Kamlager Easily Wins Special Election for State Senate Seat

Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles) cruised to an easy victory on Tuesday night after capturing more than two-thirds of the vote in a special election to fill the vacant 30th Senate District seat.

Semi-official returns show Kamlager with 67.7% of the vote in the seven-candidate field, surpassing the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Her closest opponent and fellow Democrat, Culver City Vice Mayor Daniel Lee, had just 13.5%.

Kamlager, who won re-election for the 54th Assembly District last November, will fill the post vacated by

her former boss, Holly Mitchell, after she won a seat on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of

Supervisors. Kamlager once was former Sen. Mitchell's district manager.

Businessman Joe Lisuzzo, one of the two Republicans in the race, placed third with 6.7% of the votes

while Democrat Cheryl C. Turner, a trial lawyer, came in fourth with 5.7%.

The other Republican, business consultant Tiffani Jones, received 2.4%, while community organizer

Ernesto Alexander Huerta, a member of the Peace and Freedom Party, garnered 2.2%. Renita

Duncan, a sergeant major in the U.S. Army Reserves, who ran as a no-party-preference candidate,

finished last with 1.8% of the votes.

The results will be certified by March 11, according to the Secretary of State's office.

The 30th district has the largest African American voting population in the state, according to the Target Book. Roughly two-thirds of voters in the district are registered Democratic, 23% declined to disclose, and 7% are registered Republican

The district includes Culver City, Ladera Heights, View Park and West Athens, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Downtown, South Los Angeles, Crenshaw, Mid-City, Century City, Cheviot Hills and Mar Vista.

When she will be sworn in later this month, Kamlager will reportedly be the only black woman in the

state Senate.

Her victory will require a special election to fill her Assembly seat. Kamlager has endorsed

Isaac Bryan, who has been a senior adviser to her. Fellow Democrat Heather Hutt, a former state director

for then-Sen. Kamala Harris, also announced her candidacy for the Assembly seat.

According to state laws, Governor Gavin Newsom has 14 days from Kamlager's resignation from her

current seat to call a special election. That special election shall be conducted between 126 and 140 days

after the proclamation, state officials said.