It was not a good day for incumbents in LA County Tuesday. Nearly 40 percent of incumbents lost their re-elections in 19 city races from Rancho Palos Verdes to the Gateway and San Gaberiel Valley. The Registrar is reporting just 9.08% turnout, evidently its a cranky bunch.
Some races were not exactly upsets. In the City of Hawthorne, embattled Mayor Chris Brown lost his seat to current Councilmember Alex Vargas, who won the seat with almost three times as many votes as Brown. El Monte's Bart Patel struggled with press surrounding a city loan. That said, a 40 percent loss rate is notable. CityNews watches these things and generally sees turnover at about 30%, including term-outs. The losses also impacted a wide range of cities, and diverse officeholders in wealthy, middle and working class cities.
An interesting note on El Monte as well... Bart Patel could yet find his way back to the council if provisional ballots help Councilwoman Norma Macias catch Mayor Andre Quintero for the directly elected Mayoral seat. Quintero is holding on by about 35 votes as of Wednesday. Patel is holding the 3rd place finish for 2 seats. So as they say, it ain't over till its over, and the provisionals are in.
Here's the full list of incumbents currently out of the running. Though all precincts are reporting, some races may yet shift on provisional ballots.
- El Monte Councilmember Bart Patel (probably, but see above)
- Hermosa Beach Councilmember Peter Tucker
- Hawaiian Gardens Councilmember Victor Farfan
- Hawthorne Mayor Chris Brown
- Hawthorne Councilmember Olivia Valentine
- Maywood Councilmember Veronica Guardado
- Maywood Councilmember Oscar Magaña
- Montebello Councilmember Christina Cortez
- Rancho Palos Verdes Councilmember Jim Knight
- San Marino Councilmember Dennis Kneier
- San Marino Councilmember Eugene Sun
- South El Monte Councilmember Willhans Ili
- West Covina Councilmember Fredrick Sykes
UPDATE:
CityNews initially forgot a few LA County cities that do not go through the County Clerk for their elections.
Those cities include Calabasas, Westlake Village, and Irwindale.
Calabasas had two City Council seats and three candidates. Incumbent Fred Gaines will be returning and planning commissioner Alicia Weintraub pulled in the most votes overall. Attorney Steven Roseman came up roughly 100 votes short.
Westlake Village also had two seats to elect. Mayor Ned Davis won re-election comfortably and challenger Kelly Honig got the second seat.
Irwindale's three City Council seats up for grabs saw two incumbents, Mark Breceda and Manuel Garcia, get their seats back with the third seat being marked as too close to call with just a three vote gap between Larry Burrola and Fred Barbosa.