Week In Review

The region’s left-leaning state and federal districts remained true to form Tuesday night, after Democratic candidates in California’s Senate and Assembly seats — and two out of three congressional seats — cruised to victory on a night when Democratic Sen. Barack Obama claimed the presidency.

Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman defeated their Republican rivals, Charles Hahn and Navraj Singh, respectively.

With his reelection, Schiff will return to the U.S. House of Representatives for the fourth time with an ally in the White House.

Schiff was an early Obama supporter and expects the relationship to bolster legislation that had previously stalled.

Specifically, Schiff points to a bill he wrote that would commemorate the Armenian Genocide and urges Turkey to acknowledge the role played by the Ottoman Empire in the atrocities.

In January, Obama called for the passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution.

In California, Assemblyman Paul Krekorian cruised to victory against Republican Jane Barnett in the 43rd District that includes Burbank and Glendale.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino topped challengers Republican Brian Fuller and Libertarian Thomas Logan with more than 55% of the vote in the 44th District of the unincorporated region of La Crescenta.

State Sen.-elect Carol Liu took 62.7% of the vote against Republican Teddy Choi and Libertarian Steve Myers.

Tuesday’s voting was marked by an unprecedented surge in voters in which election officials found that 82.39% of the county’s 4.3 million registered voters had cast ballots.

A new law that prohibits smoking on nearly all publicly accessible property in Glendale went into effect Thursday as city officials geared up for a massive yearlong public outreach campaign.

Smoking on all city property, including parks, is now off limits. Smoking is also banned on all publicly accessible private property, such as the Marketplace and Americana at Brand.

City officials plan to take a staggered approach to enforcing the new regulations over the next year as they concentrate more on public outreach and education.

But businesses or people who “knowingly and willfully” violate the ordinance repeatedly could get a warning and eventually a citation before the yearlong campaign is over, said Steven Koszis, an analyst for the city’s Neighborhood Services Division.