An Election Makes You Forget It's Election Day

If you live in Los Angeles County, today may be election day.

Two special elections for Senate are underway: one in Senate District 17 to replace George Runner who won his election last November to join the Board of Equalization and the other in Senate District 28 to replace the late Jenny Oropeza.

In SD 17, environmental foe and former Assemblymember Sharon Runner is largely expected to win, particularly because of her strong name identification and the fact that her husband, George Runner, recently occupied the seat (he was elected to the state Board of Equalization in the fall). Meanwhile in SD 28, CLCV-endorsed candidate Ted Lieu is the favorite to succeed Oropeza after serving the district in the Assembly for five years. In both races if no candidate receives 50%+1 of the vote for their respective elections, there will be need to be a run-off for that seat.

This should be big news. Of course, if you were glancing at the political news today you probably didn’t even realize this was going on. While today’s big California political story is about an election, it’s not about the ones for the state legislature.

Earlier this morning, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced her bid to replace Congresswoman Jane Harman, who is resigning in March to lead the Woodrow Wilson Center in DC. Bowen’s announcement answered a question that many had pondered since rumors of Harman’s departure first surfaced a couple of weeks ago: will she run?

This was not the same question asked about Los Angeles City Councilmember Janice Hahn, who wasted no time in announcing her own bid for the seat and aggressively building up her endorsements. In a matter of a week, Hahn has already received considerable labor support as well as endorsements from LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Bowen, who once represented most of the congressional district as a State Senator in the state legislature and has ran twice as Secretary of State, will be an estimable opponent for Hahn, and she likely has higher name identification in the district, making this race hard to predict.

To make matters more complex, redistricting may redefine the boundaries of the district and the newly implemented top two primary system may affect the strategy and outcome of this race, especially if additional candidates jump in.

CLCV and our partners at the national League of Conservation Voters will be weighing in on this race soon, but until then we’ll be keeping a close eye on new developments and any additional candidates who may join the race. In the mean time, tell us what you think. Who would you support, and who do you think is an environmental champion?

Posted on February 15, 2011
in

ECOVOTE BLOG.

Shopping Basket

The month of March is Public Lands Month, and we’ve got some big goals. We’re pushing for 5 national monument designations while fighting for clean water, Indigenous land protection, ecosystem conservation, and increasing access to nature. 

But we need your help to make these campaigns a success →