This story was adjusted on March 28 to reflect final certified results.
Northeast Valley voters determined key races on Super Tuesday – the San Fernando City Council special election, Los Angeles District 6 City Council, California State Assembly and Congressional Representative.
According to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, only 28.9% of eligible voters participated in this election. This can sometimes lead to outlier candidates making their way onto the general election ballot in November.
San Fernando City Council Fills Key Vacancy
In the city of San Fernando, voters decided who would fill the vacancy following the passing of Councilmember Cindy Montañez, who died last October after battling an aggressive cancer. The seat will be filled through the remainder of the term until November when the seat becomes open again.
Victoria Garcia, city of San Fernando Transportation and Public Safety commissioner, leads with 39% of the vote, beating former mayor and Councilmember Sylvia Ballin (31.9%) and Sean Rivas, chair of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley (29.1%).
Garcia said her top priority is public safety and that she wants to increase San Fernando PD staffing. The second is “taking care of our streets, sidewalks and speeding” and finally to “work on making our downtown and business communities thrive.”
“I owe everything to God. He gets me through everything,” said Garcia about her success in this race. “I worked hard to meet with the community and the residents and hear from them.”
The council seat plays a key role, being the fifth seat and potentially a tie-breaking vote.
According to San Fernando City Manager Nick Kimball, the LA County Registrar will present certified election results by the end of March, and the official winner will take office in April.
Garcia, who concurrently ran and came in second for Assembly District 43, said she will continue her assembly bid in November. According to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, this does not bar her from also running for one of the two vacant full-term city council seats in November, but she cannot simultaneously hold both positions.
“I have a great amount of respect for Sylvia Ballin. I think she’s a wonderful woman, she was a wonderful councilmember,” said Garcia. “I hope I get to work with her in the future.”
“It ain’t over till it’s over,” said Ballin, who is waiting on the official word from the county registrar. “We’ll just wait and see until the results are certified.”
Ballin, who was first elected to the local City Council in 2011 and served for more than 10 years, ran on a priority platform of public safety and improving the city budget.
“And yeah, of course, I’m gonna run again,” said Ballin.
Sean Rivas – who was endorsed by Councilwoman Mary Solorio and San Fernando Mayor Celeste Rodriguez – said he will take what he learned from his first-ever election bid, and run again in November. He hopes to bring a new energy to the City Council and “create more opportunities for businesses.”
“As someone who’s worked for LA Unified for over 14 years,” Rivas will continue to focus on creating more youth programs. “As we help our families, we see the growth, and we see how it helps rebuild our communities.”
Women Lead the Race in the East San Fernando Valley
California’s primary election changed in 2020 from a previously closed system – voting within a party – to an open top-two system, where the top two candidates in a race will go head-to-head in the November general election regardless of party affiliation.
The current District 29 congressman Tony Cárdenas’(D) retiring at the end of the term leaves the seat open this year. The frontrunner for his seat, current Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D), led the primary vote with 49.3% and will face off against the second-place candidate, Republican Benito “Benny” Bernal (26.4%), in the general election.
“I would be humbled if my community chose me to represent them at the United States Congress,” said Luz Rivas. “I’m the child of immigrants. I grew up with a single mother. This is a dream. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be walking the halls of Congress representing my community.”
Luz Rivas said if she were elected to Congress she would continue, “to address the climate change crisis, and especially how it affects disadvantaged communities,” citing her work on extreme heat while serving for three years as the Assembly Natural Resources chair. Luz Rivas added that she wants to “work together with labor unions to ensure that workers are part of this clean energy transition.”
“As someone who’s an engineer and founder of a STEM education nonprofit [DIY Girls], I want to continue working on ensuring that students from underrepresented communities have access to STEM and higher education,” continued Luz Rivas.
Bernal conversely runs on a platform that is against the Democratic “Latino political machine” that he describes as wanting to “control the children,” “destroy the nuclear family” and “take God out of the picture.”
“Pretty much, we have to do a 180 shift on all the policies and the direction that our elected officials have put us in,” said Bernal.
When asked which candidate could best replace her current position in the Assembly, Luz Rivas said she thinks Rodriguez would best continue serving and meeting the needs of the communities in the East San Fernando Valley.
Rodriguez (D) garnered 43.5% of the votes for Assembly District 43 and will appear on the November ballot alongside runner-up and aforementioned candidate Garcia (R), who received 23.5% of the votes.
Garcia said at the state level, “homelessness is one of the top priorities” as well as “keeping parents in the loop when laws or decisions are being made about their families.”
Rodriguez said she feels great about the support she received from constituents, both at the polls and in person on the campaign trail, where she had the opportunity to “gain insight into the issues that are important to them [and] the challenges they face.”
Rodriguez said she hopes to address their concerns by tackling her top priorities if she wins the Assembly seat in November: economic empowerment, environmental equity and housing justice.
“I grew up in the Northeast Valley … with similar needs in my own household, such as housing and food insecurity, so these are the priorities I’m passionate about, that I know will help our community,” she said.
Rodriguez said environmental issues are also a top concern because “in the Northeast Valley we are disproportionately impacted by climate change … and we don’t have enough green spaces.”
“But this [primary win] is only step one,” she continued. “I still have a whole election eight months from now that I’m already thinking about and planning for. It will be wonderful if I get to follow in the footsteps of Luz Rivas, who is really appreciated by our community.”
LA City Council District 6 incumbent Councilmember Imelda Padilla (D) swept over two-thirds of the vote (78.4%), thus winning the seat without the need for a run-off in November.
Padilla said she is focused on her top seven priorities, “the unsheltered population, public safety, economic development, environment, Parks and Recs, library and youth.”
As she and her team were able to “get their feet wet” working on these issues this past year, she looks forward to having the time to utilize her strength as a “strategic planner” to think of solutions.
Padilla originally replaced Nury Martinez – former council president who resigned over racist comments. This will be her first full term.
She said she was happy and grateful for the win and has “a real sense of excitement and invigoration to be able to have a solid four plus the remaining fifth year to get my hands into improving CD 6.”