Voters decide today in California’s 25th Congressional District who will serve out the remainder of a term that came open when Rep. Katie Hill (D) resigned last November.
Democrat Christy Smith, a member of the California State Assembly, and Republican Mike Garcia, a businessman and former Navy fighter pilot, are facing off in the election that features mailed-in ballots and some in-person voting, under an executive order from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Garcia and Smith were the top two vote-getters during an open primary in March. Smith won 35.8% of the vote, while Garcia was second with 25.1%, according to the Ballotpedia website. The winner of today’s runoff will serve until January 2021. The same two candidates will have a rematch in November for the right to represent the district for a full two-year term. The November general election will evidently accommodate both mail-in voting and in-person balloting locations, according to a Friday order from Newsom.
California’s 25th District includes portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Hill gave up the seat rather than face a House Ethics Committee investigation after she was publicly accused of having a sexual affair with a member of her staff, a violation of House rules.
During her brief time in Congress, Hill advocated expedited remediation of the 2,850-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County. The Energy Department, NASA, and Boeing are responsible for cleanup of the property, used for decades for research into rockets and nuclear energy.
