As the first votes came in Tuesday evening, Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) took an early but decisive lead in the race to replace retiring Rep. Adam B. Schiff in a coveted Los Angeles-area House of Representatives seat .

Friedman still had a strong lead as of 2 a.m. Wednesday morning

when the most recent set of results was shared by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorders office

. Republican intensive care physician Alex Balekian was in second place.

State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) was in third place, while former Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, also a Democrat, was narrowly behind Portantino in fourth place.

The province is expected to release

the next set of votes counts

on Wednesday between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM.

The top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance to the November general election.

Early results also showed two other House races in the Los Angeles area in solidly Democratic districts shaping up with both a Democrat and a Republican on the November ballot.

California’s 30th District, which includes much of the city of Los Angeles, all of West Hollywood, Glendale and Burbank, and part of Pasadena, is overwhelmingly blue, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans by more than 3 to 1. Schiff held the seat for more than two decades but left to run for the late Dianne Feinstein’s seat in the Senate.

Given the political makeup of the district, a Friedman win

is likely

in November when Balekian joins her in the runoff. But the results could still change significantly in the coming hours and days as more ballots are counted. The race

would be more

lively when two well-financed Democrats face off in November.

The field to replace Schiff was packed with 15 candidates, a long list that included Los Angeles Unified school board member Nick Melvoin, trans activist G. Maebe A. Girl Pudlo and former “Boy Meets World” star Ben Savage . .

Friedman

(D-Glendale)

has been a leader on transportation, housing and environmental issues in the Assembly, authoring the 2019 so-called fur coat ban as well as laws making it easier to build additional housing units to ease the housing crisis and barring local governments from mandating parking spaces to be provided as part of most developments near transit stops.

In the San Fernando Valley seat currently held by retiring Rep

.

Tony Crdenas (D-Pacoima), endorsed by Crdenas Assemblymember candidate Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), was decisively in first place with almost half of the votes. Republican Benito Benny Bernal came in a distant second

the race for California’s 29th district

starting early Wednesday morning. In California’s 31st District, home to San Gabriel Valley voters

electing a new representative

for the first time in a generation after Rep

.

Grace F. Napolitano’s decision to halt the results remained close as of early Wednesday morning. But Democrat and former Congressman Gil Cisneros led the pack, with Republicans Daniel Martinez and Pedro Antonio Casas narrowly trailing in second and third place, respectively. Secretary of State Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) and Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera) followed in fourth and fifth place.