Cara Brown McCormick
With Councilmember Bob Blumenfield termed out after three terms, the West San Fernando Valley will choose a new council member for the first time since 2013, and the two candidates who advanced in the officially nonpartisan race are both Democrats.
More than half of District 3's registered voters are not Democrats, and whether those voters turn out could decide the runoff.
Tim Gaspar, who owns an insurance business in Canoga Park, finished first in the June primary with about 46 percent of the vote. Barri Worth Girvan, a longtime staffer to local and state officials, came in second with roughly 42.5 percent. Tech entrepreneur C.R. Celona took the remaining 11 percent.
The contest sets up the kind of matchup that has become common under California's nonpartisan top-two system. Gaspar is a business-backed moderate Democrat supported by law enforcement and former Councilman Blumenfield.
Worth Girvan has the support of organized labor and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
When party labels don't appear on the ballot, and no Republican or independent survives the primary, the November question is less about which party controls the seat and more about which wing of the same party the district's independents and unaffiliated voters prefer.
Barri Worth Girvan (D)
Worth Girvan has spent most of her career on the staff side of government, working for politicians at nearly every level. She interned for Rep. Brad Sherman, worked for Assemblymember Lloyd Levine, served as West Valley area director for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and was district director for state Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg. Her most recent post was community affairs director for LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, where she handled fire recovery and constituent services.
That resume is the center of her pitch to voters. "Delivering core city services is my bread and butter," she told the Los Angeles Times.
On homelessness, she wants more interim housing and treatment beds, county mental health services folded into the city's shelter efforts, and a transparent system to measure whether programs actually work. She supports using the city's anti-camping ordinance, Section 41.18, to clear encampments in sensitive areas, and she wants to grow the LAPD from under 9,000 officers to 12,000.
Tim Gaspar (D)
Gaspar grew up in Woodland Hills and Canoga Park, attended Pierce College, and graduated from Cal State Northridge. He built Gaspar Insurance Services and has served with the Woodland Hills/Warner Center Chamber of Commerce and the Metropolitan YMCA of Los Angeles. LAist describes him as a centrist Democrat.
He argues that City Hall needs someone from outside government. "They're missing the business perspective," he said of the current council.
Gaspar says he would not have voted for the current city budget, which he argues underfunds law enforcement. He opposes rent control, has criticized Mayor Karen Bass's Inside Safe program, and has floated contracting homelessness services to groups like the Salvation Army. He supports clearing encampments "swiftly and humanely."
About the District
District 3 takes in the southwest corner of the San Fernando Valley: Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Canoga Park, Winnetka, and Reseda. The community is debating the Warner Center/Rams Village redevelopment project, which would bring housing and a stadium district to Warner Center, over density, traffic, and what the West Valley should look like a decade from now.
The district has 144,383 registered voters. Democrats hold 47.5 percent of registrations and Republicans 21.5 percent. Another 23.8 percent register with No Party Preference, and 4.0 percent belong to the American Independent Party.
Add the NPP, Republican, and AIP voters together, and they make up about 49.3 percent of the electorate, nearly matching the Democratic share. In a runoff between two Democrats, turnout and which candidate voters decide they can live with could settle a contest where the party label on the ballot tells voters nothing.
The Staffer and the Businessman
The clearest contrast in the race is over what kind of experience voters want representing them. Worth Girvan argues that knowing how government actually works, which office to call and which lever to pull, is what gets potholes filled and constituents answered. Gaspar argues the council already has plenty of people who came up through government. What it lacks, he says, is someone who has run a business and had to make payroll.
Bob Hertzberg, the former state Senate Majority Leader for whom Worth Girvan once served as district director, has endorsed Gaspar.
SB 79: Who Decides Where Housing Goes
The clearest distinction between the two candidates is SB 79, the state law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in October 2025. It allows taller, denser housing near major transit stops, buildings up to 75 feet within a quarter mile of qualifying rail and bus stations and up to 65 feet within a half mile. The law overrides local zoning, including in some single-family neighborhoods, and it took effect July 1, 2026.
Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council opposed the law as an intrusion on local zoning control, and in March the council voted unanimously to adopt a phased plan that postpones the law's full effect in LA until 2030.
Worth Girvan supports SB 79, though she wants exemptions for high-fire-risk areas. The pro-housing group Abundant Housing LA endorses her.
Gaspar opposes the law outright. He argues the state should not dictate where or how housing gets built in LA neighborhoods, and that District 3 has already taken on its share of new development.
The question for voters is less about density itself and more about who makes the call: the state legislature in Sacramento, or the council member West Valley voters elect in November.
Endorsements and Money
Besides Horvath, Worth Girvan is endorsed by Assessor Jeffrey Prang, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and the LA County Federation of Labor. The LA County Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley also back her candidacy. Her list of union support is long: SEIU Locals 721 and 2015, SEIU-UHW, IBEW Local 11, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, AFT Local 1521, and the Communications Workers of America. The Sierra Club and Abundant Housing LA have also endorsed her, and the carpenters' union has run independent expenditures backing her in the runoff against Gaspar.
I am beyond honored to be endorsed by our County Supervisor, @lindseyforla!
— Barri Worth Girvan (@Barri4TheValley) March 29, 2026
She has uplifted and centered the West Valley as Supervisor— delivering on homelessness accountability, community outreach, and governance and ethics reform. pic.twitter.com/dr6hLB49iU
Gaspar has collected a bipartisan roster of support that includes the outgoing incumbent. Blumenfield is behind him, along with Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, Tim McOsker, and John Lee, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, Rep. Luz Rivas, Supervisor Kathryn Barger, developer Rick Caruso, former City Controller Laura Chick, and Bob Hertzberg. Law enforcement groups have lined up solidly behind him: the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, and the LA County Professional Peace Officers' Association. Unions and building trades also support him, including IBEW Locals 18 and 40. The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association round out his list. In the primary, independent expenditure committees funded by Airbnb, Uber, the California Apartment Association, and the Police Protective League all backed Gaspar.
Will Non-Democrats Decide District 3?
Every time two candidates from the same party advance to a general election, the same question surfaces: will NPP and Republican voters show up and pick the winner? An IVN editorial this week asked whether Republicans will skip Democrat-on-Democrat races, as many have in the past.
Bruce McPherson, the former California Secretary of State, put it plainly. "Republicans need to understand the importance of voting in down-ticket races, particularly when there is no Republican on the ballot."
Steve Peace, who cofounded the Independent Voter Project, sees the stakes differently:
"Partisan interests on both sides hate these 'same party' campaigns," he said. "They want people to believe that all Democrats are the same. All Republicans are the same. And all independents are irrelevant."
His advice to voters tempted to sit it out was blunter: "If you skip an election because you don't like a label, you are likely cutting off your nose to spite your face."
The math in District 3 backs up Peace’s point. More than 71,000 registered voters are Republicans, No Party Preference, or members of the American Independent Party, slightly more than the district's 68,575 Democrats. Gaspar and Worth Girvan finished about 1,700 votes apart on June 2, and the roughly 5,400 voters who backed C.R. Celona are unclaimed.
Both wings of the Democratic Party will be watching the Valley to see whose message carries the day. The voters most likely to settle it are the ones neither wing of the party is talking to.