Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record, our local elections newsletter. It’s Ben Oreskes, back from vacation and ready to rumble. Dakota Smith pitched in this week.
Turnout in the June primary election in Los Angeles hovered around 30%. It says something about the state of engagement in Los Angeles that we saw that as a success.
The figure was up from 20% in the 2017 primary, when Mayor Eric Garcetti won reelection with 81% of the vote. Moving to even-numbered years and the uniqueness of this cycle — with an open mayoral seat and hot-button issues like homelessness and abortion in the conversation — probably had something to do with the
jump.
Turnout ranged wildly by region as well — as high as 41.7% on the Westside and as low as 20.5% in South L.A.
As part of our latest poll with the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, we asked respondents who didn’t vote in the primary to tell us why. The plurality of non-voters (26%) said they “didn’t know enough about the candidates,” and the next most common response given, at 20%, was “other.”
The responses that followed had to do with lack of excitement about the race. About 15% of voters either said they were too busy or didn’t have time, or that “none of the candidates excited” them.
Of the 25% of the poll’s respondents who said they didn’t vote, 61% were between the ages of 18 and 39. Non-voters tended to be poorer and have less education. These numbers give elected officials, policymakers and even reporters something to think about as we strive to get more people interested in local politics
Our polling from across the state was unspooled this week. It has fascinating insights about voters’ views on the drought, abortion, Gov. Gavin Newsom, President Biden, Sheriff Alex Villanueva and, last but not least, Karen Bass/Rick Caruso.
I wrote Friday about the state of the mayor’s race, where Bass has a big lead over Caruso. One tidbit left on the cutting room floor is how the fates of Caruso and Villanueva and the fates of Bass and former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna appear somewhat linked.
There’s a strong correlation between Bass supporters and Luna, who is challenging the scandal-plagued sheriff. Almost three-quarters of respondents supporting Luna backed Bass, with just 10% undecided. Of the Villanueva supporters, Caruso gets 60% support, with 15% undecided.
Luna is up 4% over the incumbent right now. So it will be interesting to see how the messaging of the sheriff’s candidates and that of the mayoral candidates dovetail as we head toward the election.