It’s been flying under the radar, but today was the first special Congressional election of 2017 — in the heavily Democratic 34th District of California, in the heart of Los Angeles.
Update: Here are the final results, with 192 / 192 (100%) precincts reporting:
- Jimmy Gomez (Dem) 8,156 28.14%
- Robert Ahn (Dem) 5,504 18.99%
- Maria Cabildo (Dem) 2,778 9.58%
- Sara Hernandez (Dem) 1,525 5.26%
- Arturo Carmona (Dem) 1,520 5.24%
- Wendy Carrillo (Dem) 1,448 5.00%
- Kenneth Mejia (Grn) 1,276 4.40%
- William Morrison (GOP) 1,089 3.76%
Thanks to a ballot initiative that was supposed to “open up” the political process, California has a bizarre nominating process: An open all-party primary, in which the top two vote-getters move on to the general election regardless of party. This has had the expected result: sometimes 3 or 4 Democrats split the left vote, leaving two Republicans with enough votes to elbow them out and go on to the general election. The nightmare scenario in this districts was that the 20 (!) Democrats running would divide the votes so many ways that none would move on the general.
With results just starting to come in, it appears that we won’t have to worry about that. There just aren’t that many Republicans in the district. True, there are only 2 /192 precincts reporting so far, but those early numbers show two Democrats running far ahead of the pack: Robert Ahn, who mobilized the Korean-American vote, is leading with just under 28% [update: In comments, Howie Klein points out that Ahn is only “technically” a Democrat — “He's a wealthy GOP opportunist who switched parties”], and Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (backed by many elected officials, aka “the establishment”) a close second at 26%.
The sole Republican, with the intriguing name of William "Rodriguez" Morrison, is at 5.4%, while Libertarian Angela McCardle has just 1.3%
A trio of Bernie Sanders-style insurgents doesn’t seem to be getting traction: Arturo Carmona was Sanders’ deputy political director (running 5th, with 5%); Green Party candidate Kenneth Mejia (3.8%); and Standing Rock/#NODAPL activist Wendy Carillo (2.6%)
We’ll update as more results trickle in….
With 6/192 precincts now reporting, it’s:
- Robert Ahn (Dem) 3,553 27.49%
- Jimmy Gomez (Dem) 3,402 26.32%
- William Morrison (GOP) 701 5.42%
- Maria Cabildo (Dem) 687 5.32%
- Arturo Carmona (Dem) 646 5.00%
- Sara Hernandez (Dem) 580 4.49%
- Kenneth Mejia (Grn) 486 3.76%
With 39/192 (20%) reporting, and no major changes:
- Jimmy Gomez (Dem) 3,980 26.64%
- Robert Ahn (Dem) 3,766 25.21%
- Maria Cabildo (Dem) 1,003 6.71%
- Arturo Carmona (Dem) 788 5.28%
- William Morrison (GOP) 735 4.92%
- Sara Hernandez (Dem) 667 4.47%
- Kenneth Mejia (Grn) 581 3.89%
With 58 / 192 (30%), and it seems pretty safe to say that the voters will be choosing between Jimmy Gomez and Robert Ahn on June 6.
- Jimmy Gomez (Dem) 4,608 27.65%
- Robert Ahn (Dem) 3,944 23.67%
- Maria Cabildo (Dem) 1,210 7.26%
- Arturo Carmona (Dem) 875 5.25%
- William Morrison (GOP) 796 4.78%
- Sara Hernandez (Dem) 746 4.48%
- Kenneth Mejia (Grn) 647 3.88%
- Wendy Carrillo (Dem) 620 3.72%
With 83 / 192 (43%), the only changes are: #NODAPL activist Wendy Carrillo is moving up (but probably not enough to get on the final ballot), and GOPer Morrison is sliding further behind.
With 139 / 192 (72%) reporting there’s no way we’re going to see a change in the final outcome now:
- Jimmy Gomez (Dem) 6,417 27.74%
- Robert Ahn (Dem) 4,950 21.40%
- Maria Cabildo (Dem) 1,978 8.55%
- Sara Hernandez (Dem) 1,208 5.22%
- Arturo Carmona (Dem) 1,195 5.17%
- Wendy Carrillo (Dem) 1,046 4.52%
- William Morrison (GOP) 940 4.06%
- Kenneth Mejia (Grn) 934 4.04%