Final Tally Puts Zine, Hirshberg in Council 3rd District Runoff

Police union director Dennis Zine will face former City Council deputy Judith Hirshberg in the June 5 runoff election for the west San Fernando Valley’s 3rd District Los Angeles City Council seat, according to the official results of the April 10 municipal election.

Hirshberg placed second by a mere 89 votes over council deputy Francine Oschin, the results show.

A one-time aide to former Councilman Marvin Braude, Hirshberg said Monday that she never stopped campaigning, even though an earlier tally had her 164 votes in the lead, with about 1,000 still to be counted.

“We have to telescope what we did in the last election into 6 1/2 weeks,” Hirshberg said. “My message to the voters is that I’m a person of experience who will run a clean campaign.”

Zine, who received 26.9% of the vote to Hirshberg’s nearly 22%, said he already is campaigning as well. His message is one of “accessible, responsive government,” he said.

Oschin is still talking to advisors about whether to request a recount, “although I think 89 would be a daunting number to overcome,” she said.

The official results also showed that City Hall veteran Ed P. Reyes squeaked to victory in the race for the 1st District council seat.

Reyes, former chief of staff to incumbent Councilman Mike Hernandez, won 50.27% of the vote, beating attorney Robert Nakahiro, with 29.74%, and community college professor David Sanchez, who won 19.99%, according to the final tally of votes released Saturday.

Reyes’ narrow majority capped a tumultuous race in the district, which includes parts of Mt. Washington, Highland Park, Chinatown and Pico Union.

Initially, the election appeared to be a longshot for those gunning against political heavyweight state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). But Polanco’s abrupt withdrawal from the race in late February breathed new life into his rivals’ candidacies.

“I’m still pinching myself,” Reyes said Monday.

Stretching to the north and west of downtown, the dense 1st District is home to some of the city’s most intractable social ills, and suffered a blow with Hernandez’s admission in 1997 that he is addicted to cocaine and alcohol.

Reyes, a former city planner who worked for Hernandez for a decade until last spring, was backed by City Councilman Nick Pacheco, Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard. He also was backed by Rep. Xavier Becerra, who placed fifth in the mayoral contest.

Reyes said his first priorities will be cleaning up the streets and abandoned lots and involving residents in the governance of their neighborhoods.

“This campaign has been great to find and listen to those voices,” he said. “I want to start organizing the energy that came out in the neighborhoods.”

In the final count of the mayor’s race, businessman Steve Soboroff crept closer to former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and City Atty. James K. Hahn, the two candidates who made it into the runoff.

Villaraigosa received 30.43% of the vote, Hahn collected 25.05% and Soboroff had 21.25%, followed by City Councilman Joel Wachs at 11.01%, Becerra at 5.97% and state Controller Kathleen Connell with 4.82%.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Mike Feuer and Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo ended up almost tied in the race to replace Hahn as city attorney, with 39.34% and 38.02% of the vote, respectively.

About 511,000 Los Angeles voters cast ballots in the election, 33.53% of registered voters--down from about 34.8% in 1993, the last time there was an open race for mayor.

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Staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this story.