District Attorney race, 3 county measures on ballot for LA County voters

There may not be any Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors race on the Nov. 5 ballot – since the top vote-getters in the primary all won outright in March – but there is still another L.A. County-specific race and a few ballot measures to take note of.

First, there’s the race for L.A. County district attorney, where incumbent George Gascón is facing a challenge from former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman.

There are also three countywide measures on the ballot – one to fund affordable housing and homeless services, another to fund the county fire department and a third that would nearly double the size of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and create a county ethics commission.

Plus, there are a number of national and statewide races and propositions on the ballot.

Keep reading for a brief summary of these races and ballot measures.

You can also check out our L.A. County Voter Guide for more information about various races, candidates’ responses to our questionnaires and links to stories explaining the state propositions or local ballot measures.

Presidential race

Let’s start at the top of the ticket. You’ve got Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump vying to become the 47th President of the United States.

Harris’ running mate is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Trump’s running mate is Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

With Harris and Trump basically neck-and-neck in various polls, the candidates have been traveling to several key swing states to make their case before undecided voters in these final weeks leading up to Election Day.

U.S. Senate

Californians will also get to cast a vote for an open U.S. Senate seat and – in a rare moment – elect someone completely new to the upper chamber of Congress.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is running against retired baseball legend Steve Garvey, a Republican, for the seat long held by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein until her death last year.

Schiff, of Burbank, served in the California state Senate before being elected to Congress in 2001. He represents parts of L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley. In Congress, Schiff gained national recognition when he led the first impeachment trial against Trump and played a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection hearings.

Garvey, of Palm Desert, played 14 seasons with the L.A. Dodgers and spent another five with the San Diego Padres before retiring in 1987. He ended his career as a 10-time National League All-Star. Garvey has advocated for fitness-related bills in Washington and had previously toyed with the idea of entering politics.

The U.S. Senate race appears on the ballot twice. Voters will elect a candidate to complete the remainder of Feinstein’s term which ends in January. They’ll also elect a candidate to serve a new, six-year term following the end of what was Feinstein’s term.

House of Representatives

One U.S. House contest to watch is the race in California’s Congressional District 27 between Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia and Democratic challenger George Whitesides. The 27th District is a key battleground race that could help determine which party controls the lower house of Congress.

First elected to Congress in 2020, Garcia is a former U.S. Navy pilot who called this year’s election “a referendum on security,” including national, economic, border, neighborhood and school security. Whitesides is a former NASA chief of staff and former CEO of Virgin Galactic who has said that women’s reproductive health issues are on the ballot this election.

Another battleground House race this year has Republican incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel duking it out with Democratic attorney Derek Tran for the 45th Congressional District seat.

Steel made history as one of the first Korean American women in Congress when she was elected in 2020. Tran hopes to become the first Vietnamese American to represent Orange County’s Little Saigon. The winner will represent Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia in southeastern L.A. County, as well as parts of northeastern Orange County.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated both of these House races as “Republican toss up.”

State races and propositions

In addition to the more than 12 House races that L.A. County voters will help decide this November, voters here will be casting votes to help determine the outcome of five state Senate races and two dozen Assembly races.

In addition, there are 10 state propositions on the ballot with topics ranging from affordable housing and rent control to healthcare spending to penalties for certain retail theft and drug crimes.

Learn more about these races and propositions at dailynews.com/voter-guide.

District Attorney

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, seeking reelection, is facing tough competition from former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman.

Gascón took over as head of the nation’s largest prosecutorial office after running on a progressive criminal justice reform agenda that got him elected in 2020. But this year, he is trailing by double digits in the polls against his political opponent, who is running on a tougher-on-crime platform.

Many voters view this race as a referendum on the current state of public safety in L.A. County. Both candidates have cited different crime statistics to make their case as to whether public safety has improved under Gascón.

Gascón spent about 28 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, working his way up from patrol officer to assistant chief of police. He later became police chief in Mesa, Ariz., and in San Francisco, then served as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2011 to 2019.

Hochman was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California from 1990 to 1997 and was an assistant attorney general overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice’s tax division from 2007 to 2009. He later served as president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. Hochman currently works for a private law firm where he specializes in criminal defense, tax litigation and complex business litigation.

L.A. County measures

There are three county-specific measures on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Measure A would establish a permanent half-cent sales tax in L.A. County to fund affordable housing and homeless services. The measure would raise about $1.1 billion during its first year, according to a fiscal analysis by the county auditor-controller. It would repeal and replace Measure H, the current quarter-cent sales tax that funds programs aimed at reducing and preventing homelessness. Measure H passed in 2017 and is set to expire in 2027.

Supporters say that without Measure A, more than 57,400 people in shelters or permanent housing could wind back up on the streets. With it, the county and its partners could continue to provide housing and increase mental health and drug addiction services.

But opponents say Measure H hasn’t worked, so they’re wary of pouring more money into the system. In addition, they object to another tax increase when many parts of L.A. County already have sales taxes above 10%.

Measure E proposes to raise the tax on residential and commercial properties to improve the county’s fire and paramedic responses. It would assess a tax of 6 cents per square foot of structural improvements, excluding parking, and is expected to generate about $152 million each year. Measure E is only on the ballots of voters living in unincorporated county communities or within the 60 cities that contract with the county fire department and are part of the county’s Consolidated Fire Protection District.

Supporters say the measure would pay for upgrading fire equipment, including replacing old fire engines, and pay for the hiring of more paramedics. Opponents question why the county Board of Supervisors haven’t funded these experiences through their existing budget. They also claim a “loophole” allows the measure to pass with a simple majority vote when most tax increases require a two-thirds vote.

Lastly, there’s Measure G, which proposes to increase the number of county Board of Supervisors members from five to nine; make the county’s chief executive, which is currently an appointed position, into an elected position; and create an ethics commission. The measure includes other proposals to further ethics and lobbying reforms, and would make it easier for the public to review and comment on each department’s budget.

Three of the five current county supervisors support Measure G. The other two oppose it.