Candidate Filing For Most March Primary Offices Concludes

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The filing period has ended for most county, state and federal offices in Los Angeles County in the March 3 primary election, including the congressional seat vacated by Katie Hill.

Since the filing period for the full two-year term began Nov. 12, seven Democrats, five Republicans and two men with no party preference were issued papers to run in the 25th Congressional District, which includes Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster and the northern part of the San Fernando Valley.

Democrats filing for the seat include Assemblywoman Christy Smith, D- Santa Clarita; online news show host Cenk Uygur; and documentary filmmaker Christopher Smith.

Republican George Papadopoulos, an aide with President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign who pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents, filed Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

Former Rep. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, whom Hill defeated in November 2018, also filed on Thursday.

Republicans filing earlier include Mike Garcia, a graduate of Saugus High School and the U.S. Naval Academy who was a Navy fighter pilot during the Iraq War and became an executive with the aerospace firm Raytheon Co.

In addition to the Smiths, another set of candidates with the same last names have filed for the seat -- Democrat Robert Cooper III, a university professor, and Otis Lee Cooper, a legal defense investigator with no party preference.

Filing for the special election to fill the remainder of the two-year term Hill was elected to in 2018 will begin Dec. 23 and end Jan. 9. The special election will also be held March 3.

Hill, D-Santa Clarita, resigned Nov. 1 amid allegations of a relationship with a staff member and the online release of explicit photos.

The March 3 primary also includes races for district attorney and an open seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon has returned to Los Angeles County to challenge District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who is seeking a third term.

Gascon was an assistant chief with the Los Angeles Police Department. He became chief of the Mesa (Arizona) Police Department in 2006. He was appointed by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom as San Francisco's chief of police in 2009.

Newsom appointed Gascon, who has a law degree from Orange County-based Western State University College of Law, as district attorney in 2011, succeeding Kamala Harris, who had been elected as state attorney general.

Gascon announced late last year he would not to seek a third term as San Francisco's district attorney. He resigned effective Oct. 18, less than three weeks before the election to choose his successor.

Also challenging Lacey are Richard Ceballos, a deputy district attorney with the Organized Crime Division and Hate Crimes Unit, and Rachel Rossi, who has worked in the Federal Public Defender's Office in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office and the county's Alternate Public Defender office.

With Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas barred from running for re-election for the Second District seat he has held since 2008 because of term limits, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson, former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, and Carson Mayor Albert Robles have filed to run. The district runs from the Wilshire Center and the Miracle Mile south to Carson, west to Mar Vista and east to Lynwood.

Ridley-Thomas is running for Wesson's City Council seat.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger has drawn two challengers in her bid for a second term to represent the Fifth District -- educator/environmental entrepreneur Darrell Park, who finished second behind her in the 2016 primary and general election, and Sierra Madre Mayor John C. Harabedian.

Attorney Desiree T. Washington is the lone challenger to Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn's bid for a second term.

If no candidates in the nonpartisan district attorney and Board of Supervisors races receive a majority vote in the primary, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff in November.

The March 3 ballot will also include primaries for president, all of California's 53 congressional seats, 20 of the 40 state Senate seats and all 80 seats in the Assembly.

The filing period will be extended to Wednesday for offices in which an eligible incumbent does not file to run for re-election.

Photo: Getty Images


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