Few Surprises on an Otherwise Sad Election Night

Photo by Phillip Cooke
By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

President and Vice President

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Hillary Clinton (D)    1,601,382     71.48%

Donald J. Trump (R)          525,308        23.45%

Gary Johnson (L)    55,104          2.46%

Jill Stein (G)  45,469          2.03%

Gloria Estela La Riva (P)   13,060          .58%

United States Senator

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Kamala D. Harris (D)         1,246,356     61.04%

Loretta L. Sanchez (D)      795,561        38.96%

United States Representative, 33rd District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Ted W. Lieu (D)      144,541        66.31%

Kenneth W. Wright (R)      73,433          33.69%

United States Representative, 44th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Nanette Díaz Barragán (D) 61,828          51.18%

Isadore Hall, III (D)  58,983          48.82%

United States Representative, 47th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Alan Lowenthal (D)  67,629          69.71%

Andy Whallon (R)    29,383          30.29%

State Senator, 35th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Steven Bradford (D)          91,599          54.32%

Warren T. Furutani (D)      77,022          45.68%

Member of the State Assembly, 64th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Mike A. Gipson (D)  59,373          73.85%

Theresa Sanford (R)          21,019          26.15%

Member of the State Assembly, 66th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Al Muratsuchi (D)    69,410          53.03%

David Hadley (R)     61,489          46.97%

Member of the State Assembly, 70th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Patrick O’Donnell (D)         69,834          66.65%

Martha E. Flores-Gibson (R)        34,948          33.35%

Supervisor 4th District

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Janice Hahn (N)      241,961        56.13%

Steve Napolitano (N)         189,132        43.87%

Measure 51–School Bond Measure for K-12 and community college facilities

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,223,638     57.69%

No      897,469        42.31%

Measure 52–MediCal Hospital Fee Program

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,544,978     73.64%

No      552,951        26.36%

Measure 53—State Revenue Bond Constitutional Amendment

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    915,346        44.89%

No      1,123,595     55.11%

Measure 54—72 Hour legislation posting before vote

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,303,884     64.33%

No      722,971        35.67%

Measure 55—Personal income tax increase extension

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,407,565     66.60%

No      705,950        33.40%

Measure 56—Cigarette tax increase

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,469,702     67.78%

No      698,642        32.22%

Measure 57—Judicial Discretion in criminal sentencing of juveniles and non-violent felons

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,415,597     66.66%

No      708,110        33.34%

Measure 58—Preservation of multilingual education

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,596,718     75.73%

No      511,612        24.27%

Measure 59—California effort to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,084,017     53.77%

No      931,944        46.23%

4,988 of 4,988 precincts reporting (100.00%) | Majority of votes cast

Measure 60—Condom requirement for adult film performers

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,076,816     51.42%

No      1,017,186     48.58%

Measure 61– State prescription drug pricing standards

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,058,312     50.40%

No      1,041,640     49.60%

Measure 62—Repeal of the Death Penalty

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,090,487     51.56%

No      1,024,437     48.44%

Measure 63—Background check for ammunition sales

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,511,181     71.19%

No      611,656        28.81%

Measure 64—Legalization of recreational use of marijuana by adults 21 or older

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,263,634     58.24%

No      906,152        41.76%

Measure 65—Redirection of money collected on carryout bags to environmental projects

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,018,366     48.71%

No      1,072,458     51.29%

Measure 66—Procedure and appellate changes to challenges to death sentences

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    993,302        48.95%

No      1,035,850     51.05%

Measure 67—Referendum on single-use plastic bag ban

Candidate(s) Votes  Percent

Yes    1,165,729     55.90%

No      919,660        44.10%

County Measures

Measure A: Los Angeles County Property Tax for clean parks, open spaces and waterways

Votes  Percent

Yes    1,519,795     73.49%

No      548,326        26.51%

Measure M: Los Angeles County Traffic Improvement Plan

Votes  Percent

Yes    1,451,784     69.82%

No      627,510        30.18%

Rep. Janice Hahn’s election night party was supposed to begin at 9 p.m. But from the moment results started to roll in just after 8 p.m., it became increasingly clear that Donald J. Trump was far exceeding expectations and party time was repeatedly pushed back. It was after 10:30 p.m. when the celebrating finally began.

For Hahn, election night represented the completion of a journey to what seems to have been her political destiny. In winning the District 4 seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, she walked in the footsteps of her late father, Kenneth Hahn. His service on that body has elevated him to a status that approaches political legend.

Hahn captured 56 percent of the vote to defeat Steve Napolitano, the protégé and chief of staff of four-term Supervisor Don Knabe, by an unsurprisingly large margin of 50,000 votes.

Next door to Hahn’s party, similar festivities were being planned by supporters of Isadore Hall’s campaign for for the 44th Congressional District seat that Hahn vacated. By the end of the night, however, the would-be partiers found themselves offering condolences at a wake.

Nanette Barragán’s narrow upset victory over Hall (51.1 percent to 48.8 percent) was nearly as big a surprise as Trump over Clinton. Hahn had endorsed Hall, but Barragan trailed him by only a few percentage points in the primary, countering his dominance in Compton and Carson with support from South Gate, Lynwood, Harbor City and Wilmington. She was nearly neck-and-neck with Hall in San Pedro.

Barragán was the underdog throughout the election fight and campaigned like it. Hall was served with a summons to give a deposition involving a rent-to-own lawsuit by some of the condo’s tenants — a condo he voted to approve while a Compton councilman — at his election night party during the primaries. Barragan’s campaign tipped off the media that Hall was to be served.

Her campaign repeatedly hammered Hall on his ties to Big Oil and attacked the California state senator on his vote as a Compton School Board member that gave a decorated high school basketball coach accused of child molestation his job back after initial accusations.

For his part, Hall attempted to go high when his opponent went low by focusing only on her background as a securities litigator for large banks, linking her to the 2008 housing crisis and likening her campaign tactics to that of candidate Trump’s. It didn’t work.

Hall seemed to lead much of the night and was one of the bright spots of optimism until the numbers started to tighten. By the next morning, Hall fell 3,000 votes short.

Most other races in the state and Los Angeles went as expected. Attorney General Kamala Harris defeated Rep. Loretta Sanchez for California’s senate seat; Rep. Ted Lieu defeated Republican newcomer Kenneth W. Wright; Rep. Alan Lowenthal defeated Republican challenger Andy Whallon; State Assemblyman Mike Gipson defeated Republican challenger Theresa Sanford; and State Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell defeated Republican challenger Martha E. Flores-Gibson.

Assemblyman Steve Bradford posted a general election win against former Assemblyman Warren Furutani that was as dominant as his win during the more crowded primaries.

During the primaries, Bradford showed deep support in the cities of Compton, Carson and Long Beach, but weaker support in Wilmington and San Pedro. That dynamic played out in the form of increased mailers in the San Pedro area and appearances at such events as Janice Hahn’s gun violence sit-in this past June at Port of Los Angeles High School.

The race between former State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi and incumbent Assemblyman David Hadley wasn’t a given from the very start. Muratsuchi lost his seat to Hadley by a few percentage points in 2014, reclaimed his seat by several percentage points this time around.

Muratsuchi worked hard to portray Hadley’s politics as closer to Trump’s than the typical South Bay voter, calling him out for not denouncing Trump’s candidacy, a step beyond simply not endorsing the president-elect.

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Updated Nov. 11: A correction was made to correctly identify representative-elect Nanette Barragan as a former securities litigator.