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Key races to watch in California's March 5 primary

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The primary season has officially begun for California's 22 million registered voters.

Ballots have already gone out for the March 5 primary, in which voters will choose their nominees for president, as well as weigh in on a number of state and local elections that could have major implications for the state's future.

Voters will have their say on a voting measure championed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who would fund mental health care; elect candidates to the state legislature; and decide many local races, including the crowded race for district attorney in Los Angeles.

The ballots were mailed to every registered voter in the state on February 5 and can be returned by mail or dropped off at secure drop-off locations or at county election offices. Some locations for early in-person voting opens Saturday.

Here are some of the most important races.

When Dianne Feinstein died in September, the U.S. Senate seat she had held for more than 30 years became vacant. Newsom quickly appointed Laphonza Butler to a position until an election could be held to fill the vacancy, and Butler decided not to run, paving the way for an open primary.

Four leading candidates have emerged from a crowded field:

  • Representative Adam Schiff63, Democrat from Burbank, currently leading in the polls and perhaps best known for serving as lead prosecutor in the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump;

  • Representative Katie Porter50, an Orange County Democrat known for questioning powerful leaders during congressional hearings;

  • Representative Barbara Lee77, Democrat from Oakland and long-time progressive;

  • Steve Garvey75, a former first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres and the only Republican among the four leaders.

In California's election system, all candidates, regardless of party, compete in one primary, and the two who receive the most votes advance to the general election. For a while, it looked like Schiff and Porter were headed for an intraparty battle in November. But Garvey's fame and some strategic advertising from Schiff have made Garvey a serious threat to take Porter out of the running, as my colleague Shawn Hubler explained on Tuesday.

A Emerson College Poll The release on Tuesday showed Garvey overtaking Porter for second place in the primary race. As Schiff appears well positioned to survive the primaries, the key question is whether Porter will do the same and give him a serious challenge in November. Garvey would have little chance of winning the general election; California voters haven't elected a Republican in a statewide race since 2006.

Although California is a heavily blue state overall, there are also areas of red and purple, and some congressional districts in suburban areas and the Central Valley are competitive. Small Republican victories in the San Joaquin Valley, Orange County and other more conservative parts of the state in 2022 helped their party take control of the House of Representatives.

California will likely play a major role in determining control of the House of Representatives again this year. Republicans now only have a majority of seven seats in the House of Representatives, and the California delegation includes forty Democrats, eleven Republicans and one vacant seat.

Of the 72 most competitive house races nationwide, 10 are in California, according to the Cook Political Report. Many of them cover the same districts where the 2022 races were extremely close, including the 47th District seat in Orange County, which Porter is giving up to run for Senate; the 27th District in northern Los Angeles County, represented by Mike Garcia, a Republican; and the 22nd District in the Central Valley, where David Valadao, a Republican, won in 2022 with 51.5 percent of the vote.

George Gascón was elected district attorney of Los Angeles County in 2020, in what was then seen as a major victory for the movement supporting liberal prosecutors following nationwide protests against police brutality.

The 69-year-old Gascón is running for re-election this year, but as my colleague Tim Arango has reported, the race this time feels much more traditional, animated by crime concerns rather than narrowing racial disparities and reining in the police.

“I think now, for 2024, this race has returned to law and order for many people,” Gascón recently told Tim.

Gascón faces eleven opponents, most of whom run to the right and challenge some of his policies. He has been criticized for his unwillingness to pursue enhancements — including for gang membership or for using firearms during a crime — that could add years to a sentence. He also faces attacks for refusing to charge juvenile offenders as adults in most cases and for limiting the use of cash bail.

Unless one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a remote possibility, the top two contenders in the primaries will advance to the general election in November.

When San Francisco Mayor London Breed said welfare recipients would have to undergo drug screening or lose their benefits, liberal critics thought it was a startling throwback to the 1990s era of a crackdown on people who rely on public assistance. benefits.

But Breed pushed ahead with her proposal and it reached the ballot in March. The measure, Proposition F, would require people receiving provincial assistance to undergo a screening process if suspected of drug addiction. Those considered drug users would be required to enroll in a treatment program to continue receiving benefits.

With San Francisco experiencing record numbers of overdose deaths, Breed said last year that her proposal “aims to create more accountability and get people to accept the treatment and services they need.”

The proposal could also help Breed strengthen her standing among frustrated voters as she runs for re-election later this year. She faces challengers who have attacked her from the right, as my colleague Heather Knight recently wrote.

Proposition F could provide an indication of voter attitudes in San Francisco, a city that is slowly but surely losing its old progressive identity. Two years ago, city voters recalled school board members and a district attorney who were considered too far left. Requiring drug screening for welfare recipients would once have been politically unthinkable in San Francisco, but today polls show voters are in a bad mood.

Two storms caused by atmospheric rivers drenched California this month, bringing record rainfall to Los Angeles and causing mudslides in the hills above the city. But the storms also had a positive effect: They helped replenish the state's snowpack, which was in a prolonged drought.

New satellite photos from NASA show the extent of this relief on mountains across the state, The Los Angeles Times recently reported. In a side-by-side comparison, the photos, from January 29 and February 11, show previously bare mountain peaks in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California covered in snow.

Data from the California Department of Water Resources also reflects this increase. On February 11, the state's snowpack reached 75 percent of normal levels, up from 52 percent on January 31. data shows. As of Tuesday, snowpack statewide had grown to 85 percent of normal levels.

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