Los Angeles County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she is feeling confident after the first batch of election results were released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Tuesday night.
“I feel great,” Barger said in a phone interview. “I feel that my campaign reflected my values and the fact that I stood by my record, representing for the last eight years, and the voters, based on the early results, heard me loud and clear.”
Barger, a Republican, is being challenged by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, for a spot on the county Board of Supervisors. As of press time, Barger leads the non-partisan race with 60.21% of the 672,267 ballots that have been counted by the Registrar-Recorder as of Tuesday night. Holden has received 21.8% of the votes.
Also running for the seat are Konstantine Anthony, Perry Goldberg and Marlon Marroquin. Anthony has received 9.1% of the votes, with Goldberg sitting at 7.14% and Marroquin at 2.05%.
In order to avoid a run-off, the winner of the primary election needs to garner more than half of the votes, a simple majority.
Only mail-in ballots received by the Registrar-Recorder prior to Tuesday, as well as in-person votes cast prior to Tuesday, have been counted as of press time.
The 5th District encompasses the Santa Clarita Valley, the Antelope Valley and the San Gabriel Valley.
Holden said he is hopeful that as the days pass and more ballots are counted, the gap between him and Barger, who has held the seat since 2016, will tighten.
“I feel like there’s still a lot of votes out there to be counted,” Holden said in a phone interview. “This represents a small sampling, and there’s still a lot of competitive areas around the district where the votes aren’t reflected in the total yet.”
Barger said her focus is on representing all of her constituents, not focusing on which party they may belong to.
“I’ve said it all along: it’s not about party, it’s about people. And I listened to my constituents, each and every one, and their values, and my votes reflect what my constituents would expect. And it resonated.”
Holden said his campaign is about connecting values and issues to a community in a way that, in his opinion, has not been done. He referenced current issues such as homelessness and the issues at Pitchess Detention Center and the Chiquita Canyon Landfill.
“It kind of goes on and on,” Holden said. “The things about affordable housing and homeless issues where it’s gone up in the county by 9% in one year. So, there are a lot of urgent issues, and I think my campaign was focused on showing a history of 36 years in elected office of addressing issues in a way that goes right to the heart of what communities are looking for and making a difference in people’s lives for the best.”
Election results for the county are expected to be certified in full by the Registrar-Recorder on March 29. Further results are expected in the coming days.
The primary election is set for Nov. 5.
