BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Polls have closed in Los Angeles County and results are rolling in for the presidential primary and scores of local and statewide races, including the race for two open Beverly Hills City Council seats.
Scroll down for real-time Los Angeles County election results.
In the Beverly Hills race, the first batch of ballots showed Craig Corman in the lead with 1,835 votes, followed by Mary Wells with 1,341 and Alissa Roston with 1,215, according to county election data updated at 10:32 p.m.
Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The results are very preliminary: On a countywide level, the number of ballots counted by 8:35 p.m. amount to less than 12 percent of eligible voters. There’s still many ballots left to count and it could take days for winners to be declared in some races. For comparison, nearly 76 percent of eligible LA County voters cast ballots in the 2020 presidential primary, according to county election officials.
The Registrar of Voters and Patch will update the results throughout the night as votes are tallied, and the page will be refreshed for the latest updates.
Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Select “Jump To Contest/Measure” in the dropdown below to choose results for a specific race, or scroll for the full primary election results:
Can’t see the results? Click here for all March 5, 2024 Primary Los Angeles County election updates.
Here’s a rundown of all the races impacting Beverly Hills:
City Council
Ten candidates are vying for the two City Council seats being vacated by Mayor Julian Gold and Councilmember Lili Bosse.
Eight of the ten candidates answered Patch’s questions about their key priorities, their professional and political history and the best advice they ever received. Check out the candidate profiles below, listed in the order they appear on the ballot:
Congress
Rep. Ted Lieu, D, who currently represents Beverly Hills as part of the 36th Congressional District, is facing a challenge from three other candidates:
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State Assembly
The majority of Beverly Hills is within state Assembly District 51. Incumbent Democratic Assemblymemeber Rick Chavez Zbur is facing a challenge from two Republicans: Shiva Bagheri and Stephan Hohil.
Some of the city is within Assembly District 55: Incumbent Democratic Assemblymemeber Isaac Bryan faces a challenge from Republican Keith Cascio.
District Attorney
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón faces 11 challengers in Tuesday’s primary election, including five members of his office: Jonathan Hatami, a child abuse prosecutor; Lloyd “Bobcat” Masson, a cold case prosecutor; John McKinney, supervising district attorney; Maria Ramirez, the head deputy DA; and Eric Siddall, a violent crimes prosecutor.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judges Debra Archuleta and Craig J. Mitchell are also on the ballot, along with David S. Milton, who retired as a Superior Court judge in 2014.
The other candidates are Jeff Chemerinsky, an assistant U.S. attorney; Nathan Hochman, a former U.S. assistant attorney general who was the Republican candidate for state attorney general in the 2022 general election; and criminal defense attorney Dan Kapelovitz.
Proposition 1
In 2004, California voters approved a tax on millionaires to finance mental health services. The tax raises $2-$3 billion annually to fund mental health programs through local government. Proposition 1 would require counties to spend 60 percent of the money on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems.
Beverly Hills is in represented on the LA County Board of Supervisors by the third district Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath, whose seat is not up for election this year.
Presidential Primary
The primary will decide which candidate gets California’s 169 delegates — the largest haul of any state — to the Republican and Democratic national conventions, to be held in July and August, respectively.
All three top contenders have been stumping in California: President Joe Biden, Republican contender Nikki Haley and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
In California, the political parties determine whether they will have open or closed presidential parties, meaning only the party’s registered voters can pick the winning candidates.
The Green Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and the Republican Party are all holding closed primaries in California
Furthermore, the state’s GOP changed the rules to winner-takes-all, so that any candidate who gets a majority wins all of the delegates. Previously, the delegates were divided up based on the number of congressional districts each Republican won.
The change, pushed by the Donald Trump campaign, raises the stakes in California’s primary and favors the frontrunner in the Republican primary, which also happens to be Trump.
The American Independent Party, the Democratic Party, and the Libertarian Party hold a modified-closed primary, which means they allow No Party Preference voters to vote in their primaries.
Statewide Primary Elections
All 52 of California’s Congressional districts will have primary races March 5 along with one U.S. Senate race. With frontrunners Trump and Biden expected to sail to victory in California’s presidential primary, the real suspense centers on the Golden State’s senate race.
For the senate race, California has an open primary, which means only the top two vote-getters in the primary election, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election.
All election season, polls have shown Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) in the lead with former Los Angeles Dodger Steve Garvey (R), Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine ), and Rep. Barbara Lee (Oakland) vying for second place to make it into the general election. However, last week Garvey pulled into first place after consolidating conservative support and with a little help from an ad campaign by Schiff aimed at raising Garvey’s profile over Porter, who is seen as the bigger threat in the general election.
According to a new polls from UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, Garvey pulled into first place with the support of 27 percent of likely voters compared to Schiff’s 25 percent and Porter’s 19 percent.
Just weeks earlier a California Elections and Policy Poll released in February had Porter and Garvey deadlocked in the race for second place.
Schiff went into February far in the lead with 25 percent of likely voters while Porter and Garvey, each garnered support from 15 percent of likely voters. Lee was polling in fourth place at 7 percent of the vote, according to the poll.
It’s been decades since a Republican won statewide office in California, and that may be why the Schiff campaign is expending considerable capital to raise Garvey’s profile among Republican voters through a series of expensive Fox News ads, touting him as too conservative for California.
Garvey, with just over $300,000 in his war chest, can’t afford such ads.
Porter blasted the tactic as a “brazenly cynical” bid for Schiff to handpick his opponent in the general election, counting on deep blue California to reject any statewide Republican candidate in the general election.
According to Politico, Porter and Schiff booked a staggering $25 million in airtime. Schiff has nabbed the bulk of the Democratic establishment endorsements such as Nancy Pelosi, United Farm Workers and the Los Angeles Times editorial board. Porter, a darling of progressives, garnered endorsements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, CA Attorney General Rob Bonta, and consumer advocacy groups.
The senate candidates are:
Patch Staffer Michael Wittner and City News Service contributed to this report.
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