Crime in spotlight as Californians head to the polls in key races grabbing national attention

Voters in California, the nation’s most populous state, head to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in primary elections where the issue of crime is playing an outsized role in many of the key races.

"Murder up 54%. Nearly 1,500 shooting victims. A wave of property crime. There’s one candidate for mayor who can turn it around. Rick Caruso," says the narrator in a TV ad by Caruso, a pro-business billionaire developer who’s running a law-and-order type campaign for Los Angeles mayor.

Caruso, a former Republican who became a Democrat just before...