On Tuesday, San Gabriel Valley and Whittier-area voters collectively face dozens of local races, where candidates are vying for city council seats, school boards and water district boards. Throw dozens of local measures up for a vote into the mix, and the Nov. 5 presidential election is shaping up to be consequential in the region.
At the national level, as the presidential race plays out, elections across the area will also play out. In this overview, we don’t have enough space for all of them, but there’s sprinkling of them to take note of here.
Of note, consider the congressional level, where pockets of the San Gabriel Valley are guaranteed new faces as their representatives.
After a 25-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives, Grace Napolitano, 87, will not seek reelection, ending a run of more than a dozen terms in office.
The seat represents several San Gabriel Valley cities, including El Monte, Baldwin Park, West Covina, Monrovia, Azusa, La Verne and Irwindale.
Democrat Gil Cisneros, of Covina, and Republican Daniel Jose Bocic Martinez, of La Verne, are on the ballot Nov. 5 to replace Napolitano.
Cisneros previously served in Congress representing California’s 39th Congressional District and served in the Biden Administration as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
According to his campaign website, Cisneros received endorsements from outgoing Congresswoman Napolitano, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
Martinez has worked as a teacher and lawyer in the District 31 and is currently director of legal services for House of Ruth, which serves women and families dealing with domestic abuse. His campaign website does not include endorsements.
Like many races at the federal level, immigration, national security, the economy and reproductive rights are top of mind.
At the state level, voters also face new faces they’ll need to decide on.
In District 25, Crescenta Valley Town Councilmember Elizabeth Wong Ahlers, a Republican, is battling it out with Alhambra Mayor Sasha Renée Pérez, a Democrat.
Senate District 25 represents parts of the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Pomona valleys in northeastern L.A. County. The district includes all or parts of Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Monrovia, Glendora and Claremont.
The two beat out three other candidates in the primary to advance to the general election. Whoever wins will replace Sen. Anthony Portantino, who is termed-out.
Another longtime state legislator, Chris Holden, is also terming out of his state Assembly seat, representing District 41.
Former Altadena City Councilmember Michelle Del Rosario Martinez, a Republican, is running against Democrat John Harabedian, former mayor of Sierra Madre.
This district represents voters in Pasadena, Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge, Monrovia and Sierra Madre in L.A. County and Rancho Cucamonga, Wrightwood and San Antonio Heights in San Bernardino County.
In Assembly District 56, Lisa Calderon, D-City of Industry, is looking to defend her seat against challenger Jessica Martinez, a Republican Whittier city councilperson. The district includes El Monte, Whittier, Pico Rivera, La Puente and Diamond Bar, among others L.A. County cities.
At the state level, immigration, infrastructure, homelessness, the environment and education have long been issues on the campaign trail.
Those issues overlap with local city councils and school boards, where candidates have faced off over state funding, how to allocate and maintain city funds, school security, declining school enrollment, affordable housing and how to deal with homeless camps.
And for some local councils and boards, the voting blocs on local governing boards are at stake.
Take West Covina.
The result of the upcoming West Covina City Council elections this week could see the balance of the dais shift with two incumbents seeking reelection.
In District 1, incumbent Brian Calderón Tabatabai is running against West Covina Planning Commissioner Brian Gutierrez.
In District 3, John Shewmaker and Cecilia Munoz are challenging incumbent Rosario Diaz.
The results could determine the majority bloc on the council. For instance, on the current council, it’s been 4-1 or 3-2 in favor of the city starting its own public health department and against Pathway Home, a supportive housing project. Diaz has voted with Wu and Lopez Viado, with Cantos usually being with that group and sometimes going with Tabatabai.
Montebello voters will be deciding on who to place on the City Council and potentially whether to remove a sitting councilmember from office.
District 5 Councilmember Angie Jimenez faces the only recall in Los Angeles County on Election Day.
District 2 incumbent Scarlet Peralta faces the challenge of former Montebello Councilmember Jack Hadjinian.
In Pasadena, while no City Council seats are at stake, there are an array of city measures on the ballot.
Pasadena residents will decide on six different measures in the November election, including a $195 million general obligation bond to fund seismic retrofitting of the city’s nearly century-old Central Library.
The bond, or Measure PL, approved by the Pasadena City Council in a 6-2 vote in July, would generate around $12 million per year. If approved, property owners would be required to pay up to $28.90 per $100,000 of a parcel’s assessed value for more than 30 years to cover the bond’s costs.
Funds for the Pasadena Central Library Earthquake Retrofit, Repair, Upgrade Measure, or Measure PL, would be used to retrofit Pasadena’s cherished 97-year-old Central Library. The community landmark has been closed since May 2021 after an assessment revealed significant earthquake vulnerabilities.
Another measure — Measure PC — would amend the Charter to establish term limits for the mayor and the city’s councilmembers.
In the city’s school district, where like many districts, declining enrollment, budget constraints and teacher retention, have marked recent years, voters will decide between two candidates in each of the District 2 and District 6 races, with an incumbent running in both contests.
Incumbent Jennifer Hall Lee faces challenger Juan Carlos Perez for District 2, and in District 6, incumbent Tina Wu Fredericks is defending her seat against Lisa Kroese.
PUSD serves more than 14,000 students from preschool and transitional kindergarten through 12th grades across a 76-square-mile area that covers Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre and unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County.
In recent years, the district has struggled with declining student enrollment caused in part by rising living and housing costs, as well as competition from private and charter schools. It has already cut nearly 200 positions in March, but budget reports indicate further financial uncertainties lie ahead as the district continues to battle declining enrollment and underperforming academic outcomes amid the loss of federal pandemic funding and anticipated state funding reductions.
In addition, a 115-unit workforce housing project, for which the PUSD Board recently approved a fast-tracked entitlement process, has put the board at odds with some Pasadena City Council members, despite support for workforce housing from most candidates.
Out of the same district has came an array of local measures, which the district’s voters are facing.
Measure R, a general obligation (GO) bond, would raise $900 million by levying property owners up to $60 per $100,000 of assessed property value per year, with an estimated repayment period of between 20 to 25 years. The bond is expected to generate $57 million annually for the district.
On the other hand, Measure EE is a parcel tax that will raise around $5 million annually by imposing $90 per parcel tax for eight years. This applies to residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial properties within the district. The tax will expire after eight years and cannot be renewed without voters approval.
But Pasadena isn’t the only part of the region with measures on the ballot.
From Duarte to Monterey Park, and from Santa Fe Springs to Puente Hills, voters are being asked to weigh in on an array of local measures, from upgrading local schools to enhancing infrastructure and public safety.
Many of the measures involve bond measures, basically local governments asking voters for a loan. Other measures asking voters to approve tax increases, some on sales, some on property, to help fund what many officials say are essential upgrades.
They include:
In Duarte, for instance, Measure QQ (Cannabis Retail Sales and Tax) voters are deciding whether to allow the city to permit two storefronts that sell cannabis (marijuana) and if so, to tax them up to 10% of what they sell. This would add up to about $2.5 million per year and would help fund city services.
In Monterey Park, Measure LG would raise the city’s transient occupancy tax paid by hotel/motel and short-term regal guests in order to maintain 911 emergency response and fire protection, increase neighborhood police patrols, maintain parks, support youth, afterschool and senior programs and repairing streets and potholes. Short-term guests would pay 12% to 13% of the cost of their stay, providing approximately $500,000 in funding annually.
The Mt. San Antonio Community College District is requesting voters, through Measure V, to give the nod to funding to upgrades to education facilities through a bond, funded by property owners paying $15 per $100,000 their property is worth.
The Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority seeks voter approval of Measure PH, which the Authority says will preserve protect local natural lands by clearing emergency access roads for first responders and brush that could lead to forest fires, prevent and remove homeless encampments, vandalism and illegal dumping and maintain park ranger patrols for fire safety.
And in South Pasadena, Measure SP, would lead to an ordinance to not allow 45-foot-high buildings in all single-family residential zones, maintain local control over local land use, retain/attract local businesses, and restrict multi-unit housing in order to protect South Pasadena’s single-family neighborhood residential character.
Staff writers Teresa Liu, David Wilson and Jenna Mindel contributed to this report.