How LCF Voted

Nearly half of La Cañada Flintridge's registered voters cast ballots at the polls in last week's election, favoring President George W. Bush and U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones while backing incumbents in races for the U.S.

House of Representatives and the state Legislature.

According to pre-election figures from the county's election office, registered Republican voters outnumbered their Democrat counterparts 7,370 to 3,539. Although absentee ballots have yet to be released, local votes cast for president seemed to mirror those figures, with Bush receiving 3,529 votes and John Kerry receiving 2,937. Voter turnout in the city was 49.75 percent of 13,356 registered voters.

While the rest of the state's voters propelled Sen. Barbara Boxer to a third term, La Cañada's voters gave the majority of their votes for U.S. senator to Jones, the former California Secretary of State who led Boxer 3,169 votes to 2,977 in the local tally.

Voters also stood behind longtime Republican Con-gressman David Dreier, who beat Democratic opponent Cynthia Matthews 3,442 to 2,455 in local voting.

Assemblywoman Carol Liu was favored by local voters and received 159 more votes than opponent Lynn Gabriel's 3,057.

The city's voters cast 3,844 ballots for Democratic state Sen. Jack Scott and 1,748 for Libertarian candidate Bob New.

Voters here heavily favored Propositions 1A, 59, 60A, and 69, while rejecting two propositions on Indian gaming, reform of the three strikes law and health insurance for employers with more than 50 employees.

On Measure A, the half-cent sales tax increase for police services, La Cañada's voters cast 3,270 ballots against the measure and 2,805 for it.

-From Staff Reports