Friday is the deadline to file to run for most offices in Los Angeles County in the June primary election, including the two seats on the Board of Supervisors, where incumbents are barred by term limits from seeking re-election.
Four candidates have been issued documents to run for the Fourth District seat held by Don Knabe, according to Los Angeles County Registrar- Recorder/County Clerk.
Rep. Janice Hahn and Whittier minister Ralph Pacheco are the only candidates to have completed the filing process. Former Manhattan Beach Mayor Steve Napolitano and former Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin have also been issued papers to run.
Hahn, D-San Pedro, announced her candidacy on Feb. 18, 2015, saying she could “do more for the Los Angeles region on the Board of Supervisors” than in Congress because “Washington is broken” and “increasingly mired in political gridlock and there’s virtually zero cooperation between the two parties.”
Hahn’s late father, Kenneth Hahn, represented the Second District from 1952 to 1992.
Knabe has endorsed Napolitano, his senior deputy. Napolitano said he is running “to rethink, reinvent and re-engage L.A. County.”
“I’m running to keep our neighborhoods safe, promote jobs and economic growth, protect our environment and make L.A. County work better, smarter and harder for all of us,” Napolitano said.
Gin is seeking to become the first Asian American and openly gay man on the board.
“I believe we are at a critical time for Los Angeles County and we need leadership that will reflect the spirit of partnership, independence from special interests and most importantly accountability and commitment to the people of Los Angeles County,” Gin said in declaring his candidacy on Feb. 18, 2015.
The district runs from Diamond Bar in the northeast, east to Downey, south to Long Beach, includes the Harbor and much of the South Bay area, continuing north to Marina Del Rey.
Knabe has represented the district since 1996.
Eight candidates have been issued documents to run for the Fifth District seat held by Mike Antonovich, with six completing the filing process.
Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian, Deputy District Attorney Elan Carr and Kathryn Barger, Antonovich’s chief deputy, who has received his endorsement, have completed the filing process, along with Altadena Town Council Member Billy Malone, Darrell Park, who describes himself as a educator/budget specialist, and real estate investor Rajpal Kahlon.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander and state Sen. Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, have also been issued papers to run.
The district includes the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys and portions of the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys. Antonovich has represented the district since 1980.
In the other seat on the nonpartisan Board of Supervisors to be contested in June, incumbent Mark Ridley-Thomas is the only person to file to run for the Second District seat.
If no candidate in a Board of Supervisors race receives a majority vote in the primary, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff in November.
District Attorney Jackie Lacey has not drawn any opponents in her bid for a second term.
The June 7 ballot will also include primaries for president, the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer, who is not seeking re-election, all of California’s 53 congressional seats, 20 of the 40 state Senate seats and all 80 seats in the Assembly.
The filing period will be extended to Wednesday for offices where no incumbent files, except for those where the incumbent cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
—City News Service