Waxman, Bloomfield Advance in Congressional Contest

Longtime incumbent Henry Waxman, a Democrat, easily cruised to a first-place finish Tuesday night in the primary election to fill the 33rd Congressional District seat and will face Bill Bloomfield, a candidate running with no party preference, in the November general election.

Waxman, 72, has served in Congress since 1975 and was expected to handily win in the largely Democratic district.

Waxman was the top fundraiser going into the election and went into the final weeks of the primary with four times as much cash as Bloomfield, the next top fundraiser going into the primary.

Waxman was the top vote-getter with 43 percent of the vote and was followed by Bloomfield with 26 percent of the vote. Christoper David, a 25-year-old Republican, finished third at 16 percent. The other five candidates running in the primary each gained less than 5 percent of the vote.

Waxman moved from his 30th Congressional District to the newly drawn 33rd Congressional District after redistricting altered district boundaries to reflect population changes. The new 33rd Congressional District includes Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes and runs north through slivers of Marina del Rey and Venice and also includes Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Westwood, Beverly Hills and the communities of Brentwood, West L.A. and the Pacific Palisades.

Waxman and Bloomfield will square off in the Nov. 6 general election. The winner of California's 33rd congressional race will serve a two-year term starting Jan. 3, 2013. The expansive district is heavily Democratic. Of the 430,618 registered voters, only 28 percent are Republicans.