Councilman Holden Still May Face a Runoff as Ballot Count Continues

With a final election count still a few days away, City Councilman Nate Holden appeared Wednesday to be headed for a runoff with pastor Madison Shockley after a nail-biting primary that pitted the veteran politician against three challengers.

Eastside council candidates Nick Pacheco and Victor Griego also prepared Wednesday for a runoff after they eased out 12 contenders. And Alex Padilla, who nearly won the primary outright, will face Corinne Sanchez in a runoff in the San Fernando Valley.

A $744-million police and fire bond, which also was on Tuesday’s ballot, failed, securing more than 60% of the vote but less than the two-thirds majority needed to win. The strongest opposition came from the Valley, where opponents had launched a campaign against it.

Holden’s Challenger Prepares for Runoff

The outcome of Holden’s race is still uncertain. The city clerk’s office has one precinct left to tally and a second precinct’s ballots appear to have been counted but lumped together with another. Holden has captured 49.49% of the votes counted thus far, just short of the 50% plus one vote needed to win outright and avoid a runoff. Shockley took 21.03%.

But Shockley’s campaign manager, Steve Cancian, said the precinct left to count is around Jefferson Square, an area Shockley targeted.

“We are, for all intents and purposes, preparing for a runoff,” he said.

On the Eastside, voters’ support, like elected officials’ endorsements, appeared to be scattered among several candidates in a race that was marked by an unprecedented number of public forums, a huge amount of last-minute mail and charges of carpetbagging dogging some candidates, including Griego.

“It really pays off to just be someone who’s from the community,” Pacheco said. “I think it also helps that my brother’s a doctor here and that I’m a local boy.”

Still, the 14th District’s two top vote-getters were the best-funded candidates: Griego raised more than $211,000, with Pacheco at more than $176,000. Both had support from many of the area’s elected representatives. Pacheco had the backing of Mayor Richard Riordan and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), while Griego had state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), state Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Griego says that the winning candidate on June 8 will be “the one . . . who can articulate a vision for the district, how they’re going to improve the lives of people in the district.”

Pacheco, a deputy district attorney and charter reform commissioner, took 20.33% of the vote, with Griego, a political and community organizer, trailing with 17.37%.

“This is no longer a community dominated by machine politics,” said Steve Afriat, who managed Alvin D. Parra’s campaign in the Eastside district. “Voters voted very independently in this race. . . . I think you’ll see a lot more opportunities for Latino politicians in that district. In that sense, it was a watershed election.”

Organized labor is preparing to make a full-force effort in the 14th District; it played a significant role in the northeast Valley race by supporting Padilla.

Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said: “I will recommend we match what we did in the 7th District.”

To that end, the labor federation will reconvene its political board to select a candidate; the county federation stayed neutral in the primary, allowing the individual unions to back different candidates in the 14th District.

But in the Valley, labor played a huge role, even creating a separate fund-raising committee that secured $57,000 in donations for Padilla. The 26-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate took a commanding lead early, capturing 47.96% to Sanchez’s 24.78%.

“The lead was a little surprising, but I’m very encouraged as we launch an intensive campaign for the runoff,” Padilla said.

Citywide, turnout in Tuesday’s primary was nearly 17.3%, not a record low but close. On the Eastside, 27% of voters went to the polls, along with nearly 25% in the Valley.

Many city officials lamented the failure of the police and fire bond, which was intended to repair and replace outdated facilities, including the downtown police headquarters.

“I’m of course extremely disappointed,” Riordan said. “It’s unfortunate that some small splinter opposition groups carried as much weight as they did.”

Lone Setback for Riordan

The failure of the bond marked Riordan’s only real defeat in the elections, as his favored candidates won or forced runoffs in every other race. In part, Riordan blamed the low turnout for hurting the bond issue, and said officials now have the task of regrouping and deciding how to maximize their chances in a subsequent election.

Among the ideas worth considering, the mayor said, were paring down the $744-million list of projects or placing a similar bond measure on a ballot likely to attract more interest, possibly the November 2000 election, when a presidential campaign is expected to increase voters’ enthusiasm.

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks was determined to go back to the voters.

“We really have no alternatives except to go toward the bond fund,” he said. “We cannot expect the city’s general fund to be able to absorb somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple billion dollars of infrastructure needs.”

Los Angeles Fire Chief William Bamattre said he too was disappointed. He said the bond would have “reduced response times, improved emergency fire and police services, and ensured the safety of our firefighters and police officers.”

But Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district voted against the bond, introduced a motion Wednesday asking for a comprehensive study of the departments’ needs and suggesting that bonds are not the way to go.

“The City Council must take leadership and prioritize the city’s public safety needs and ultimately meet them--without depending on a bond measure,” the motion said.

Times staff writers Matt Lait, Patrick McGreevy and Jim Newton contributed to this story.