County registrar officials have sent vote-by-mail ballots to voters in the 30th Senate District for the March 2 special election to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.
Voters can track their ballot with Where’s My Ballot. This easy-to-use tracking tool sends voters automatic notifications when their ballot has left the post office and provides an estimated time of arrival.
Voters are encouraged to safely participate in this election, returning their mail-in ballot early. There are several safe return options available:
• Return by mail, no postage required – must be postmarked by Election Day
• Drop off at a Ballot Drop Box
• Drop off at a Vote Center
Voters can also visit the Registrar Recorder Headquarters in Norwalk to safely vote early in-person. All public health and safety guidelines will be followed, and voters will be required to wear a facial covering.
The list of Ballot Drop Boxes can be found here.
Three Democrats, two Republicans, a Peace and Freedom Party candidate and one candidate with no party preference will appear on the ballot for the race to represent the overwhelmingly Democratic district that includes Culver City, Mar Vista, Century City, Ladera Heights, Exposition Park, South Los Angeles, Westmont, much of downtown Los Angeles and a portion of Inglewood.
If no candidate receives a majority, a runoff between the top two finishers will be held May 4.
Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager (D-54) announced her candidacy in November and has been endorsed by Mitchell and the California Democratic Party, receiving 93 percent of the votes from the Endorsing Caucus which is made up of the 2019-2021 Democratic State Central Committee.
California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks called Kamlager “a social justice champion (who) has made transformative changes to reform the criminal justice system and has strongly advocated for environmental justice policies and equity in our education system.”
Kamlager was Mitchell’s district director before being elected to represent the 54th Assembly District in a 2018 special election. The 54th Assembly District covers 53.6 percent of the 30th Senate District, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Kamlager has said she “was prompted to run for state Senate by the urgency of the moment.”
“Poverty—which I’ve spent a lifetime battling—has taken a quantum jump this last year,” Kamlager said. “The upheaval thrust upon California’s working families by the pandemic requires relentless, bold action to steer us safely to full recovery.
“That means getting folks back to work, getting students back in classrooms, keeping people in their homes and expanding affordable housing and getting our economy back on track.”
The district has been represented by a Black Democrat since 1974 including two women, Mitchell and Diane Watson, who held the seat from 1978-98.
“I’m running because as a renter, I am disappointed with the lip service that our state officials have given the plight of renters while voting against bills that would provide them more protections,” Democrat and Culver City Councilman Daniel Lee said.
“I’m running because though we hear inspiring words from our state leaders when it comes to addressing the climate crisis, we lack swift and concrete policy action that can address the deleterious health effects felt by frontline communities of color and low-income communities.”
Lee said he supports a single-payer health care system; expanded homelessness services and stronger protections for renters; forcing public pension funds to “divest from corporate landlords like the
Blackstone Group, who use investments from those pension funds to gentrify the neighborhoods of pension holders”; and “economic development focused on community participation from the start.”
The third Democrat is Cheryl C. Turner, a trial lawyer and transactional attorney, president of the Board of Directors of the Apartment Owners Association of Los Angeles County and member of the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians.
“I have always planned to run for public office to represent this community but I was especially motivated by the health crisis and educational and economic shutdown caused by COVID-19,” Turner said.
The Republican candidates are businessman/entrepreneur Joe Lisuzzo and business consultant Tiffany Jones.
“I have lived and worked in this district for over 35 years,” Lisuzzo said. “I believe many of our issues are not Republican or Democrat but rather humanitarian issues. Given the deterioration year after year that we all have observed in this community I felt it my moral and civic obligation to help serve and solve these issues.”
Renita Duncan, a U.S. Army Reserve command sergeant major and a violence prevention integrator/program director with the U.S. Air Force, is registered to vote without a party preference. She was a Republican from 2018-2020 and had no party preference from 2014-18, according to information from the Secretary of State’s Office. Duncan described herself as “a middle-class woman who is tired of waiting for our current elected officials to do something, anything.”
