Bass-endorsed Kamlager tops field in race to fill open seat in Congress

Former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry holds a 1,085-vote lead Wednesday over Culver City Mayor Daniel W. Lee for the second spot on the Nov. 8 ballot in the 37th Congressional District.

Sen. Sydney Kamlager leads the field of seven candidates seeking to succeed Rep. Karen Bass with 41.7% of the vote, according to unofficial results released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. Updated figures will be released Friday.

Perry has 18.5% of the vote and Lee 16.2%. Each of the top three candidates is a Democrat. All four other candidates have less than 10% of the vote.

Bass opted to run for mayor of Los Angeles instead of re-election.

Bass has endorsed Kamlager to represent the predominantly Democratic district that stretches from South Los Angeles to Culver City.

Kamlager said she is focused on “expanding voting rights,” “reproductive justice,” “health care for all,” “criminal justice reform focused on diversion, redemption and rehabilitation,” “job creation to create economic justice and opportunities for all communities” and “innovative investment in housing.”

Kamlager, D-Baldwin Hills, was elected to the state Senate in a 2021 special election to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, after serving in the Assembly since 2018. Kamlager was a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees from 2015-18.

Kamlager has also been endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and seven other statewide elected officials, Mitchell and fellow Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank.

Perry pledged that, if elected, her top priorities as a congresswoman would be “preserving the environment, improving education, stopping an alarming increase in violent crime, expanding access to affordable, quality health care, and ensuring that America pursues a foreign policy that is sane, just, and maintains our strong support for our allies.”

Perry served on the Los Angeles City Council from 2001-13. She unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2013 after being prohibited from running for re-election and the Second District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2020.

Perry was general manager of the Los Angeles Economic & Workforce Development Department from 2013-2018.

Perry’s endorsements include Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and former Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, who represented the district from 2001-11.

Lee describes himself as “a true progressive who believes in aggressively addressing environmental racism and the climate crisis with a just transition for workers and a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, reproductive justice, diplomacy focused foreign policy, ending qualified immunity, comprehensive immigration reform and implementing a universal basic income.”

Lee become the first Black elected to the Culver City City Council in 2018 and became mayor in 2021 in the rotation system among the five council members. He has a doctorate in social work from USC and a master’s degree in social welfare from UCLA.

Lee served in the Air Force and California Air National Guard, was an organizer for the South Los Angeles-based social justice organization Community Coalition and an environmental justice fellow at the social justice foundation the Liberty Hill Foundation.

The field also consists of two other Democrats — Sandra Mendoza, who has served as a commissioner on Los Angeles County’s Women and Girls Initiative, and journalist Michael Shure — and two Republicans — business owner Chris Champion and private equity investor Baltazar “Bong” Fedalizo.

More from Los Angeles