Los Angeles Times - 04.03.2020

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■■■ ELECTION 2020 ■■■

Joe Biden seized control

of the Democratic presi-

dential contest with a string

of Super Tuesday victories

over Bernie Sanders, as vot-

ers across the country cast

their ballots determined to

pick the candidate they be-

lieve stands the best chance

of defeating President

Trump in November.

The two split the day’s

biggest prizes, Sanders cap-

turing California and Biden

taking Texas. The Vermont

senator also won Colorado

and Utah as well as his home

state.

Biden, who had been all

but written off after a stum-

bling start in Iowa and New

Hampshire, emphatically

marked his comeback with

victories — some by double

digits — in Alabama, Arkan-

sas, Massachusetts, Minne-

sota, Oklahoma, North Car-

olina, Tennessee and Virgin-

ia.

Maine remained too close

to call.

Former New York Mayor

Michael R. Bloomberg, who

spent hundreds of millions

of dollars seeking a Super

Tuesday breakthrough after

skipping earlier contests,

managed only a win in

American Samoa.

He scheduled a Wednes-

day morning call with cam-

paign leaders amid signs he

was reassessing his candi-

dacy.

From the hamlets of New

England to the beach com-

munities of Southern Cali-

fornia, voters in 15 contests

went to the polls in the cam-

paign’s largest single day of

balloting.

At stake was about a

third of the pledged dele-

gates needed to win the

Democratic nomination at

the party’s July convention

in Milwaukee.

Biden staged his roaring

comeback by rebuilding the

coalition that delivered him

to victory Saturday in South

Carolina — a win that turned

around his fortunes

overnight.

The former vice presi-

dent garnered overwhelm-

ing support among black

voters across the South —

the bedrock of his campaign

— and won handily among

older voters and those who

are politically more moder-

ate.

He also prevailed among

the unusually large number

of late deciders, who were

evidently impressed by his

crushing South Carolina vic-

tory.

In North Carolina, nearly

Biden in control after big wins

He triumphs in Texas

and at least 8 other

Super Tuesday states;

Sanders gets California

FORMER VICE PRESIDENTJoe Biden, joined by his wife, Jill, and sister, Valerie, right, acknowledges sup-
porters at the Baldwin Hills Recreation Center on Tuesday. He rolled up wins across the South and beyond.

Robert GauthierLos Angeles Times

By Mark Z. Barabak

BERNIE SANDERS

won Colorado, Utah and

Vermont, his home state.

Chip SomodevillaGetty Images

[SeePresident,A6]

As polls closed Tuesday
night, voters in Los Angeles
County came one step closer
to determining if a nation-
wide push to elect prog-
ressive prosecutors would
claim a big win or stall out in
a contest for control of the
nation’s largest district at-
torney’s office.
Los Angeles County Dist.
Atty. Jackie Lacey jumped
out to an early lead, earning
54% of the ballots cast by
those who voted by mail, ac-
cording to the Los Angeles
County registrar. Lacey had
about 220,000 votes. Her
challengers, former San
Francisco Dist. Atty. George
Gascón and public defender
Rachel Rossi, each drew
about 22% of early ballots.
The top two vote-getters
will continue on to Novem-
ber unless one candidate
gains more than 50% of the
returns and wins outright.
The race has been defined by
a stark ideological divide be-
tween Lacey and her two
challengers. While all three
are registered Democrats,
Lacey’s broad support
among law enforcement and
track record of not prose-
cuting officers in controver-
sial use-of-force cases has
drawn her scorn from prog-
ressive groups and criminal
justice reform activists.
Those tensions boiled
over Monday morning, when
Lacey’s husband pointed a
gun at Black Lives Matter
protesters who had gath-
ered outside the couple’s
Granada Hills home.
Gascón and Rossi are
both emblematic of a
nationwide reform move-
ment that has vaulted re-

D.A. Lacey takes early lead

Incumbent faces ex-L.A. cop Gascón and public defender Rossi

By James Queally,
Leila Miller
and Matthew Ormseth

[SeeD.A. race,A10]

WASHINGTON — The

drive to political revolution

has hit a big speed bump.

In the first coast-to-

coast, multi-state primary of

the 2020 campaign, former

Vice President Joe Biden

swept across the South and

battled Sen. Bernie Sanders

to a draw in key northern

states because of over-

whelming support from Af-

rican Americans and a surge

from voters who decided just

in the last few days whom to

support.

The result dashed Sand-

ers’ hope of becoming the

prohibitive front-runner as a

result of the Super Tuesday

voting — an ambition that

seemed within his grasp un-

til Biden resurrected his

campaign on Saturday in

South Carolina.

The Vermont senator

was slowed, but not stopped,

by a newly energized party

establishment that has ral-

lied behind Biden in the last

four days.

As a result, the Demo-

cratic Party, which just days

ago wondered whether

Sanders would emerge from

Super Tuesday with an in-

surmountable delegate lead,

is now heading for a pro-

tracted two-man fight. It

will pit an establishment-

backed, old-school Demo-

ANALYSIS

Whose

coalition

has room

to grow?

By Janet Hook

[SeeAnalysis,A7]

Los Angeles voters who showed up to cast

ballots in person on Tuesday reported long

wait times and operational errors at a num-

ber of the county’s newly designed vote cen-

ters, experiences that suggested an inauspi-

cious beginning for L.A.’s first fully re-

designed election system in more than half a

century.

While some Angelenos gave high marks to

the new voting machines and applauded the

extended hours of operation, a number of

the in-person locations were overwhelmed

by the throngs of voters looking to participa-

te in the most talked-about California presi-

dential primary in at least a generation. The

flow of voters had hardly ebbed by the official

end of voting at 8 p.m. Those in line at that

time were allowed to stay there until they

had a chance to vote.

“This is absurd,” said Jefferson Stewart, a

software designer who left the vote center at

the Westchester Family YMCA frustrated af-

ter waiting 90 minutes. “If the idea is to make

this simpler, it’s gotten much worse.”

Brentwood resident Myles Berkowitz

found himself in a state of perpetual motion.

He stopped by

UCLA SENIORKaitlyn Smith waits to vote on campus. “This was a challenging

day for a lot of voters in L.A. County,” said the county’s registrar of voters.

Al SeibLos Angeles Times

New voting system brings

hours-long waits, glitches

County machines are put to the test, vexing voters

By John Myers, Luke Money,

Liam Dillon and Alejandra

Reyes-Velarde

[SeeGlitches,A9]

What if no one

wins a majority?

We may see a brutal fight

and horse-trading ahead

of Democrats’ summer

convention, writes

Doyle McManus. PAGE A

Takeaways from

Super Tuesday

It is no longer Bernie

Sanders versus a mud-

dled mess of Democratic

candidates in the moder-

ate middle. PAGE A

RUNOFF FOR CONGRESS

Myung J. ChunLos Angeles Times

Christy Smith celebrates with state Democratic

Chair Rusty Hicks at her campaign headquarters.

She and Republican Mike Garcia appeared headed

for a runoff to replace Rep. Katie Hill. PAGE A

The battle against the co-
ronavirus was reaching a
critical moment in the
United States, with the
number of deaths rising
Tuesday as public health
leaders said there was a lim-
ited window to contain the
virus.
It was a day of grim mile-
stones, with more deaths
tied to a nursing home in
Washington state, a new

quarantine in the suburbs of

New York City and warning

that many more cases were

coming.

“I want them to be pre-

pared for the reality that ...

there are going to be more

cases in the community,”

said Robert Redfield, direc-

tor of the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.

“But I want them to contin-

ue their daily lives. I want

them to be mindful of the op-

portunity again to prepare

themselves and their fam-

ilies.”

The World Health Or-

ganization announced

Tuesday the global mortal-

ity rate from coronavirus

was 3.4%. The death rate so

far — which includes more

than 3,000 deaths — is many

times higher than the mor-

tality rate of the seasonal flu,

which is 0.1%. WHO Direc-

tor-General Tedros Ad-

hanom Ghebreyesus said

that is at least partly be-

cause COVID-19 is a new dis-

ease, and no one has built up

an immunity to it.

Still, he and other health

Coronavirus hits critical moment in U.S.

By Soumya
Karlamangla,
Richard Read,
Rong-Gong Lin II
and Colleen Shalby

[SeeCoronavirus,A14]

Schools plan for last resort — closures

California districts are calming nerves, scrubbing

classes and bracing for hard options. CALIFORNIA, B

Fed makes a bold move

Emergency interest rate cut can’t calm markets still

jittery over the effects of the coronavirus. BUSINESS, C