Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican who has represented parts of Riverside County for more than three decades, was leading challenger Will Rollins in a rematch of their 2022 race for California’s 41st Congressional District. The Associated Press hasn’t called the race yet, but Calvert claimed victory on his social media accounts Monday, thanking Riverside County voters who have “once again placed their trust in me.”

Rollins wasn’t giving up. There could still be at least 80,000 votes left to count between mail ballots and conditional ballots, he said in a statement Monday, declaring the race “too close to call.” 

The Rollins campaign cited discrepancies in the total number of ballots the Riverside County Registrar of Voters has reportedly received by mail. There are more than 40,000 unprocessed ballots from the district, more than 35,000 uncounted ballots and more than 11,000 conditional ballots, his campaign estimated.

The 41st District also has the highest number of “uncured” ballots — those with small technical errors — of any competitive congressional race in California. Rollins argues the remaining ballots could still move the needle on the race.

“Our campaign is following the election results extremely closely, with eyes and ears at the Registrar of Voters every single day,” Rollins said. 

His challenge to Calvert was one of a handful of swing races that could decide which party controls the House of Representatives. But Republicans are well on their way to taking both the House and Senate, along with the White House, regardless of final results in the Inland Empire.

Palm Springs Councilmember Lisa Middleton conceded her race for California’s new 19th Senate District to incumbent State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh. The candidates were statistically tied when polls closed last week, but Ochoa Bogh’s lead widened in the following days to more than 7 points Tuesday.

“I congratulate my opponent Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh,” Middleton said in a statement. “I wish her success and promise cooperation in representing the people of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. … We have lost a race. We remain steadfast to our values. I will continue to work with all who are committed to freedom, fairness, and opportunity for all.”

And Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis inched ahead of Palm Springs City Councilmember Christy Holstege by a fraction of a point in the race for the 47th state Assembly District, reversing her slight lead. That race, divided by just a few hundred votes, is still listed as a close contest on the Secretary of State’s website.

The state Senate and Assembly races won’t change the political equation in California’s legislature, where Democrats still hold a supermajority.

However, all three races dampen their supporters’ hopes of increasing LGBTQ representation in California. Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, is gay. Middleton is a former state administrator, and hoped to become the first transgender lawmaker in California if elected. Holstege, a civil rights attorney, identifies as bisexual.

None of them made sexual or gender identity a centerpiece of their campaigns, instead focusing on issues such as infrastructure, the environment and public safety. But LGBTQ leaders in the Coachella Valley, which is part of all three districts, said they’re bracing for rollbacks of civil rights including attacks on same-sex marriage and transgender protections under a second Trump administration, the Desert Sun reported. 

The post Republicans fend off Democratic challengers in three key Inland Empire races appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Samuel Garrett | Contributed

Growing her coalition of support for her campaign for State Senate District 19, Palm Springs City Councilwoman Lisa Middleton earned the influential endorsement of CFT, which represents more than 120,000 educators across California working at every level from Head Start to the University of California. Both of Middleton’s adult children are public school educators.

In announcing their endorsement of Middleton, CFT released the following statement: “Lisa Middleton is a lifelong advocate for our public schools, teachers and school staff, and the students we serve. San Bernardino and Riverside Counties deserve a champion like Lisa who will fight in Sacramento to pay educators what they deserve and give every child a shot at success. That’s why CFT is proud to support Lisa Middleton for Senate.” — Jeff Freitas, CFT President Lisa Middleton is a neighborhood advocate, longtime public servant and member of the Palm Springs City Council, where she has delivered pragmatic, common-sense solutions to some of the Coachella Valley’s greatest challenges.

On the City Council, Lisa has helped improve local transportation systems, combat climate change, build more affordable housing and address the region’s homelessness crisis. As Mayor in 2022, Lisa led the City’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic — helping small businesses reopen and create good-paying jobs. When Lisa was first elected to the City Council in 2017, she made history as the first transgender person elected to a non-judicial political office in the state of California. In 2022, she served as the first transgender Mayor in California’s history.

If elected to the Senate, Lisa would make history again as the first out transgender person to serve in the California Legislature. Lisa currently represents Palm Springs on the Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) and the Sunline Transit Board of Directors, where she works with partners from neighboring cities to provide high-quality transportation services to the region. She is a member of the CalPERS Board of Administration — helping build retirement and health security for 1.5 million California state and local school employees, retirees and their families — and Second Vice President of the League of California Cities (Cal Cities).

Lisa also serves on Equality California Institute’s Board of Directors. She previously served as Chair of the Cal Cities Revenue & Taxation Policy Committee and as a member of the California State Department of Transportation Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force. Prior to her election to the City Council, Lisa served as a member of the Palm Springs Planning Commission, Chairwoman of the Organized Neighborhoods of Palm Springs (ONE-PS), and Interim Executive Director of the Desert LGBTQ Center. In April 2019, Lisa was appointed to the Board of Administrators of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), which provides pensions to 1.9 million people and health benefits to over 1.5 million people with investment assets exceeding $450 billion.

She serves as Chair of the organization’s Risk & Audit Committee and Vice Chair of the Governance Committee. This came after Lisa retired from her 36 year-career with California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund, where she moved her way up the ranks. Her first job in government entailed performing workers compensation audits in the factories and meat-packing plants not far from where she grew up. At her retirement, she was the Senior Vice President of Internal Affairs; she also previously Chaired California’s Fraud Assessment Commission.

A first-generation college student who grew up in a working-class community in East Los Angeles, Lisa is a graduate of UCLA and USC, receiving her Master’s in Public Administration from USC. Lisa has been widely recognized for her work, earning awards from the California Workers Compensation Institute, Palm Springs Pride Association, Equality California, Democratic Women of the Desert, SAGE/LGBT Senior Advocates and the California State Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. Together since 2000, Lisa and her wife Cheryl married in 2013 shortly after they moved to Palm Springs. Lisa is also the proud parent of two accomplished educators.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post CFT endorses Lisa Middleton in SD-19 bid appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Evan Symon | Contributor

Palm Springs City Councilwoman Lisa Middleton, the first transgender person elected to public office in Californian history, announced her run for the 19th Senate District this week, planning to face off against incumbent Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) next year.

Middleton, a graduate of USC did not enter politics until she was in her 60’s. She served as an employee of the State Compensation Insurance Fund for 36 years, and underwent gender transition to a woman in the mid-1990s. In 2017, she was first elected to the Palm Springs City Council and became the first transgender person to be elected to public office in Californian history. Middleton quickly gained a number of non-elected positions in the following years, including being selected for the Riverside County Transportation Committee, and being chosen by Governor Gavin Newsom for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) Board of Administration in 2019.

In December 2021, Middleton became the first transgender Mayor of California, gaining the seat due to the Council’s 1-year rotating Mayor seat. Returning to the Council this past December, she was now free to look at other political options, leading to her decision to run for State Senate on Tuesday.

In her announcement on Tuesday, Middleton said she would focus on transportation and logistics issues, noting that older transportation networks and the growth of the warehouse industry in the Inland Empire were both problems needing to be addressed in Sacramento for the district.

“I think I can make a difference in Sacramento,” said Middleton. I plan to be a very pragmatic candidate and a problem solver and we’ve got some major problems that need to be solved. I would work to upgrade the Inland Empire’s transportation infrastructure. They are essentially on the same freeways and in the same transportation networks that existed when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in Bell Gardens. As demand for large Inland warehouses continues, we need to start planning for this kind of growth. And that is going to require the state getting involved in that planning process.”

She also noted more broader support for hot button Californian issues, such as extreme weather emergency planning, and homelessness. On the later, she also noted that “We need to be much, much more involved in preventing people from ending up on our streets and providing the kind of support for those who have mental health issues and addiction issues so they do not spiral down into homelessness.”

A Strong GOP Opponent in the 19th

However, Middleton faces an uphill battle in the 19th district. While the former district in the area was generally more favorable to Democrats, the new boundaries, which stretch from the area outside of San Bernardino to North of the Salton Sea to the Nevada Border to the Northeast of Lancaster, has brought more GOP leaning voters into the fold. Amongst registered voters, the Democrats only have a slight 2% lead in the area. Even more, the incumbent, Senator Ochoa Bogh, has proven to be extremely popular in the area, having been the first GOP Latina voted to the state Senate in 2020, upsetting the Democratic candidate in the election.

“Ochoa Bogh is solid in a lot of areas there,” explained San Bernardino County pollster Sylvia Cortez to the Globe on Wednesday. “The Latino community is largely for her. Women are largely for her. Republicans are with her. And, most importantly, she tends to be more moderate, and that has gotten her a lot of support from voters without a party.

“Ochoa Bogh has also been controversy free, is close to education issues, and has really just been proving herself in the Senate. Middleton does have strong support in Palm Springs, and being transgender, can get a lot more voters who otherwise wouldn’t vote to look at the race. But it will be very hard to unseat Ochoa Bogh were we stand right now, especially with the new district boundaries making the area less blue from last time.”

Other candidates are likely to join the race in time for the primary later this year.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Palm Springs City Councilwoman Lisa Middleton Announces Run For State Senate appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.