South Bay Democrat Ted Lieu claimed victory early Wednesday over Republican Elan Carr in the battle to succeed iconic retiring Westside Rep. Henry Waxman in the 33rd Congressional District.
With 382 of the 469 precincts reporting in the district that stretches from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Calabasas and Agoura Hills, Lieu was ahead 58.1 percent to 41.9 percent for Carr, a gang prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“The Associated Press called the race; I’m going to assume they’re correct,” Lieu said. “Absentees always tend to trend more Republican and the fact we were ahead after the absentees was a great sign. Then every time they updated we extended the lead.”
Lieu, a former Torrance City Council member who is completing a nine-year career in the Assembly and state Senate, was a heavy favorite to succeed Waxman.
Polling during the campaign showed Lieu led the 45-year-old deputy district attorney by almost 20 points in a district where Democratic registration leads Republican by a 17-point margin.
Lieu, an immigrant from Taiwan who had met with Democrat power brokers in Washington over the summer, was already eyeing a lengthy congressional career much like Waxman, who is stepping down after almost four decades in the nation’s capital.
But Lieu, who twice benefited from the untimely deaths of Democratic colleagues in the South Bay to win election to the state Legislature, has big shoes to fill.
Waxman was known for his fiercely liberal views and nationally recognized legislative accomplishments; Lieu has said he will adopt Waxman’s mantle of tackling climate change, an unfinished legislative legacy.
That could eventually include federal cap-and-trade legislation to offset greenhouse gases, similar to the system he helped put in place in California.
In contrast, Carr, an Army veteran and son of immigrants himself, had adopted an outsider’s stance, criticizing Washington’s “total dysfunction” as he sought to appeal to dissatisfied voters at odds with Lieu’s embrace of the political establishment.
Carr also had benefitted from independent expenditures from wealthy Republicans, but it wasn’t expected to make a difference.
Neither of the South Bay’s two other two local congressional races were seen as remotely competitive.
Indeed, San Pedro Rep. Janice Hahn was trouncing Peace & Freedom Party candidate Adam Shbeita in the 44th District, collecting 87.4 percent of the votes cast with 294 of 334 precincts reporting.
Veteran Democrat Maxine Waters, who like Waxman also enjoys national name identification, had 71 percent of the vote with 308 of 353 precincts reporting to 29 percent for Republican John Wood Jr. in the 43rd Congressional District.
