By Maria Luisa Torres and Gabriel Arizon
San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol
Election Day for the California primaries is next Tuesday, and all the voting centers across Los Angeles will be open this weekend for those who want to vote early.
Candidate debates for the office of LA’s mayor and California’s governor have been ongoing, now it’s time to make a decision. The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol spoke to some residents in the Northeast Valley about their vote in this primary election.
A week before the election, Kurt Cabrera-Miller, president of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council, already had his mail-in ballot filled out and “waiting by the door,” but noted there was still a possibility that he could change his mind about his current selection for governor: Xavier Becerra.
While he describes Becerra as his initial first choice, he’s “still on the fence” between Becerra and Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose. Cabrera-Miller said he admires Mahan’s accomplishments as mayor, including his city council’s response to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which has included banning ICE agents from using city-owned properties.
But he “loves” that Becerra, who served as California attorney general from 2017 to 2021, helped hold federal agencies and other institutions accountable – including leading a multistate coalition to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over failures to protect the environment.
“We’re a great state, so we need a great leader,” said Cabrera-Miller. If he suddenly opts to vote for Mahan instead, he’ll vote in person at a voting center instead of dropping off his ballot.
Regarding the race for LA mayor, he has no qualms: he’s voting for the incumbent, Karen Bass.
“The key reason is I have worked alongside her office, as well as with her on various events, [and with] previous mayors, and I’ve seen the difference in the last few years. I’ve seen the progression with homelessness and the economic growth of LA,” said Cabrera-Miller. Despite the local “travesties” of the LA wildfires and ICE activity, “I don’t [think] … things would have gone any differently” with another mayor, he said, adding, “The mayor has my full support.”
AC Foster, an operations manager who resides in Van Nuys, is resolute about wanting to see a change in leadership for LA. She already cast her ballot for LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who has represented the 4th District since 2020, to replace Bass as LA mayor.
“She’s definitely not perfect – I don’t think any candidate is – but for the most part, she’s been consistent in championing renters’ rights and immigrant rights,” said Foster about why she decided to vote for Raman. “I think she is very ingrained in the community, working with the younger folks and communities of color, which we need.”
As far as the gubernatorial candidates, Foster wasn’t convinced by any of their pitches.
“I ended up not voting for any [of the] governor candidates. I dislike them all,” she explained. “We need new blood, experiences and ideas. The Democratic party is just old, tired and has just rolled over and died.”
Andre (who declined to state his last name), a barber from Arleta, hasn’t cast his ballot yet, but said he plans to vote by June 2, though he’s still unsure which candidates he will support. For LA mayor, he is leaning toward Spencer Pratt, who gained popularity as a reality TV star, and for governor, he is considering both of the Republican candidates: Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton.
What Andre is certain about is that he wants a major change from the status quo.
“It’s time to do something different – everything [needs] to change in California, whether [it’s] how small things are done or big things,” he said. “I’ve been in California my whole life … and I only see things getting worse every day, including homelessness. … We’ve had Karen Bass saying for how long that she’s going to fix [homelessness] and it’s still a problem in 2026.”
Andre said he believes that any proposed solutions to the crisis have to take into account that the nature of homelessness has changed between the real estate market crash of 2009 and the present.
“I volunteered at soup kitchens in 2009 – I was feeding families with children,” he said. “They’re not families now; it’s people [who have] mental health issues because of drugs – not because they’re just mentally ill, but because these drugs cause mental illness, and I’ve seen it firsthand.”
Tracey De Lucas won’t be voting in the LA mayoral race because she lives in the City of San Fernando, where residents vote for their own city council members – who select the local mayor – but she does intend to vote for one of the many candidates in the running for state governor.
“But I still don’t know which one yet,” she admitted. “I haven’t [finished] all of my research on the pros and cons of each one. I like to be as unbiased as possible – I want to see what [the candidates] from both parties have to offer up, and my way of approaching [my decision] is to see how their track records have been [throughout] their careers.”
Duski Wanamaker – treasurer for Northridge Indivisible, a group of self-defined “grassroots progressive” seniors – just cast her own ballot on Wednesday. She was undecided for a time, but chose to vote for Bass for mayor and Tom Steyer for governor.
One of the most pressing issues concerning Wanamaker is the topic of senior homelessness, as she works every day with people who are at risk of being unhoused. During a meet and greet with the mayor over the weekend, Wanamaker was able to talk directly to Bass and expressed a desire to set up a meeting to talk further about her concerns. She described how the incumbent mayor was receptive to her request and made her feel like she mattered.
“Everything that affects seniors right now is my number one focus … because I could be homeless any day, just like any other person,” Wanamaker said. “I don’t have enough savings that I count on if something devastating were to happen to me, so I want to share some of those ideas that our seniors have with her, and I have full confidence that she will listen and do whatever she can do in that regard.”
While she likes Becerra, Wanamaker chose to go with Steyer, a billionaire who defines himself as a Democratic progressive political activist. She said that he seems sincere and, after directly contacting his office to learn more about his platform, that she believes he honestly cares about California.
“I love the fact that he cares about the environment,” Wanamaker said, “and I think the fact that he’s a billionaire is helpful because he doesn’t have to worry about impressing people or taking donations from people to make something happen.”
Sergio Amalfitano, owner of The Midnight Hour Records located in the City of San Fernando, said he won’t be participating at all in the election, as he believes that the electoral system is not set up in a way that would make any real, meaningful change.
Looking at the politics in the City of San Fernando, Amalfitano said there are current council members representing the small independent city who are having a negative effect on the community, referencing how the council voted “no” on a sanctuary city designation last year and their decision to end the Outdoor Market that was located in the city’s historic mall.
Those currently running for the local council don’t make for appealing alternatives either, Amalfitano continued, as they don’t show up for any community events that help teach people how to best protect themselves from ICE.
“I think that you can … have more of an effect as an advocate for the community, an activist or as a community organizer than you can in politics,” Amalfitano said. “Once you get involved in politics, then [it becomes], I just want to get reelected, and now I have to campaign again, and I have to spend all this money. I feel like it just funnels energy, money and resources into getting people elected, and then they just have to go back into the cycle, so it seems like a zero-sum game.”
The same reasoning, he said, applies to LA’s mayoral and governor races. He feels that there are no good options. The people he would vote for office, Amalfitano said, are those who don’t tend to get involved in politics.
“I see politicians as being a class of people who are just kind of lining their own pockets,” Amalfitano said. “I’m not telling people not to vote if that’s how they feel that they can affect change, but I think that change is something that you know is affected on a daily basis: where you buy things, who you support and how you spend your money.”