AD-43: Gatto v Nahabedian, round 1 is today!

Nayiri Nahabedian	Mike Gatto

Today is the special election in the 43rd Assembly district. MadProfessah has endorsed Mike Gatto, while the Stonewall Democratic Club (of which I am a member of the "board" or steering committee) has endorsed Nayiri Nahabedian. However, the LGBT community is clearly split between the candidates.

In the very likely event that no candidate gets more than 50%, the two will continue to battle on until June 8, 2010 when there are two simultaneous elections: a run-off between the top Democratic vote getter in today's election versus the top Republican and a primary election where the top Democratic vote getter adavances to the November 2010 ballot in this overwhelmingly Democratic district. The person who wins the first election only gets to serve until Janauary, while the person who wins the second election will get to serve either 2 (or more likely 6) years.

We'll know which one has the advantage going into the June 8, 2010 elections when the returns come back today, but already one thing is clear, this race will probably break records for turnout in a special election. As of last Wednesday, more than 16,000 absentee ballots had been received by the Los Angeles County Recorder-Registrar (8% of the electorate).

For updates through the night, check lavote.net.