Holden Forced Into Runoff; Tokofsky Wins

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden will face a runoff election in June, but Los Angeles Unified school board member David Tokofsky will not, according to final election results released Friday.

Holden failed by the narrowest of margins to secure a majority in April 13’s 10th District primary. The complete election tally--including absentee ballots and results from a previously uncounted precinct--found that Tokofsky avoided a runoff.

Holden, a three-term councilman who was first elected in 1987, will face the Rev. Madison Shockley in the June 8 election.

Barely missing a majority, Holden received 9,120 votes, which gave him 49.37% of the votes cast. Shockley received 3,862 votes, 20.9% of the total.

Holden recently announced endorsements from two of his primary opponents, Scott Suh and Marsha Brown, who each took about 15% of the vote. With just under a majority and those endorsements, Holden said he has no doubt he will win the election. “This guy should just save his money,” Holden said of Shockley.

Shockley was equally confident. Pointing out that Holden is running despite telling voters in 1995 that he would not seek a fourth term, Shockley said, “We’re going to hold him to his word.”

Tokofsky, the only school board incumbent to gain Mayor Richard Riordan’s support, had been holding on to a slender lead over challenger Yolie Flores Aguilar. Before Friday’s final count, Tokofsky led Aguilar by only 310 votes with 98.4% of the precincts counted.

Tokofsky extended his lead to 532 votes in the final count, giving him 50.66% of the total.

Riordan pumped $68,000 into Tokofsky’s reelection effort during the final weeks of the campaign, which brought his total to more than twice the resources of Aguilar in the heavily Latino 5th District stretching from Lincoln Heights to San Fernando.

Tokofsky, 39, had managed to retain front-runner status by piecing together strategic Latino endorsements, cutting off sources of funding that could have helped Aguilar, 36, a Los Angeles County Board of Education member.

Backing him were influential Latino officials, including Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and state Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), both of whom have risen in the state political scene by building coalitions across ethnic lines.