Last fall during the election for the 43rd Assembly District seat for the Glendale-area, candidates Mike Gatto (the winner) and Sunder Ramani filed allegations against each other. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has closed the case.
Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) and his opponent Republican businessman Sunder Ramani filed complaints against each other during their race for election. Each candidate alleged that other violated state elections requirements for district residency and voting.
The 43rd Assembly District includes all or part of Burbank, Glendale (including part of Montrose), La Crescenta, the Los Angeles communities of Atwater Village, Franklin Hills, Los Feliz, Silver Lake and the San Fernando Valley communities of North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, and Van Nuys.
Gatto, 36, former aide to Rep. Brad Sherman and an attorney. At the time of Gatto’s election he was the youngest Democrat in the California State Legislature, and the second-youngest overall.
Ramani, 50, an Indian-born owner of an interior-construction company and one-time chairman of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. It’s to be determined what the future holds for his political career if there is one.
The district attorney’s office is required to inquire about complaints of elections-related wrongdoing. Although the D.A.’s office received letters from those who raised the residency issue about the candidates, David E. Demerjian, head of the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division, said there was “insufficient evidence” to further pursue the cases.
One democrat wrote to the D.A. alleging that the apartment Ramani rented in Burbank and claimed as his residence was in fact not his actual residence. The letter reported that Ramani lived outside the district in his La Cañada Flintridge house.
Jane Barnett, an official of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, also sent a letter to the D.A. Barnett alleged in her letter that Gatto had earlier voted in at least one district election while supposedly living elsewhere.
At the time the complaints were filed both Gatto and Ramani said, last fall, that the allegations were without merit.
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