A man casts his ballot for Tuesday’s election at the voting center at Pacific Community Center and Park.
Voters returned a number of local incumbents to their state and federal seats Tuesday at a comfortable margin, while Los Angeles County will see changeover at the district attorney’s office.
Statewide, voters also defeated Proposition 15 — a measure supported by both the City Council and the Glendale Unified School District that would have increased property tax funding at a local level — while approving Proposition 17, which restores voting rights for convicted felons after their prison terms end. As of press deadline on Friday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden looked poised to unseat President Donald Trump after taking or maintaining vote leads in key electoral states Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Laura Friedman, a former Glendale councilwoman, will cruise to her third term representing District 43 in the state Assembly after receiving 129,255 votes (70.7%) as of Friday, against Republican challenger Mike Graves’ 53,571. Anthony Portantino, a La Cañada Flintridge Democrat, also was reelected to his second term representing District 25 — which includes Glendale — in the state Senate with 236,728 votes, good for 65.81%, against GOP opponent Kathleen Hazelton.
Congressman Adam Schiff also will continue holding the 28th Congressional District, which includes Glendale. The Burbank Democrat garnered 210,462 votes, or 73.58%, against Republican challenger Eric Early.
George Gascon will be L.A. County’s new district attorney after unseating incumbent Jackie Lacey in a 53.72-46.28% margin. Gascon, a former police chief in Mesa, Arizona, and San Francisco and onetime San Francisco district attorney, received flipped endorsements from Schiff and Friedman in June as Lacey’s record on prosecuting allegations of police brutality came under scrutiny.
A majority of Glendale voters went with Friedman, Portantino, Schiff and Gascon, according to the L.A. County Registrar’s Office. Additionally, Glendale voters also went with Biden for president.
A majority of the city’s voters also supported Prop. 15, in spite of its defeat statewide. GUSD heartily supported the measure, which was seen as a step to undo tax revenue distortions created by Prop. 13 in 1978, but attracted splintered support by the City Council. The city overwhelmingly supported Prop. 17 as well.
App-based companies such as Uber and Lyft scored a major win in California with 58% of the voters approving Proposition 22, which grants the companies the right to define their drivers as independent contractors rather than as employees. The successful, nearly $200 million campaign overrides last year’s Assembly Bill 5, which would have forced the tech companies to comply with classifying gig drivers as employees. Voters in Glendale supported this proposition.
Glendale voters also supported Measure J, a county measure that requires officials to allocate no less than 10% of the county’s general fund to invest in alternatives to incarceration and social services. L.A. County approved the measure with nearly 57% support.
Oscar Areliz contributed to this report.
