Ricardo Lara, who has been involved in state politics for several years but is new to the Southeast area, easily won the Democratic nomination for the 50th Assembly District seat Tuesday in unofficial results from the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters office.

Lara will face the Republican winner Gladys Miller of South Gate in the Nov. 2 general election.

Miller had 61 percent of the vote to defeat P.J. Mellana of Bellflower.
Lara, a Bell Gardens resident and an aide to Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, D-Lincoln Heights, received 43.5 percent of the vote on the Democratic side to defeat South Gate City Clerk Carmen Avalos, who had 30.5 percent in unofficial balloting.

Downey Mayor Pro Tem Luis Marquez, an aide to state Sen. Allan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, was third in the balloting with 14.5 percent of the vote and former Bellflower City Councilman Art Olivier received 11.3 percent of the vote.

“I am very proud of our grassroots campaign. We did not have the resources [of Lara] but we had great community support,” Marquez said Tuesday night.

Prior to working for De Leon, Lara was an aide to former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles.

The candidates are seeking to replace Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, who is being termed out of office.

De La Torre ran for the state insurance commissioner nomination but lost to Assemblyman David Jones, D-Sacramento, in the Democratic race. Jones finished with 51.59 percent of the vote to 48.4 percent for De La Torre.

The 50th District includes southern Downey, Bell, Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Commerce, Lynwood and South Gate.

In another race with local connections, Huntington Park Mayor John Noguez was the leading vote-getter in the race to succeed County Assessor Rick Auerbach. Noguez had Auerbach’s endorsement and received 27.8 percent of the vote. He will face John Wong of Commerce, chairperson of the assessment appeals board, in the Nov. 2 general election. Wong received 12.6 percent of the vote.

Auerbach retired in May. The county Board of Supervisors have appointed Robert Quon to serve the remaining eight months of Auerbach’s term.

Other candidates included Yolanda Salazar, a deputy assessor from Downey, finished fourth with 10.53 percent of the vote.

Unofficial results from other area races, according to figures from the Registrar’s office, include:

• 46th Assembly District: Assembly Speaker John Perez was unopposed for re-election in the Democratic primary and received 71,000 votes. He has no opposition in November, either.
• 30th state Senate District: State Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, is seeking re-election and was unopposed in the primary. Republican Warren Willis, a retired missionary, of La Mirada, received 10,891 votes to 4,453 for Noel Jaimes, also of La Mirada. Calderon and Willis will clash Nov. 2. The district serves Whittier, Montebello, Pico Rivera and much of the Southeast.

• 34th Congressional District: Incumbent Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, easily defeated David Sanchez for the Democratic nomination. Roybal-Allard received 70 percent of the vote.

On the Republican side, frequent candidate Wayne Miller, South Gate, was unopposed. Roybal-Allard and Miller will face each other Nov. 2.

The 34th District includes Bell, Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Boyle Heights, Commerce, Cudahy, Downey, Downtown Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Little Tokyo, Maywood, South Park, South Gate, Vernon, Walnut Park and portions of Chinatown, East Los Angeles, Florence, Pico Union and Westlake.

• 39th Congressional District: Linda Sánchez, D-Cerritos, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. On Nov. 2 she faces Republican Larry Andre, a teacher, minister and businessman from Lakewood; and John Smith, a fiber optics engineer from La Mirada of the American Independent Party.

The district includes Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, La Mirada, Lakewood, Long Beach, Los Nietos, Lynwood, Paramount and South Gate; 68 percent of Whittier and the unincorporated communities of Watts, Willowbrook and Florence-Graham.

In county races, Supervisor Gloria Molina and Sheriff Lee Baca are unopposed in both the June primary and November general election, meaning they are looking forward to another four-year term. Molina will be termed out of office four years from now.

And in a ballot measure affecting Southeast residents, a proposed $100 parcel tax to help the Los Angeles Unified School District close its budget deficit was rejected by voters.

Measure E was supported by more than half of voters, but it required a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

The proposal would have imposed a $100 levy on each piece of taxable real property within the LAUSD boundaries, regardless of value.

The assessment would have been added to the county tax bill for each affected property.