State Senate Vacancy on Tuesday's Ballot

Voters appeared to be turning out in small numbers Tuesday for the special election to fill a vacant seat in the state Senate's 28th District with only dozens of ballots cast at some polling stations late in the afternoon.

"It's been light," said Jackie Earnhart, a poll worker at Redondo Beach's Fire Station One.

When the polls opened at 7 a.m., there were several voters, Earnhart said, but not many since that time. She expected a bump at lunchtime and again after work.

The polling booths were empty about 3:40 p.m. this afternoon at Coeur D'Alene Avenue Elementary School in Venice where seven poll workers outnumbered a lone voter. Sixty-two ballots had been cast all day, said Frank Nickels, a poll worker at the elementary school. At another polling place in Venice, only 18 votes had been cast by 2:30 p.m. from a precinct with more than 2,000 voters.

The 28th District election is being held to replace the late state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, who was posthumously re-elected in November. Oropeza, a Democrat, died Oct. 20 from complications of an abdominal blood clot, but was still re-elected. The state Senate's 28th District includes Marina del Rey, Venice, Mar Vista, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and other areas.

The special primary election and a contest for the state Senate's 17th District seat in the High Desert area are the first under the state's new open primary election rules. Under the new "top two" rule, if no candidate wins a majority of votes, the top two vote-getters, regardless of political party, will face each other in an April 19 runoff election. The new system was approved by voters in June 2010 and went into effect Jan. 1.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Polling locations and sample ballots can be found at www.lavote.net/locator.

The candidates for the 28th District are:

    •    Martha Flores Gibson, Republican
    •    James P. Thompson, Republican
    •    Mark Lipman, Nonpartisan
    •    Ted W. Lieu, Democrat
    •    Bob Valentine, Republican
    •    Kevin Thomas McGurk, Democrat
    •    Michael Chamness, Nonpartisan
    •    Jeffrey E. Fortini, Republican

Lieu, 41, appears to be the presumptive front-runner in the special election. Lieu has received numerous endorsements, including from Gov. Jerry Brown, and has collected nearly seven times more in campaign contributions than his nearest challenger. Lieu, who failed in a Democratic bid last year for state attorney general, previously served three two-year terms representing the 53rd Assembly District before he was ushered out due to term limits. His former Assembly district covered roughly half of the state Senate's 28th District.

In Manhattan Beach, Robin and Lloyd Lehrer cast their ballots for Lieu.

“He’s already done an incredible job," Robin Lehrer said.

James Shankle of Manhattan Beach also lent his support to Lieu.

“He’s kind of a local guy. Of course, Valentine is local, too," Shankle said. "I don’t like what the Republicans do in Sacramento. All they do is say no without coming up with any ideas of their own. They’ve paralyzed our government. Not that I think the Democrats could do the same thing, but it just seems like we aren’t going anywhere up there. Maybe he’ll be as effective in the Senate as he was in the other house.”

Democrats hold a distinct advantage in the 28th, with about 48 percent of the district's 467,493 registered voters identifying themselves as Democrats. Republicans trail with about 25 percent of the electorate, while roughly 20 percent of voters decline to state a party, according to information from the state Secretary of State's Office.

Lieu and Valentine are the only two candidates who have spent significant amounts of money on the race, according to filings with the California Secretary of State's office. Lieu spent more than $228,500 last month on the campaign and Valentine spent nearly $55,000.

The 28th District special election will cost an estimated $1.7 million and a low voter turnout was expected.

Some of the same voters who were eligible to cast ballots in Tuesday's election will be asked to participate in yet another special election following the recent announcement that Rep. Jame Harman (D-Venice) will be leaving Congress to join a non-partisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Gov. Jerry Brown has yet to set a date for that special election.

Patch editors Jared Morgan, Samantha Page and Ed Pilolla contributed to this report.

(Editor's Note: This version updates a previous article that ran earlier.)