Analysis guides › LA Forward
LA Forward
Source: https://www.laforward.org/voterguide (retrieved 2026-10-07)
Notes: Partial guide. LA Forward says the full version, with all ballot prop write-ups plus dozens of LA County cities and school districts, will be published by Friday, October 9, 2026. Recheck it then.
Race-by-race summaries
| Item | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| LA County Measure A | No | Binding arbitration for public-safety unions, including sheriff's deputies, shifts bargaining power to them. It takes pay decisions away from elected officials and risks the county budget: the county CEO warns of workforce cuts and a credit downgrade. |
| LA County Measure E | Yes | Gives the Ethics Commission more independence. It also restores Measure J's 10% of general funds for community investment and alternatives to incarceration, which a 2024 drafting error dropped from the charter. |
| LA County Sheriff | Robert Luna | Not very progressive, but far better than the right-wing Alex Villanueva. Ended Villanueva's retaliatory raids and touts reforms such as a deputy-gang ban and body cameras. |
| Superior Court Judge, Office 64 | Maria Ghobadi | Serious concerns about the professionalism of the main progressive option, Rhonda Haymon. Ghobadi is a prosecutor but has broad Democratic club and union backing. |
| Superior Court Judge, Office 65 | Justin A. Clayton or Anna S. Reitano (either) | Both are good. Clayton is a longtime public defender backed by the PD union, WFP and the county Democratic Party. Reitano is a former public defender now at County Counsel, backed by newspapers and Democratic clubs. Both are rated "Qualified" by the bar. |
| Superior Court Judge, Office 87 | Anthony (A.J.) Bayne | Has 30 years' experience, including public defender work, and a "Well Qualified" bar rating. Opponent DeJute is backed by conservatives (Caruso, Thrive). |
| Superior Court Judge, Office 131 | David Ross | Both candidates are public defenders and would be good. Ross gets the edge for more progressive support (La Defensa) and for refusing police, corporate and PAC money. Tryfman is backed by the conservative group Thrive. |
| LA City Mayor | Nithya Raman | 90% of LA Forward members chose her. Bass has fallen short on management and communication and appeased the police union and Airbnb. Raman's record covers crisis response, renter protections, sanctuary policy and charter reform, and she focuses on making City Hall work. |
| LA City Attorney | Marissa Roy | Would turn the office into a public-interest law firm for workers, tenants and immigrants. Opponent McKinney is a tough-on-crime prosecutor backed by Republicans, the police union and $3M of Airbnb spending. |
| LA City Council District 3 | Barri Worth Girvan | Pro-housing, against criminalizing homelessness, for unarmed crisis response and climate action. Not a movement progressive, but her opponent is backed by the police union, landlords and real estate interests. |
| LA City Council District 9 | Estuardo Mazariegos | ACCE co-director with a long record organizing tenants and immigrants. Won't expand LAPD and refuses corporate money. Opponent Ugarte is a City Hall insider fined $25K for undisclosed lobbying income and backed by hotel owners. |
| LA City Measure TE – Fire-victim transfer tax exemption | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure LA – Infrastructure, budget and contracting charter amendment | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure PL – City planning charter amendment | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure EE – Ethics, elections and governance charter amendment | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure PRK – Recreation and parks budget | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure PRT – Airports, Harbor, and DWP charter amendment | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure FD – Fire Department half-cent sales tax | Not covered | Not covered |
| LA City Measure SC – School board campaign finance | Not covered | Not covered |
| Burbank City Council (3 seats) | Not covered | Not covered |
| West Hollywood City Council (3 seats) | Not covered | Not covered |
| Prop 1 – Affordable housing bond | Yes | $11.25B bond for housing aimed at the lowest-income Californians: about 40K new homes and $1B for supportive housing. The state spends only about 0.5% of its budget on housing. |
| Prop 2 – Rainy day fund | Yes | Raises the reserve cap from 10% to 20% to cushion volatile revenue (the state swung from a $101B surplus to a $47B deficit). The LAO suggested an even higher cap. |
| Prop 3 – High-earner income tax permanent | Yes | Makes the tax on the top 2% of earners permanent; it otherwise expires in 2031. It funds TK-14 schools and isn't a new tax. Losing it would force cuts on top of federal cuts. |
| Prop 4 – Public financing of elections | Yes | Lifts the statewide ban so localities can choose public campaign financing. It spends nothing by itself and counters big-donor influence. LA City already has public financing. |
| Prop 5 – Recall election reform | Yes | Drops the replacement question from recall ballots and fills the vacancy by normal rules (the Lt. Governor, or a special election). That stops someone becoming governor with a small plurality. |
| Prop 37 – Homeownership housing bond | No | Leans no. The $25B bond for new ownership housing lets households up to 200% of area median income qualify, and its silent-second loans favor upper-middle incomes, which could widen racial wealth gaps. Limiting it to new construction may also fuel sprawl. |
| Prop 38 – Immunology research bond | No | $8.4B research bond with half going to one new institute whose co-founders gave $13.2M to the Yes campaign. |
| Prop 39 – Voter ID | No | Voter ID for a nonexistent fraud problem. It would suppress votes, slow counting and cost hundreds of millions. Backed by Carl DeMaio and wealthy or out-of-state donors. |
| Prop 40 | Yes | No write-up yet ("coming soon"). The Prop 42 write-up calls Prop 40 the billionaires' tax. |
| Prop 41 | No | No write-up yet ("coming soon"). The Prop 42 write-up says the same backers are pushing Props 41 and 42 to defeat Prop 40. |
| Prop 42 – Personal asset tax ban | No | Bans new taxes on personal assets other than real property, a move aimed at nullifying Prop 40's billionaires' tax. No one is actually proposing to tax ordinary people's assets. Backers have raised about $60M. |
| Prop 43 – Local tax requirements | No | Backed by Howard Jarvis. Would make local revenue measures harder to pass (citizen initiatives now need only a simple majority), starving services such as roads and fire response. |
| Prop 44 – Health center spending | No | Requires community health centers to spend 90% of revenue on programs. The rigid formula could force closures (an estimated $1.7B in first-year penalties). Sponsor SEIU-UHW's accountability goal is fine but the mechanism is wrong. |
| Prop 45 – CEQA changes | No | A Chamber of Commerce rewrite of CEQA for "essential" projects: rigid timelines, a 45-day cap on public comment, limited court review and less tribal consultation. The 2025 reforms already streamlined housing. |
| CA Supreme Court justices | Retain all | No reasoning given. |
| 2nd District Court of Appeal justices | Retain all | No reasoning given. |
| Governor | Xavier Becerra | "Block MAGA." No other reasoning given. |
| Lieutenant Governor | Fiona Ma | Ma "hasn't been great" but is better than her Republican opponent. |
| Attorney General | No recommendation | Describes the office only; no candidates discussed. |
| Secretary of State | Shirley Weber | Incumbent who expanded ballot access and beat the DOJ lawsuit seeking California's unredacted voter roll. |
| Treasurer | No recommendation | Eleni Kounalakis, the only Democrat, has the right priorities and strong labor and establishment backing but few specifics. Her family's real estate wealth and her 2023 vote delaying UCLA student housing raise questions. |
| Controller | Malia Cohen | Incumbent with an affordable-housing record (property tax abatements, $804M in student housing bonds) and tax relief for fire victims. Backed by labor and environmental groups. |
| Insurance Commissioner | Jane Kim | Two good candidates; Ben Allen is praised too. Kim gets the nod for her progressive record and ideas (Natural Disaster Insurance for All, a public auto insurance option). Takes no insurance-industry money. |
| Superintendent of Public Instruction | No recommendation | Describes the office only; no candidates discussed. |
| Board of Equalization, District 1 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Board of Equalization, District 2 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Board of Equalization, District 3 | Samuel Sukaton | Progressive alternative to frontrunner Mike Gipson, who has taken $180K+ from oil and gas. Sukaton is a WFP-endorsed labor organizer. |
| Board of Equalization, District 4 | Not covered | Not covered |
| State Senate District 20 | Caroline Menjivar | Progressive incumbent: renter protections, behavioral health, labor, reproductive freedom. |
| State Senate District 22 | No recommendation | Incumbent Susan Rubio leads the corporate Democrats; her only challengers are more conservative. |
| State Senate District 24 | John Erickson | West Hollywood councilmember and former mayor: highest minimum wage in the nation, rent caps, unarmed crisis response. WFP-endorsed. Opponent Brian Goldsmith is a political consultant. |
| State Senate District 26 | Sarah Rascón | Rooted in the community, environmental justice and immigrant Eastside LA. Opponent Sara Hernandez is strong but establishment and "abundance"-aligned, backed by landlords and realtors, and won't commit to overturning Ellis Act or Costa-Hawkins. |
| State Senate District 28 | Lola Smallwood-Cuevas | Incumbent Senate Labor chair, a reliable progressive and WFP-endorsed. No substantive challenger. |
| State Senate District 30 | No recommendation | Incumbent Bob Archuleta is a disappointing Democrat whose only challenger is a Republican; he's a lock to win. |
| State Senate District 34 | Not covered | Not covered |
| State Senate District 36 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Assembly District 34 | Randall Putz | The only Democrat in an open, Republican-leaning seat. |
| Assembly District 39 | No recommendation | No explicit recommendation. Juan Carrillo is effectively uncontested: district-focused (warehouse bill AB 98) but not strongly progressive, with landlord, prison-guard and fossil fuel donors. Residents should push him. |
| Assembly District 40 | Pilar Schiavo | Labor veteran (nurses) holding a swing district; all her 2025 bills were signed. Wish she were more progressive on criminal justice. |
| Assembly District 41 | John Harabedian | Focused on fire recovery; no real challenger. |
| Assembly District 42 | Deborah Klein Lopez | Environmental track record (climate resilience, former Clean Power Alliance chair), the most grassroots donors and broad union support. |
| Assembly District 43 | Celeste Rodriguez | "More analysis to come." No reasoning yet. |
| Assembly District 44 | Nick Schultz | "More analysis to come." No reasoning yet. |
| Assembly District 46 | No recommendation | No explicit recommendation. Jesse Gabriel has been frustrating on housing, homelessness and criminal justice; no real challenger. |
| Assembly District 48 | No recommendation | Blanca Rubio leads the moderate wing and takes oil and charter money. She opposed the oil-well buffer bill (SB 1137) and worker-protection bills. |
| Assembly District 49 | Mike Fong | Establishment, but a solid progressive record (A+ from Courage California), though he abstains more than any other legislator. |
| Assembly District 51 | No recommendation | No explicit recommendation. Rick Zbur drifted to the center: police union money, backing Raman's police-funded challenger, and opposing the rent cap (SB 417) and Make Polluters Pay. Left challenger Colin Hernandez lacks traction. |
| Assembly District 52 | No recommendation | No explicit recommendation. Jessica Caloza is a middle-of-the-road Democrat, not a progressive champion. |
| Assembly District 53 | No recommendation | Michelle Rodriguez ran on a tough-on-crime platform with police endorsements; she succeeded her husband, who got F ratings. |
| Assembly District 54 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Assembly District 55 | Isaac Bryan | A leading progressive on incarceration, police accountability, renters and homelessness. |
| Assembly District 56 | No recommendation | Lisa Calderon blocks criminal justice reform and takes fossil fuel, police and real estate money (C/D ratings). No challenger from the left. |
| Assembly District 57 | Sade Elhawary | The heading names her but has nothing under it. |
| Assembly District 61 | Tina McKinnor | Former organizer, strong on labor, racial justice and housing; sides with tenants and workers. |
| Assembly District 62 | José Solache | First-term incumbent with a "pleasantly surprising" voting record. |
| Assembly District 64 | No recommendation | Blanca Pacheco is a moderate with an F from Courage California. She authored a public-records fee bill (AB 1821) and didn't support the Social Housing Act. |
| Assembly District 65 | No recommendation | Has a heading with nothing under it. |
| Assembly District 66 | Sara Deen | Backed by partner Indivisible South Bay. As PV school board president she handled book-ban and LGBTQ+ debates; supports healthcare access and has healthcare union backing. |
| Assembly District 67 | No recommendation | Has a heading with nothing under it. |
| Assembly District 69 | Josh Lowenthal | Incumbent who leans left: pro-labor, anti-Big Tech, pro-electrification, against ICE raids. Opponent Carolyn Essex is little known. |
| Congressional District 23 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 26 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 27 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 28 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 29 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 30 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 31 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 32 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 34 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 35 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 36 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 37 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 38 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 41 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 42 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 43 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 44 | Not covered | Not covered |
| Congressional District 45 | Not covered | Not covered |