by Karen Ocamb

With Super Tuesday long gone and the November presidential election so far away, some political observers think the California elections this June 3 will be marked by achingly low voter turnout.

But much is at stake, including rent control, the Legislature’s LGBT Caucus, the election of pro-marriage equality state legislators and numerous judgeships.

The LGBT landscape has vastly changed since gays, renters and seniors formed a unique coalition to create the city of West Hollywood in 1984. Thanks to vacancy-decontrol, rents have skyrocketed, prompting a straight-gentrification and the relocation of gays in greater numbers to Hollywood, Silver Lake and Los Feliz.

Prop. 98, on the June 3 ballot, would eventually eliminate rent control. From the Legislative Analyst’s Office summary (via the Los Angeles Times): “The measure generally prohibits government from limiting the price property owners may charge others to purchase, occupy or use their land or buildings. This provision would affect local rent control measures. Specifically, government could not enact new rent control measures, and any rent control measure enacted after January 1, 2007, would end. Other rent control measures (those enacted before January 1, 2007) would be phased out on a unit-by-unit basis after an apartment unit or mobile home park space is vacated. Once a tenant left an apartment or mobile home space, property owners could charge market rate rents, and that apartment unit or mobile home space would not be subject to rent control again.”

The Stonewall Democratic Club strongly opposes the measure (see www.stonewall-dems.org for Stonewall’s complete list of endorsements), while the Log Cabin Republicans announced they support it in an April 29 e-mail (monitor www.logcabin.org/logcabinca for Log Cabin endorsements, which include openly gay Steven Mark Sion running against incumbent Democrat Mike Feuer in the 42nd Assembly District.)

Of particular interest are local races in which LGBT candidates are running. Labor leader John Perez continues to rack up endorsements for his favored run in the 46th Assembly District (www.perezforassembly.com), and while former Deputy State Controller Laurette Healey is also garnering strong endorsements in her race for the 40th Assembly District (www.electhealey.com), she has run into the buzz-saw of local machine politics, with Valley Assemblymember Lloyd Levine spurning his former chief of staff, Stuart Waldman, to back Bob Blumenfeld, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman. Mayor Sam’s Sister City and Linda Sutton at Calitics.com blogged April 28 and April 25, respectively, that last-minute buying of Stonewall Club memberships to stack the room on Blumenfeld’s behalf resulted in “No Consensus” instead of an endorsement.

Equality California’s political action committee (www.eqca.org) did endorse Healey, however, as well as Cathedral City Councilmember Greg Pettis (www.gregpettis.com) in the 80th Assembly District (endorsed by the Desert Sun), whose two opponents do not support LGBT equality.

The EQCA PAC endorsed 53 LGBT and LGBT-supportive legislative candidates, in what EQCA PAC Executive Director Geoff Kors calls a “critical election,” particularly important since 20 pro-equality legislators will be termed out this year.