With all attention on the presidential and U.S. Senate battles, you might well wonder what happened in the legislative races? Glad you asked.
From the LAT's Christine Mai-Duc: "Voters sorted through an array of candidates, in some cases choosing from half a dozen or more, to set the stage for matchups in November."
"With 26 seats up for grabs this election cycle, interest groups stepped up spending in hopes of influencing the competitive landscape."
"Outside groups including oil companies, education advocates, unions and business groups have spent nearly $29 million, a record for the June primary that far outstripped the $16.7 million in spending two years ago."
The feisty head of a national nurses' union says her chosen presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, suffered because of a media call giving Hillary Clinton enough delegates to take the Democratic nomination.
From Politico's Carla Marinucci: "RoseAnn DeMoro, whose National Nurses United was one of the first major labor unions to back Bernie Sanders, was still enraged on Wednesday as she talked about the Associated Press announcement on Monday night that Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic primary."
"DeMoro was with Sanders at a massive rally in San Francisco when the Vermont senator received the news, on the eve of the California primary."
“It was sad ... they knew they had sabotaged his campaign,’’ she told POLITICO Wednesday. “I think because of the AP and the Clinton collusion — both making the announcement subverting democracy — it really suppressed the vote in California and in other states.’’
Despite a nearly 22% gap in poll standings, Loretta Sanchez and her staff are determined to close the disparity between her and Kamala Harris' statistics as the duel for U.S. Senate continues.
Martin Wiskol and Teri Sforza in Daily Bulletin report: "
Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy to be advancing to the general election in the race for U.S. Senate, but make no mistake:"
"She got whupped."
"Her campaign says it has a strategy for closing Attorney General Kamala Harris’ 40-percent to 18-percent advantage in Tuesday’s primary, and sought to project optimism in the wake of Tuesday’s results."
A reflection by a UC Berkeley student on UCLA's murder-suicide last week reveals that the efficacy of officers involved in the response teams was due to substantial training specifically for active shooters on school campuses.
Daily Californian's Sally Littlefield writes: "A week ago, UC Berkeley sophomore Chelsea Evans drove to UCLA to visit her boyfriend. But before she could meet him at his residence hall, UCLA security guided her into lockdown on the first floor of the building. Instead of reuniting with her boyfriend face-to-face, she was left texting him from a supply room surrounded by strangers. There was a gunman on campus."
"Evans and seven UCLA students sat and waited in the closet for hours. Rumors swirled that there were four shooters and that they had come to the hill where the residence hall was located. The students around Evans received three separate Bruin Alerts urging them not to go outside until the final alert at 12:17 p.m. informed them, “all clear.”
"When Evans finally stepped into daylight after the lockdown ended, she encountered a large contingent of police officers that had responded to the shooting."
Alameda county saw a massive influx of ballots cast by mail: nearly 60%. Meanwhile, voter turn-out was only 30%.
Daily Californian's Jessie Qian reports: "In Tuesday’s election, Alameda County saw a higher number of ballots submitted but a lower overall voter turnout than in the previous election year."
"According to data updated by the Alameda County registrar of voters on Wednesday, voter turnout for the 800,000 registered voters in Alameda County was 30.5 percent. This number falls slightly below the Alameda County voter turnout of the primary elections of 2012, which stood at 31.8 percent."
"There was a lot of excitement about this race, and there are a lot of younger voters and locals who were excited about the candidates in the area,” said Guy Ashley, a spokesperson for the county registrar of voters."
A small slice of idyllic land near City of Industry known as Tres Hermanos ranch, and ownership of it, has become the epicenter of a long and ugly legal battle. And now, allegations of state law violations are being posited.
Steve Scauzillo in Daily Bulletin: "A planned housing community attracting up to 7,500 new residents, or a 1,000-acre solar farm?"
"These two diverse projects — the first proposed by an Orange County home builder, and the other supposedly suggested by the City of Industry — emerged Wednesday as possible developments onTres Hermanos, a 2,500-acre cattle ranch straddling the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties."
"Neither project received approval from the state oversight board in charge of liquidating the substantial holdings of the City of Industry’s former redevelopment agency, including the pristine tangle of oak woodlands, riparian habitat and hillsides owned by the city since 1978 but located entirely outside city limits in Diamond Bar and Chino Hills."
