Multiple candidates aiming to get into top two in March balloting

by Brian Leubitz

While the value of newspaper endorsements has surely waned, in a municipal election where many of the candidates are finding difficulties distinguishing themselves from each other, the LA Times endorsement could grab a few votes. And this round, City Councilman Eric Garcetti gets that nod:

As council president, [Garcetti] worked behind the scenes to awaken his colleagues to the depth of the city’s financial crisis and to take action they did not want to take, imposing layoffs and requiring those remaining in the workforce to shoulder more of the burden of their medical and pension benefits. At times when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa should have been on hand to close difficult negotiations, the task was left to Garcetti, and he came through.  …

Voters at first embraced Villaraigosa because they saw in him the power to inspire. Garcetti has that too, but in a different, quieter fashion, and he backs it up with experience in City Hall, a share of troublesome mistakes and 12 years of achievement. If he avoids a tendency to be glib when he should motivate, and if he avoids the tendency to allow his finesse to give way to a desire to be all things to all people, he could be just what Los Angeles needs. At this time, out of this field, he’s the best choice for mayor.(LA Times)

Polls have been all over the place in the race, but for now, it looks like Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel are in the best positions to grab one of the two spots in the May general election. But Councilwoman Jan Perry, Republican talk show host Kevin James, and perhaps a few others, are within striking distance depending on what the turnout and field programs look like over the last few weeks.

(disclosure: I’m doing blog outreach for Eric Garcetti – promoted by Todd Beeton)

(also at my blog)

On Monday I traveled to Washington, D.C. with a delegation of Southern California elected and business leaders to meet with administration officials and members of congress to advocate for federal funding for our area. With 22 million people, Southern California alone is more populous than 48 states; 43% of all goods that enter through America’s ports come through Southern California; we have an unemployment rate over 11% and our homeless family population has increased by 28.3% in six months. My message to Washington leaders this week: investing in Southern California is crucial to the nation’s economic recovery.

It’s been an extremely rewarding trip and, I think, quite productive. Some highlights:

– Senator Boxer spoke to us about the job growth potential of clean technology and alternative energy.  We met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu as well and specifically made the case to him that Los Angeles is poised to be a market leader in green job training. We have a real opportunity to lead the nation in a green jobs revolution and I have no doubt that with Van Jones at the helm, California will be central to the administration’s green job investment plan. Chu challenged us to not just push for green-designed buildings, but to monitor energy use (and to push white roofs.)

– We talked to White House officials about the importance of an urban-based strategy for recovery, where a combination of public works projects, stalled private developments in need of public dollars, and strategic sector initiatives could help put people back to work in our urban centers. Cities are the economic drivers of our nation and for the last 8 years, we’ve seen investment dry up. I’m heartened to see the new administration’s commitment to the renewal of our cities. The stimulus dollars we’ll be getting over the coming months are extremely precious and can go further if properly directed to the right urban renewal projects.

– Yesterday we had a bipartisan lunch with 12 members of congress and Northern Californian counterparts like David Chiu, my equivalent at the SF Board of Supervisors. At the meeting, we discussed the importance of moving CA from a “donor state” (in taxes spent versus money we get back) to a more evenly-balanced state. For every dollar Los Angeles sends to Washington, we get 73 cents back. That’s got to change.

– We also spoke to Obama’s economic advisers about the importance of solving the housing crisis at the heart of the economic downturn. We discussed the need to focus on ways to write down mortgages on homes or promote short sales to forestall even more foreclosures. I had a great conversation with Rep. Maxine Waters about home foreclosure and eviction prevention.

– Today we met with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis about workers’ issues, Attorney General Eric Holder on public safety, Education Secretary Arne Duncan about education issues and Larry Summers to discuss the overall economic stabilization strategy.

The access has been incredible. In fact, we appear to be among the few people having these meetings, getting this access, and helping shape policy early. I’ve just been really impressed with the amount and quality of time they’ve devoted to us and the very real commitment they’ve demonstrated to smart investment not only in California, but around the country to get us on the road to economic recovery.

(I’m doing blog outreach for Eric Garcetti’s re-election campaign)

As Dave noted below, estimates put turnout in Los Angeles today at a sad 15%.

Though city officials were skittish about making predictions on voter turnout, Fernando J. Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University who is also a lobbyist, said he expected 15% of voters to show up. In the 5th council district, it could jump to as high as 30%, he said, because of the interest in the wide-open council race, the city attorney’s race and a school board race there.

The 5th council district is made up of the progressive communities of West LA, the Fairfax district and Westwood (home to UCLA) as well as some not so progressive sections of the San Fernando Valley including Encino and Sherman Oaks. On balance though, if one district is going to have a disproportionate impact on the citywide races and props, you could do worse than the 5th. Clearly the single largest determining factor in the low turnout today is the lack of a competitive race at the top of the ticket. Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to sail through to a second term as Mayor.

We’ve been asking folks to chime in with their election day experiences over at Eric’s blog and on Facebook and it will come as no surprise to hear “ghost town”, “had the place to myself” and “fast and easy” were among the descriptors used. Some of the election day on the ground reports over the flip.

Polls close at 8pm. Eric will be doing GOTV until then and then will head over to his election night party at Avalon in Hollywood (details here.) I’ll be tweeting live from the party and if I have access, look for updates at Eric’s blog as well.

[UPDATE]Results will come in here.

More…

Some on the ground reports from Angelenos:

I voted at the Golden Gate Retirement Hotel on Lockwood (CD13). Parking was difficult- didn’t trust the fact that schoolyard restrictions (No Parking 7am-5pm) would be lifted. The poll worker could barely speak English and could not alphabetize. It was 10 am, they were just installing the counter machine and sadly, mine was the first vote recorded.

Although most elderly voters vote absentee in the future I would recommend polling places without stairs. Still, I take pride in voting and never take it for granted.

Voting at Elysian Heights Elementary went very smooth. In and out in minutes. All polls were filled when I entered, but there was no waiting.

Voted this morning in Valley Glen – it was just me and the poll workers when I was there at 11am, but they said the turnout today has been good. No trouble at all getting the provisional ballot I needed (I’m new to that neighborhood after being a CD13 girl, and haven’t re-registered yet).

I went to vote over on Melrose and Berendo about an hour ago. It had horrible street parking and it was pretty dead in there. No one else was in there voting other than me. The poll worker said I was around the 50th voter.

I voted today in West Hollywood. There was some confusion as to where my polling place was as I have just moved. The polling volunteers were extremely helpful in providing me with a provisional ballot.

I saw 10 others voting while I was there at 8:30AM. The West Hollywood election is rather interesting and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t decent turnout today.

I went around 3pm today. There was 1 other person voting. I was in and out in about 5 min. Trying to encourage more people to vote. Most of my friends didn’t even know voting was happening today.

I voted at 9am at Allesandro Elementary-there were only a handful of people at the poll. There was a larger crowd waiting to leave than there were waiting to vote cause the ballot receptacle (don’t know what it’s called) had a paper jam. Or ballot jam rather. After a few minutes I just handed my ballot over to one of the workers so I could get to work. They were about to call the city when I left, I hope they fixed it….

Really slow at Mayberry Elementary School at 11:30. People at the yoga studio didn’t seem to know there were elections today…Also, alot of changes in polling places and people saying they never got anything in the mail about the election in general.

Too fast, too easy-even though we got displaced from the Silver Lake Recreation Center to St. Teresa’s. Where are all the voters?

I voted on Larchmont and it was a ghost-town-esque situation at the polling spot. You could see the tumbleweeds, and the pollsters (polling people? poll masters?) were just a little too grateful to see me. Kind of a bummer.

(From the diaries. Disclaimer: I’m doing blog out reach for Eric’s re-election campaign – Todd)

(cross-posted from my campaign blog)

As many of you know, I’m running for my third term as City Councilman representing the 13th Council District of Los Angeles (which consists of parts of Hollywood, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, Elysian Valley and Glassell Park – map here.) Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3rd, Los Angeles will hold its primary nominating elections. If any candidate receives 50%+1 of the vote on Tuesday, he or she is elected outright; if not, the top 2 candidates will compete in the general municipal election on May 19th.

Several seats are up for election on Tuesday including Mayor, City Attorney, City Controller, odd numbered City Council district seats (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15), even numbered L.A. Unified School District seats (2, 4, 6) and even numbered L.A. Board of Trustee seats (2, 4, 6.) A complete list of candidates competing in each race can be found here.

There are also 5 initiatives on the ballot:

Prop A: Fire Department Independent Assessor

Prop B: Solar Energy and Job Creation Program

Prop C: Disabled Children Survivor Benefit of the Fire and Police Pension Plan

Prop D: Survivor Benefit Purchase Program for Retirees of the Fire and Police Pension Plan

Prop E: Economic Incentives for Business Development

SmartVoter.com has complete summaries of the measures and check out Courage Campaign’s voter guide for a complete rundown of which measures have the support of which progressive orgs.

Eight years ago, I had a crazy idea to run for City Council. I bought a pair of shoes and walked my district every day until I literally wore holes in them introducing myself to voters and rediscovering my city. Now, eight years later, while I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made rebuilding Hollywood into a safer more business friendly city center again, nearly tripling the number of parks in my district and making city hall more relevant and accessible to Angelenos through my Government 101 and Neighborhood Leadership Academy programs, there is still much more to be done to change Los Angeles. So I humbly ask for the support of those of you in the 13th L.A. City Council District.

If you have friends and family in Los Angeles, please remind them to vote tomorrow and if they’re in the 13th district you can direct them to my website to learn more about me, what I’ve done and what I intend to continue to do if I’m fortunate enough to be re-elected to the City Council.

If I do win outright tomorrow, I can assure you, neither my neighborhood walks to engage with the communities in my district nor my posts here at Calitics to engage with the online community will end; in fact I see Tuesday as just the beginning.

[UPDATE]By the way, polls are open from 7am-8pm tomorrow and you can find your polling place HERE. Join us for an election night party at Avalon in Hollywood starting at 8pm (details at the blog) – Todd.

Xavier Becerra, a Congressman from Hollywood, is at the least being strongly considered for the post of US Trade Representative and may have already accepted the job.  Becerra is in the House leadership as Vice President of the Democratic caucus, and while he voted for NAFTA he has since regretted doing so, and he led the fight against CAFTA and other trade agreements which he felt did not have the proper safeguards, or labor and environmental standards.  And channeling my inner David Sirota, the fact that pro-business conservatives are worried about the direction Becerra will take US trade policy confirms that he would be an excellent choice:

And now Business Week reports on some rumblings of opposition from the pro-business and free-trade camp:

Philip Levy, who’s now with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told the mag that the choice is “troubling,” arguing that “to oppose Nafta is in many ways to lash out symbolically against trade.” A business lobbyist added to the mag that he and his colleagues are “pretty concerned.”

Well, I’m sold.

If Obama brushes off the concerns of the American Enterprise Institute (and really, everyone should) and Becerra gets the job, a very safe Democratic seat in the heart of Los Angeles would be up for grabs.  Considering the density of the city it’s actually a pretty large district (with lots of it in rapidly gentrifying Hollywood), and has a good deal of Latino voters.  However, this would be up for grabs in a special election, and the universe of special election voters is probably a smaller Hispanic universe than on a normal Election Day, so I wouldn’t say that only a Latino candidate could win here. In fact, LA City Council President Eric Garcetti represents a good portion of the district on the council.

Garcetti would be a progressive leader in the Congress and a major upgrade.  Becerra is a member of the Progressive Caucus and generally solid on the issues, but he’s not particularly outspoken, and as part of the leadership team, wouldn’t stray too much from the party line.  On the other hand, Garcetti is a smart, committed young leader, a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and a graduate of the London School of Economics who has led on so many progressive issues in the city it’s hard to even count them all.  It would be great to have someone in the Congress with the background of dealing with key urban issues from graffiti to housing to development, while at the same time having led on important national initiatives like clean money, the war in Iraq (the LA City Council was among the first to pass a resolution opposing it) and renewable energy.  Garcetti jumped aboard the Barack Obama campaign from almost the very beginning as a California chairperson, so he would be able to tap that network of organizers pretty easily.  He would make a fantastic member of Congress, among the best in the nation in my view. (and that’s not just because he appeared on Calitics Radio on primary election night!)

Rep. Becerra would get to set trade policy, and Los Angeles would experience no dropoff in leadership.  Everybody wins!

UPDATE: In this LA Times article, Sen. Gil Cedillo is also mentioned as a possible candidate.  I’m a fan of Cedillo’s as well, particularly his leadership on the DREAM Act and his advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform.  Garcetti is quoted in the article saying “it was premature to speculate on a possible run but did not rule it out.”

Well, that was fun! We had LA Council President Eric Garcetti, a live report from Bob Brigham at the Grateful Dead for Obama show in San Francisco, and an interesting conversation between David Dayen and myself about the election tomorrow, in that order.  So, take a listen, I think, IMHO anyway, that it was pretty interesting.  I think we’ll try to do this more often. Let me know if you have a topic you’d like to consider for our next show.

(Bumped to make sure you remember to check out the Calitics Show at 7:30. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

As I said yesterday, we were hoping for some special guests on tonights Calitics Show, and it looks like we can confirm one of those guests. Eric Garcetti is the President of the Los Angeles City Council and a Barack Obama supporter. We’ll talk a little about the 2008 campaign and other issues of import to Californians or those who just want to be Californians.

If you would like to talk to us or to Councilman Garcetti, you can check out our show page here. From that site, once the show goes live at 7:30, you’ll be able to use “Click to Talk” with your computer’s microphone (and a headset for best quality), or you can call in to our show’s phone number. Pretty spiffy.

And one other random item of note, before I open this up. Apparently Mitt Romney is going all out to score some momentum in California. Good stuff. This is an open thread.