Voters  in California’s 36th Congressional District headed to the polls  yesterday to cast their ballots in the first special election  for a US House seat to be held under the state’s new top-two open primary  system.  The semi-official tally indicates that Democrats Janice Hahn and  Debra Bowen will proceed to the special general election on July 12.

With  100% of precincts reporting, LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn came  first in the race with 24.7% support.  In second place was Secretary of  State Debra Bowen at 21.5%.  Bowen was followed by Republican  businessman Craig Huey, who had garnered 20.4% of the vote.  Republican  Mike Gin and progressive Democrat Marcy Winograd rounded out the top  five.

[Update:  Craig Huey has now pulled ahead of Bowen in the still semi-official tally of the County of Los Angeles Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.  Huey now has 21.87% support to Bowen's 21.48%, and leads by 206 votes. Stay tuned...]

Under  special primary election rules, if no candidate receives more than 50%  of the vote, only the top two proceed to the general election.  In the  present case, Hahn and Bowen, the top two, did not garner a majority of  votes even when their totals are combined!

Turnout  was extremely low over the course of the day.  Just 7.6% of the  district’s roughly 350,000 voters had gone to the polls by 4pm,  according to local reports.  In the end, only 15% of registered voters cast a ballot in the race. Perhaps  they were turned off by the tenor of the contest between Bowen and  Hahn.  In the final days before  the primary, each side pointed out that the other is beholden to  corporate interests rather than those of the people.

"The  fact is, Debra Bowen has accepted more than $300,000 in special  interest money from big oil, health insurance & drug companies,  gambling interests, Wall Street banks, big phone companies, developers  and even Enron," said the Hahn campaign in a mailer sent out last week.

The Bowen campaign responded, stating that Hahn had herself received  hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists, developers and a  medical malpractice insurance group, as well as about $20,000 in  campaign contributions from oil and gas interests.

Fortunately,  then, they were not the only two candidates in the primary race, though  they will likely be the only two candidates in the general election runoff.  Nonetheless, individuals who chose not to squander the opportunity to  vote in the primary had a wide array of candidates to choose from,  including three other Democrats, six Republicans, three Independents,  one Peace and Freedom Party candidate, and one Libertarian.

One  of the Independent candidates in the race, Matthew Roozee, a business  executive and mathematician, had touted his lack of experience in  politics as an asset to his candidacy.  "I have no experience driving the  City of Angels into the ground or in bankrupting the Golden State," said  Roozee, contrasting himself with Hahn and Bowen during a debate held  late last month in Venice.  Roozee garnered less than 1% of the vote  according to the semi-official tally at the Secretary of State’s office.

Another  Independent candidate in the race, Michael Chamness, ran primarily in  opposition to the top-two open primary itself.  Indeed, as he reportedly stated during the Venice debate, his candidacy was aimed primarily at  mounting a case against the new primary system itself.  He even endorsed  Democrat Marcy Winograd.

Earlier  this year, Chamness filed a lawsuit against Bowen in her capacity as  Secretary of State, arguing that the implementing law for Proposition 14  – namely, Senate Bill 6, passed in February 2009 – is unconstitutional  on the grounds that it discriminates against Independent candidates and  minor parties.  In fact, some  voters might have noticed yesterday that there were no “Independent”  candidates listed on their ballot.  This was not a matter of chance.   Senate Bill 6 does not allow any candidate to list their affiliation as  “Independent” on the ballot.  Instead, candidates who would have been  allowed to call themselves “Independent” under the old system are now  made to state that they have “no party preference.”  As a member of the  so-called Coffee Party, which is not officially recognized by the state,  Chamness’s suit alleges that SB6 effectively forces him to lie to voters  because it does not allow him to state his actual party preference on  the ballot.

Oral  arguments in Chamness’s suit are scheduled for June 13, despite recent  efforts by Bowen’s office to have the matter postponed.  If the suit  prevails, Prop 14 would effectively be put on hold until the legislature  tweaked the law to bring it into accordance with the ruling.