Good, Bad of Council Election

The Los Angeles city election brought good news and bad, and some of the former includes the fact that 10th District City Council incumbent Nate Holden had such a poor showing that he may face a runoff in June.

In an election where every other council incumbent enjoyed a landslide majority, Holden’s lackluster tenure earned him just 49.49% of the 10th District vote as of Wednesday night’s election count. That despite the fact that Holden had raised more money than any incumbent, a war chest that dwarfed the resources of his three opponents.

Citizens in the district, and politics in Los Angeles in general, will be well served if the final tally shows that Holden remains short of the 50% he needs to win outright, giving Madison Shockley, the second-place finisher, the chance he needs to consolidate opposition for a runoff.

Across town, the 14th District produced the runoff that was expected. It was a race in which several powerful officials were testing the strength of endorsement coattails, and those of Mayor Richard Riordan and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) held up best, giving Assistant Dist. Atty. Nick Pacheco the thinnest of leads.

Pacheco and longtime community activist Victor Griego (who together gained only 38% of the overall vote) face a long, hard campaign in the runoff.

In the 7th District, Alex Padilla, a 26-year-old aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), made a strong showing but he will not be a June runoff shoo-in. His opponent will be Corinne Sanchez, president of a social services organization.

Perhaps the worst news of the election was the failure of the city’s badly needed $744-million bond issue for the police and fire departments. Not only did the measure fall far short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval, the showing was the worst on a police-related bond issue in at least a decade. And this despite the efforts that made the campaign the best-organized and most thoroughly researched public safety bond issue ever.

The voters clearly needed far more convincing; the whopping size of the bond no doubt didn’t help. It’s up to the city’s leadership to study what went wrong and return with a better campaign in the near future.