By The Review Staff
Voters across South Pasadena hit the polls on Tuesday, casting ballots in several regional races in the 2024 statewide primary election.
As of the Review’s press time on Wednesday, early results show races in districts that touch South Pasadena dominated by incumbents. The two top winning candidates in the primary will proceed to the November general runoff election. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk is scheduled to certify election results on March 29. Statewide results will be certified by April 12.
For the Los Angeles County Supervisor of the 5th District, incumbent Kathryn Barger held a hefty lead as of Wednesday’s returns, with nearly 60% of the vote. Trailing in second place with 21% is challenger state Assemblyman Chris Holden of Pasadena. Holden, the former mayor of Pasadena, has termed out of the Assembly after serving since 2012, putting him at the 12-maximum number of years an elected official is allowed to serve on the Assembly or Senate, or both.
Barger, who was first elected in 2016 to represent District 5, was also challenged in Tuesday’s election by Perry Goldberg, an attorney and founder of ThriveLA, which promotes farming communities for unhoused veterans; Konstantine Anthony, a member of the Burbank City Council since 2020 and a former mayor; and Marlon Marroquin, a technologist with specialization in international crime analysis.
If Barger had fallen below the 50% mark, she would have been forced into a November runoff with the second-place finisher. District 5 covers more than 90 communities, including the cities of South Pasadena, Arcadia, Burbank, La Cañada Flintridge, Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Temple City, along with the unincorporated areas of Agua Dulce, Claremont, Palmdale, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Lakeview Terrace, Sunland, Toluca Lake and Valley Village.
Barger, 63, is the only Republican on the nonpartisan board.
Meanwhile, Democratic incumbent Assemblyman Mike Fong led the race to continue to represent South Pasadena with 60% of the vote in the state Assembly District 49. His Republican challenger attorney Long “David” Liu followed with 40%.
In the U.S. House in California’s 28th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat, tallied 63% of the vote. Republican April Verlato, with nearly 33% of the vote, will advance to face off with Chu in November’s general election.
Meanwhile, several contenders vied for the seat left available by termed-out state Sen. Anthony Portantino in the race to represent the state 25th Senate District — which includes most of the San Gabriel Mountains and San Gabriel Valley foothill communities. Among the 25th Senate District candidates were Republican Elizabeth Wong Ahlers of Crescenta Valley. Ahlers garnered 37.1% of the vote; Democrat Sasha Renee Perez tallied 29.4%, and Democrat Yvonne Yiu of Monterey Park had 19%. Teddy Choi of Pasadena received 4.9% of the vote and Rosemead Councilwoman Sandra Armenta had 9.7%, as of Wednesday.
If still in the lead once all primary votes are counted, Ahlers and Perez will face off against each other in the November general election.
— City News Service contributed to this report.
First published in the March 8 print issue of the South Pasadena Review.
