L.A. Times electoral endorsements for 2024 March primary

The 2024 election season is underway. While the presidential contest may garner the most attention, many important state and local races and measures are also on the ballot.

To help voters decide, the Times editorial board offers recommendations based on candidate interviews and independent reporting. Every registered voter will be mailed a ballot in early February, allowing ample time to read up on the candidates, tune in to a forum, consider endorsements, including ours, and make a decision before the last day of voting on March 5.

Yes on Measure HLA
The initiative would force L.A.’s leaders to enact their own visionary Mobility Plan, which aims to make the city’s car-dominated streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and, yes, even drivers.

Adrin Nazarian for City Council District 2
Nazarian is an experienced lawmaker and a thoughtful, collaborative leader who is willing to take on difficult, weedy issues.

Nithya Raman for City Council District 4
Raman has been a smart and courageous leader, particularly on housing homeless people, and a strong advocate for government accountability.

Imelda Padilla for City Council District 6
Padilla has been in the seat for only half a year, but has done what she said she would do. She deserves a full City Council term.

Marqueece Harris-Dawson for City Council District 8
Harris-Dawson has been an influential progressive voice on the City Council and a smart leader for his South L.A. district.

Eddie Anderson for City Council District 10
Anderson, an ordained minister and activist, has the vision for a safer, healthier, more equitable district and organizing skills to help make change happen.

Serena Oberstein for City Council District 12
Oberstein, a nonprofit executive and former president of the L.A. City Ethics Commission, is refreshingly forward-looking and will help to guide District 12 into a better future.

Miguel Santiago for City Council District 14
Santiago has earned a reputation as a responsive and diligent lawmaker. He has shown leadership and persistence in tackling the issues that matter most to his constituents, including housing, homelessness and environmental justice.

George Gascón for District Attorney
Gascón is making the criminal justice reforms voters elected him to carry out. Ignore the law enforcement establishment’s resistance and keep him on the job.

Holly Mitchell for the Board of Supervisors, District 2
Voters should appreciate Mitchell’s focus on the big questions, such as the structure of county government and equity in the delivery of county services.

Janice Hahn for the Board of Supervisors, District 4
Through COVID and a historic shift from jails to social services, Hahn has served the county well in her first two terms. Her challengers would not bring her values and experience to the board.

Kathryn Barger for the Board of Supervisors, District 5
Barger has been the voice for political and fiscal reality that the Board of Supervisors needs. Voters should give her a third term.

Sherlett Hendy Newbill for Los Angeles Unified School Board District 1
Newbill has worked more than two decades at Susan Miller Dorsey High School as a basketball coach, teacher, dean of students and in other roles. She has on-the-ground experience and an independent-minded approach to tackling complex problems.

Scott Schmerelson for Los Angeles Unified School Board District 3
Schmerelson, a retired principal, has helped bring about an era of reason and stability at L.A. Unified. Voters should give him another term.

Fidencio Gallardo for Los Angeles Unified School Board District 5
Gallardo articulates the clearest vision for improving student achievement and well-being in the wake of the pandemic. And his breadth of experience, including as a teacher and administrator, puts him the best position to actually get things done.

Tanya Ortiz Franklin for Los Angeles Unified School Board District 7
Franklin has helped make the board a calm, well-run group that operates through collaboration and common sense rather than ideology.

Office No. 12: Lynn Diane Olson
Olson is an even-tempered judge who demonstrated that she knows how to manage a courtroom. The challenger has offered poor justification for challenging Olson for reelection.

Office No. 39: Steve Napolitano
Napolitano is a Manhattan Beach council member and an attorney who serves as an administrative law judge and represents prison inmates in their parole hearings. His breadth of experience would make him an asset to the Superior Court.

Office No. 48: Ericka J. Wiley
Wiley, a deputy public defender, is a standout. She has handled capital murder and other special circumstances cases, and served as a supervisor in the Bellflower courthouse. Her demeanor is calm but commands respect, and makes her well-suited to the bench.

Office No. 93: Victor Avila
Avila, a deputy district attorney, is running unopposed. He is a well-regarded prosecutor and is likely to be a good judge.

Office No. 97: Sharon Ransom
Judges and defense lawyers note Ransom’s unflappable manner in seeking resolution of cases in the District Attorney’s mental health unit, and previously in prosecuting elder abuse and child molestation.

Office No. 115: Christmas Brookens
Brookens, a deputy district attorney, is particularly impressive when discussing the role of victims in criminal cases, displaying a depth of thought and analysis that would likely make her excel on the bench.

Office No. 124: Kimberly Repecka
Repecka is a capable and well-regarded deputy public defender. She is challenging incumbent Judge Emily Theresa Spear, who was publicly admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance in 2023.

Office No. 130: Leslie Gutierrez
She has a reputation as an ethical and hard-working deputy district attorney and is a skilled trial lawyer. She would make an outstanding judge.

Office No. 135: Steven Yee Mac
Mac is a deputy district attorney and also a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps, serving as a legal advisor to the Army. He earns high praise for his work as a trial lawyer.

Office No. 137: Tracey M. Blount
Blount represents Los Angeles County in Dependency Court, where judges must decide whether to remove children from their homes because of abuse or neglect, and then work with all the parties involved to eventually reunify the families.

Yes on Proposition 1
Proposition 1 is an important step forward in meeting California’s responsibility to the most vulnerable homeless people and those housed Californians with behavioral health problems most at risk of ending up on the street.

Adam Schiff for the U.S. Senate
Schiff stands out for his extraordinary leadership in the last several years in helping to protect the nation’s institutions, the rule of law and American democracy itself from former President Trump.

Laura Friedman for the 30th Congressional District
As a state legislator and former Glendale City Council member, Friedman has been a smart, principled policymaker who takes on difficult issues and finds ways to solve problems.

Kim Nguyen-Penaloza for the 45th Congressional District
Nguyen-Penaloza, a Garden Grove council member, has demonstrated that she can work across party lines to get things done for her community. She has expertise and passion for improving healthcare and medical insurance and she is a strong advocate for reproductive rights.

Dave Min for the 47th Congressional District
Min’s experience as a law professor and state senator make him the most qualified for the seat being vacated by Rep. Katie Porter

Opinion

Meet the candidates for California’s next U.S. Senator

The Times editorial board interviewed some of the leading candidates for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The conversations covered the economy, housing and how they would navigate Congressional dysfunction.

Jan. 14, 2024

The editorial board endorses selectively, choosing the most consequential races in which to make recommendations.