Wispy rumors of a national Republican avalanche yesterday were as remote and irrelevant on the Westside as tomorrow afternoon’s weather forecast in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Although most Democrats virulently oppose capital punishment, yesterday’s Westside slaughter of victory-starved Republican lambs augers otherwise.
[img]985|left|Curren Price||no_popup[/img]Out of a maximum of 300 percent of votes in three separate elections among the three politicians serving Greater Culver City, state Sen. Curren D. Price (D-Culver City), newcomer Holly J. Mitchell and U.S. Rep.-elect Karen Bass (D-Culver City), accumulated an eye-popping 247 percent.
Ms. Mitchell, running for the term-limited Ms. Bass’s seat in the state Assembly, scored — you will excuse the excessive description — the narrowest win among the three politicians.
[img]986|left|Holly Mitchell||no_popup[/img]Ms. Mitchell, a familiar figure in Sacramento but new to electoral politics, describes herself as a working mother in her upper 40s who is a social justice activist.
Relative to other avalanches, she scored a slender success with a mere 81 percent of the vote. She drew 74,851votes to run away from perennial Republican contender Lady Cage, 13,485 or 14.6 percent.
A ‘way distant third in the Assembly race was Libertarian Sean P. McGary, 4,106 or 4.4 percent.
Sen. Price Jr., first elected to the Senate a year ago last May to fill out Mark Ridley-Thomas’s term after Mr. Ridley-Thomas was voted onto the County Board of Supervisors, made his re-election look effortless.
Sen. Price was a virtual legislative whirlwind in Sacramento this calendar year, his first full one, and voters must have noticed.
Four years after he was originally elected to the state Assembly, Sen. Price clobbered his Republican opponent even worse than he did 18 months ago.
Sen. Price, a former Inglewood City Councilman who turns 60 years old next month, won 81.6 percent of the vote, 122,443, to a mere 13.6 percent, 20,391 votes, for Rabbi Nachum Shifren.
The rabbi said he was much better funded and organized than last year. He expected to come much closer this time, but finished much farther out of the running.
Last year, Sen. Price’s lopsided win was tighter, by a 3-to-1 margin, 69.7 percent to the rabbi’s 23.7 percent.
The Libertarian candidate, as usual, was a non-factor last night, as Bob Weber drew 2.6 percent of the vote, 3,826. Peace and Freedom Party contender Cindy Varela-Henderson was named on 3,438 ballots, 2.2 percent.
The breeziest regional winner, unsurprisingly, was Ms. Bass, the former Speaker of the Assembly, running for the Congressional seat vacated by Diane Watson, who announced last spring that she was retiring at the age of 76.
Ms. Watson promptly anointed Ms. Bass to succeed her, and that was tantamount to victory.
The 57-year-old Ms. Bass swamped Republican James L. Andion, 86.4 percent to 13.6 percent with 106,432 votes to 16,844.
