Bryan Holds Lead in 54th Assembly Special election, Still Short of Majority

Isaac Bryan jumped out to a huge lead Tuesday in the six-candidate race to succeed Sydney Kamlager in the state Assembly.

Preliminary results gave Democrat Bryan 49.7% of the votes in the special election for the 54th Assembly seat, though his total fell a bit short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff between the top two finishers, according to the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office.

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The first post-election ballot count update is scheduled for Friday.

The heavily democratic, 54th Assembly District includes Culver City, Baldwin Hills, Cheviot Hills, the Crenshaw district, Century City, Ladera Heights, Mar Vista, Palms, Rancho Park, Westwood and parts of South Los Angeles and Inglewood.

The Assembly seat was vacated by now-Sen. Kamlager, who endorsed Bryan, her former senior adviser. Bryan also serves on the Los Angeles Unified School District's redistricting panel.

Heather Hutt, a former Southern California district director for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, was in second place with 24.3% of the votes, followed by another Democrat, Cheryl C. Turner, with 10.6%. Turner is an attorney and a member of the state Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians.

In fourth place with 7.6% of the votes was political consultant Dallas Fowler, followed by grocery worker Bernard Senter with 4.5% and financial advisor Samuel Robert Morales with 3.2%.

If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the special election, the top two finishers will head to a runoff on July 20.

The race for the 54th Assembly seat is the latest special election to originate with last November's general election. Kamlager was elected to the state Senate in March to replace fellow Democrat Holly Mitchell, who left in mid-term after she was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last November.

Democrats make up 64% of registered voters in the 54th Assembly district while Republicans have 9% and 22% have no party preference.

A total of 34,816 ballots were processed and counted, with 11.53% of registered voters casting ballots, the registrar's office said. All vote by mail ballots received on Tuesday's Election Day will be processed. Ballots postmarked by Tuesday must be returned to the registrar's Norwalk Headquarters within three days to be processed. The election will be certified by May 27.