Superior Court Judge, Office 65 — Justin Allen Clayton vs. Anna Slotky Reitano
Current as of · voting-clarity.org
November 3, 2026 County of Los Angeles ballot. AI-generated analysis. Your sample ballot and official voter guide are the official documents; the links below let you check each claim. This page explains what is on the ballot; it is not legal advice.
Voting Clarity's research is done by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic. Anthropic gave no money to either candidate in this race [29].
Summary
Office 65 has no incumbent on the ballot. Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos won the seat unopposed in 2020.[1] She later retired, and the Governor appointed James Montgomery Jr. to fill the vacancy her retirement created.[2] For 2026 the county extended the filing period for Office 65,[3] which state law allows when the sitting judge does not file to run.[4] Justin Allen Clayton is a Los Angeles County deputy public defender. Anna Slotky Reitano is a Los Angeles County deputy county counsel and a former deputy public defender.[5] In the June 2 primary, Clayton got 36.7% and Reitano 29.9%, so the top two meet again in November.[6]
Your Vote:
Vote for one. Judicial races are nonpartisan; no party appears on the ballot.[7] Superior Court judges hear criminal, civil, family, juvenile, probate and other cases[5] for a six-year term.[8] Candidates are listed here in ballot order, which follows the Secretary of State's random alphabet drawing (C before R).[9][10]
The candidates at a glance
| Question | Justin Allen Clayton | Anna Slotky Reitano |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Background | Public defender; licensed since 2012 | County counsel, former public defender; licensed since 2009 |
| 2. Bar rating | Qualified | Qualified |
| 3. Discipline record | None listed | None listed |
| 4. Endorsements | Public Defender, 16 judges and a commissioner, county Democratic Party, labor and progressive groups | Nine Southern California daily newspapers (campaign banner) |
| 5. Money | About $4,947 of his own money plus $1,000 from a judge (e-filed reports) | None found. |
| 6. Ballot designation | Deputy Public Defender, County of Los Angeles | Deputy County Counsel, County of Los Angeles |
| 7. Why the seat is open | No incumbent filed | Same |
| 8. Track record | No named cases found | No named cases found |
| 9. Past runs and ratings | None found. | Lost 2022 race for Office 60; rated Qualified |
| 10. Court sanctions | None found. | None found. |
| 11. Connected endorsements | None found. | None found. |
| 12. Primary result | 36.7% | 29.9% |
| 13. Criminal charges | None found. | None found. |
Key Questions Answered
Justin Allen Clayton
Background: Deputy public defender in Los Angeles County since 2014; since 2023 he has been deputy in charge of the office's Inglewood branch. He reports more than 1,000 adult cases, hundreds of juvenile matters and more than 35 trials and adjudications, and is president of the Los Angeles County Black Public Defenders Association.[5] His campaign says he has completed dozens of trials, including three life cases.[11] Admitted to the State Bar June 6, 2012 (about 14 years).[12]
Bar rating: Qualified. The report lists only one non-participant in all races, a candidate in Office 64, so Clayton took part.[13]
Discipline record: None. His profile shows active status and no discipline or administrative actions.[12]
Endorsements: Public Defender Ricardo D. García and other public defender staff, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, 16 judges (two retired) and one retired commissioner, plus organizations shown by logo, including the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, SEIU Local 721, La Defensa, the California Working Families Party, LA Progressive, the LA Sentinel and several Democratic clubs (campaign list).[14] Endorsements cluster among public-defense, Democratic, labor and progressive groups.
Money: The county's e-filed records for “Clayton for Judge 2026” show one late-contribution report: $2,447.27 (Feb. 9) and $2,500 (Feb. 27) from Clayton himself, and $1,000 (Apr. 3) from Allen Webster, listed as a judge. No full campaign statements (Form 460) appear among the e-filings.[15][16]
Ballot designation: “Deputy Public Defender, County of Los Angeles.”[17] It matches his State Bar address, the Office of the Public Defender.[12] No designation challenge was found.
Why the seat is open: No incumbent filed (see Summary). Why the appointed judge did not file could not be verified from available sources.
Track record: Cases reported in the news are not a representative sample of a candidate's work. No news story or court record naming a case he handled was found.
Win/conviction record: An individual conviction rate (or case-outcome record) is not published and could not be verified from available sources.
Past runs and ratings: None found.
Court sanctions: None found.
Endorsements with a connection: None found.
Primary result: 36.7% (614,230 votes), first of four, 6.8 points ahead of Reitano.[6] The county's results site confirms he advanced but does not display vote counts.[18]
Criminal charges: None found.
Anna Slotky Reitano
Background: Deputy county counsel in the Justice and Safety Division, where she supervises civil litigation and advises county departments on public safety. Before that she was a certified law clerk in a district attorney's office, practiced defense, and spent more than a decade as a Los Angeles County deputy public defender handling juvenile and adult felony cases.[5][19] Admitted to the State Bar June 4, 2009 (about 17 years).[20]
Bar rating: Qualified. She is not listed as a non-participant, so she took part.[13]
Discipline record: None. Her profile shows active status and no discipline or administrative actions.[20]
Endorsements: Her campaign site shows an “Endorsed by” banner naming nine Southern California daily newspapers, including the Daily Breeze, Press-Telegram, Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star-News and Orange County Register; it lists no other endorsers.[21] The endorsement editorials themselves were not reviewed.
Money: None found.
Ballot designation: “Deputy County Counsel, County of Los Angeles.”[17] It matches her State Bar address, Los Angeles County Counsel.[20] No designation challenge was found.
Why the seat is open: Same as above (see Summary).
Track record: Cases reported in the news are not a representative sample of a candidate's work. No news story or court record naming a case she handled was found.
Win/conviction record: An individual conviction rate (or case-outcome record) is not published and could not be verified from available sources.
Past runs and ratings: In 2022 she ran for Office 60, advanced from the June primary, and lost the November runoff to Abby Baron.[22] The certified result was 55.3% to 44.7%.[23] LACBA rated her Qualified that year.[24] Whether she took part in the 2022 evaluation could not be verified from available sources.
Court sanctions: None found.
Endorsements with a connection: None found.
Primary result: 29.9% (500,183 votes), second of four; Samuel Wolloch Krause got 20.4% and Chellei G. Jimenez 13.0%.[6] The county's results site confirms she advanced.[18]
Criminal charges: None found.
Sources
Governor's judicial appointments, Feb. 14, 2025
Our Weekly, Oct. 7, 2026 (secondary)
Santa Monica Daily Press, June 2 primary results (secondary)
Secretary of State, random alphabet drawing, Aug. 13, 2026
Clayton campaign bio (self-reported)
State Bar profile, Clayton #283282, checked Oct. 14, 2026
LACBA Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee, 2026 Final Report, April 22, 2026
Clayton campaign endorsements (self-reported)
Reitano campaign site, endorsements page (self-reported)
State Bar profile, Reitano #263383, checked Oct. 14, 2026
Reitano campaign site (self-reported)
Ballotpedia, Abby Baron (secondary)
LAist 2022 (secondary)
NetFile campaign finance (not cited above)
Clayton campaign site (self-reported) (not cited above)
Criminal-charges search: press releases of the U.S. Department of Justice (justice.gov), the Los Angeles County District Attorney and the California Attorney General, searched for both candidates (not cited above)
LAist 2026 (secondary) (not cited above)
Los Angeles County campaign finance records (NetFile), searched for "Anthropic" Oct. 16, 2026, https://public.netfile.com/pub2/?AID=LAC; and Cal-Access, Anthropic PBC (filer 1491817), https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1491817, as of Oct. 16, 2026.
Reviewed in the original: LACBA 2026 report (full); both State Bar profiles; Registrar candidate lists, extension list and results data; NetFile filings and transactions; Governor's release; statutes and constitution sections; campaign home, bio and endorsement pages; Our Weekly and LAist articles.
Could not be reviewed:
Vote counts on the county results site: not displayed, so percentages come from the Santa Monica Daily Press (2026) and Ballotpedia (2022).
Paper campaign filings and LA County's older campaign-finance archive (apps.lavote.gov): not available online through NetFile.
Court records of sanctions or criminal cases: court indexes are paid or in person; federal court files (PACER) were not searched.
Newspaper endorsement editorials: not reviewed.