AD-43: Gatto Prohibitive Favorite As Main Rival Exits

MadProfessah-endorsed candidate for the 43rd Assembly District seat and top vote-getter in the Tuesday April 13th Special Primary election Mike Gatto is now the prohibitive favorite to win the seat after his main rival Nayiri Nahabedian announced that she is suspending her campaign.

MadProfessah actually heard the news at the California Democratic Convention on Saturday from multiple sources but since it had not been confirmed in writing until the Daily News printed a story about it today and the candidate's website was not updated with the information, I waited until today to report the news.

From the Daily News article:

A consultant to Nahabedian said Tuesday the Glendale school board member won't campaign for the June 8 primary for the next full two-year term in the Assembly's 43rd District. Her name, however, will still appear on the ballot alongside Democrats Gatto and Chahe Keuroghelian and Republican Sunder Ramani because it is too late to remove it.

[...]

Paul Mitchell, a campaign consultant, said Nahabedian decided to stop campaigning after talks that included Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles. Mitchell said Nahabedian wanted to create "unity among the Democrats" and avoid "confusion" for voters in the Gatto-Ramani runoff.

[...]

"While I'm pleased to have one less opponent in the race, I'm taking nothing for granted," Gatto said. "These races are not done yet."

Having placed first in the special primary election, Gatto would be the only Democrat to be eligible to fill out the rest of Paul Krekorian's term in the June 8 run-off election. Additionally, he is now the prohibitive favorite to win the legislative primary election (also on June 8) to be the Democrat on the November ballot to win his first of three two year terms to represent the 43rd Assembly District.

Congrats, Mike!

AD-43: Gatto Is #1!

In yesterday's special election to replace Paul Krekorian in the 43rd Assembkly District, MadProfessah-endorsed Mike Gatto not only placed first among the three Democrats, he received the most votes over all:

As of Date: 04/13/2010 Time: 23:04                            Votes  Percent
                                                                         
STATE ASSEMBLY               43RD TERM ENDS 11/10                          
                                                                         
 MIKE GATTO             DEM                                10,584    32.34
 SUNDER   RAMANI        REP                                10,403    31.79
 NAYIRI NAHABEDIAN      DEM                                 7,298    22.30
 CHAHE KEUROGHELIAN     DEM                                 4,444    13.58
                                                                         
TOTAL PRECINCTS        225            PRECINCTS REPORTING       225   100.00
REGISTRATION       201,352  

This means that on June 8, Mike will face the Republican candidate in the run-off to fill the rest of Krekorian's term through November 2010. He will also probably be the favorite to win the Democratic nomination (against Nahabedian) in the primary election which happens on the same day.

So, basically you will need to vote for Mike twice on that day.

AD-43: Gatto v Nahabedian, round 1 is today!

Nayiri Nahabedian	Mike Gatto

Today is the special election in the 43rd Assembly district. MadProfessah has endorsed Mike Gatto, while the Stonewall Democratic Club (of which I am a member of the "board" or steering committee) has endorsed Nayiri Nahabedian. However, the LGBT community is clearly split between the candidates.

In the very likely event that no candidate gets more than 50%, the two will continue to battle on until June 8, 2010 when there are two simultaneous elections: a run-off between the top Democratic vote getter in today's election versus the top Republican and a primary election where the top Democratic vote getter adavances to the November 2010 ballot in this overwhelmingly Democratic district. The person who wins the first election only gets to serve until Janauary, while the person who wins the second election will get to serve either 2 (or more likely 6) years.

We'll know which one has the advantage going into the June 8, 2010 elections when the returns come back today, but already one thing is clear, this race will probably break records for turnout in a special election. As of last Wednesday, more than 16,000 absentee ballots had been received by the Los Angeles County Recorder-Registrar (8% of the electorate).

For updates through the night, check lavote.net.