Turnout traditionally runs low in Los Angeles. Sanders wing dealt setback in Calif. special election

LOS ANGELES — A Democratic state assemblyman and a former Los Angeles planning commissioner were running ahead in a wide-open congressional primary here Tuesday, routing several contenders aligned with the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party.

Though the race for state Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s former House seat remained undecided early Wednesday, Jimmy Gomez, a state assemblyman backed by establishment Democrats, had secured a spot in the June runoff with 28 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press.


Rival Democrat Robert Lee Ahn, who startled observers with his sizable fundraising and inroads with the district’s Korean American community, was running a solid second, 9 percentage points behind Gomez.

The election — the nation’s first congressional contest since President Donald Trump’s inauguration — was once viewed as an early test of the Democratic Party’s base ahead of congressional elections in 2018. But in a district that Sanders narrowly carried last year, Arturo Carmona, a deputy in Sanders’ presidential campaign, and Wendy Carrillo, a progressive activist, were drawing only 5 percent each as of Wednesday morning.

Turnout traditionally runs low in Los Angeles, and voters on Tuesday reported near-vacant conditions at polling places throughout the safely Democratic district, which stretches from downtown to Koreatown, Eagle Rock and Highland Park.

Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo, who supported Sanders in the presidential primary, said at an election night party for Gomez that Sanders inspired “an incredible enthusiasm” among progressive Democrats to run for office. But with their lack of organization and vetting of candidates, he said, “there’s a newness that shows.”

“Everybody thinks, ‘Well, I’m the Bernie person,’” he said, diluting the progressive vote in a race with 24 candidates. In addition, Cedillo said, “Jimmy’s an incredible candidate. He’s a labor guy. It’s not like he’s conservative.”

Despite Gomez’s progressive record in the Legislature, his critics sought to turn his endorsements from Becerra, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other prominent Democrats against him, casting him as a political insider. Addressing supporters over tamales and pupusas at his campaign office Tuesday night, Gomez sought to consolidate support.

“We can’t take this country back unless we present a new, progressive agenda for the country,” he said.

While Gomez was widely expected to advance to the runoff, Ahn emerged far later as a credible contender, loaning his campaign $295,000 and raising $330,000 more. Despite the district’s heavily Latino electorate, Korean-American voters over-performed their registration in ballots cast ahead of the election, according to an analysis by Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc. Ahn briefly led on Tuesday night when absentee ballot counts were released.

If elected, Ahn would become the only Korean-American in Congress.

