Special election Tuesday for Los Angeles County state Senate district

Voters go to the polls Tuesday in a special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat in south Los Angeles County.

Three Democrats and one Republican are competing for the 35^th Senate District seat vacated in October by the resignation of Sen. Roderick Wright, who was convicted of lying about living in the district when he ran for office.

Former Assemblyman Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) is the front-runner in a contest that also includes Democrat Louis L. Dominguez, who is a retired teacher from San Pedro; Democrat Hector Serrano, an L.A. County USC Hospital patient-resource worker from Wilmington; and Republican James Spencer, an Inglewood businessman.

If one candidate does not receive more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote getters, regardless of political party, will advance to a runoff on Feb.10.

The winner serves out the remainder of Wright’s term, which ends in December 2016.

The Senate district includes the communities of Carson, Compton, West Compton, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Lennox, San Pedro, West Carson, Watts, Willowbrook, Wilmington and parts of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Inglewood and Torrance.

The district’s voters are 61% Democratic and 14% Republican. Latinos make up 53% of the population, while blacks make up 22%, Asians 12% and whites 11%, according to the 2010 Census.