miller.net

State Assembly – 48th District  (Includes Glendora, Azusa, Covina, Baldwin Park, and West Covina)

Roger Hernandez - Democratic
1004 West Covina Pkwy 457, West Covina, CA 91790
(626) 915-3100
hernandezforassembly@gmail.com
rogerhernandezforassembly.com

Joe M. Gardner – Republican
1146 E Route 66, Glendora, CA 91740
(626) 407-7571

Mike Meza – None
333 N Azusa Ave, Azusa, CA 91702
(626) 969-9969
mike@mikemeza.org
www.mikemeza.org

For more information on the candidates or the June 5 primary election visit the Los Angeles County Clerk website.

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