Nearly 100 city council seats were up in LA County on Tuesday, and though few seemed to care enough to vote (11.5 percent turnout), we cared enough to peek at the results.
This being LA County, there’s still an untold horde of provisional and late absentee ballots to count, which could take days to sort through. So some close races could see movement as we’ll note below.
Who were the big winners you ask? Well is wasn’t the Aids Healthcare Foundation, the prime backer of the county’s most talked about contest, Measure S. Despite spending $5.5 million on the anti-growth measure (for some questionable motives), the Hollywood-based nonprofit saw a harsh repudiation at the polls, with over 68 percent voting against. That’s right, LA’s old, white, homeowning electorate rejected an anti-growth measure by 2-1. Ouch.
City of LA incumbents did win big, however. Foremost among them, Mayor Eric Garcetti cruised, garnering over 80 percent of the vote. While Gil Cedillo clings to a 50.9% margin to avoid a May runoff, he may well join all other incumbents in winning their seats outright in the Primary this week. In the one open seat, District 7, the establishment backed Monica Rodriguez topped Karo Torrosian, but the two will face off again in May to determine if Rodriguez can become the second woman on the LA Council.
Longtime incumbents John Heilman and John Duran cruised in West Hollywood, despite a large field, and most of the Pasadena races were non issues, one exception (see below).
About that Turnout… that, that Turnout.
No one voted. Current tally is at 11.5 percent countywide, about half a million ballots, and an even lower percentage in the city of Los Angeles. Provisionals will drive that number up, but it will likely be the lowest turnout in county history. As we wrote earlier this week, there are now more dogs in LA County than voters.
Women on the Ballot
Seventy women appeared on the ballot in LA County municipal races Tuesday, competing against 191 men and vying for nearly 90 available seats. Among these 70 women, 20 won their race or advanced to a runoff. That is equal to 28.5 percent, a number that eerily reflects the ceiling on female representation in California in recent history.
Going into Tuesday, LA County city officials were 71 percent male and 29% female. So the outcome this March will keep that number static. Even more notable, in 2015 the Leadership California Institute pegged the statewide number of women in city office again at 28 percent, noting "While women in California have covered notable ground, across the board—in almost every level of California government women comprise under 30% of all elected representatives."
Latinos Leading the Way
Notably, over half of the women who won outright in yesterday's elections were women of color: nine Latinas and one African American. In all, there were 85 candidates with Latino surname on the ballot Tuesday, 19 of them incumbents. Twenty seven won their race, plus another two heading to runoffs. The 32 percent win rate is near identical to the 31.6 percent representation of Latinos currently serving on LA County councils
>>> So to be clear, both women and Latinos saw their win rates nearly identical to existing representation. Eerie – and not exactly progress.
Norwalk elected Latinos to all three of its seats, two of whom are women. In South Gate, Al Rios and Denise Dias will give that city possibly its first all Latino council, while in Paramount Laurie Guillen, a 30 year law enforcement veteran, displaced Gene Daniels in the 80 percent Latino city.
And while Latinos candidates fared well in these cities, not so much in La Mirada, newly districted under the voting rights act. John Lewis cruised to victory in newly drawn District 1, with 33.97 percent of all votes. He defeated the only Latino candidate to file for this seat, Diane Gramajo, by 7.6 percent with 340 votes to 264 votes. District 1 is the only district with a majority Latino population.
Close, or Otherwise Wacky.
A number of races are still too close to call. We discussed Gil Cedillo in LA’s District 1. In Pasadena, appointed incumbent Andy Wilson barely missed winning outright and will face a runoff.
In Beverly Hills, just 5 votes separates the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers for three seats. Incumbent Nancy Krasne is ahead of Les Freidman by just one vote, but Bob Wunderlich is trailing by just four votes and could bump one of them out.
In Gardena, a vacant seat for mayor was open after Paul Tanaka’s departure in summer 2016, when he was sentenced to prison on federal corruption convictions. ALL FOUR current city councilmembers filed to run for the Mayor’s seat, along with former councilmembers Ron Ikejiri and Rachel Johnson. As of Wednesday, Johnson holds a 12 vote (0.27%) lead over current council member Tasha Cerda.
In Huntington Park, Karina Macias is safe in her seat (amid investigations by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office), while Valentin Amezquita (who was an FBI informant against his council colleagues) has lost his seat to Manuel "Manny" Avila by 516 votes. No good deed unpunished?
In Cudahy, Incumbents Jack Guerrero and Chris Garcia faced eight challengers for their two seats. Garcia recently criticized Guerrero for ‘betraying his Latino constituents’ by bringing a ‘white supremacists’ group to the meetings. Guerrero and Garcia both won re-election, so stay tuned.
And in San Gabriel, Denise Menchaca ran in the city’s 2015 election, losing to Councilmember Juli Costanzo by just two votes. She was on the ballot again this week – but is currently down 23 votes.
Upsets and Goodbyes
In Manhattan Beach incumbents Mark Burton and Tony D’Errico faced six challengers for three seats on the City Council, including former council members Steve Napolitano and Richard Montgomery. Both Napoltiano and Montogomery finished ahead of the incumbents, as did planning commissioner Nancy Hersman.
In Redondo Beach, contentious development issues look to have claimed incumbent Mayor Steve Aspel. Councilmember Bill Brand challenged Aspel for the mayoral seat as part of a larger anti-development slate, which included a ballot measure.
A few longtime incumbents will also be saying goodbye to LA politics after losing Tuesday. Gene Daniels came up about 70 votes short in Paramount, and Gene Murabito also finished out of the running in Glendora, though he didn’t really seem to want the job anymore. Pauline Deal got drawn into a district with council mate Andrew Sarega in La Mirada, who beat her by 57 votes.
And in South Gate, Bill DeWitt came in third for two seats. Bill has been on and off the council (mostly on) since 1980. He’s been a fixture of League of Cities, COG and SCAG meetings for as long as we’ve been at this, so we wish him the best.
Finally, Jim Goodhart, a three term councilmember from Palos Verdes came up short in his re-elect, finishing out of the running for two seats. This is even more notable as Goodhart was next in line to be President of the League of California Cities Board of Directors... and this is becoming a trend. Goodhart is third Executive Board Member of the League to lose his council re-election in the last decade. It's becoming like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.
Again: provisionals can/will change some of the outcomes above. We will update this article as numbers are available.