City Council Seat Goes to Reyes by Narrow Margin

City Hall veteran Ed P. Reyes has squeaked to victory in the race for the 1st District City Council seat, according to the official results of the April 10 municipal election.

Reyes, former chief of staff to incumbent Councilman Mike Hernandez, won 50.27% of the vote, beating out attorney Robert Nakahiro, who had 29.74%, and community college instructor David Sanchez, who had 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, state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) was the clear favorite to succeed Hernandez. But his 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 was 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 Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard and Xavier Becerra.

Reyes said his first priorities will be cleaning up 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.”

The final returns also determined the runoff contest in the San Fernando Valley’s 3rd District, where former council aide Judith Hirshberg took second place by finishing 89 votes ahead of council deputy Francine Oschin.

Hirshberg will face police union leader Dennis Zine June 5.

Hirshberg said Monday she never stopped campaigning.

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

Zine, who received 26.90% of the vote to Hirshberg’s nearly 22%, said he is already campaigning as well, adding that his message is one of “accessible, responsive government.”

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

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 won 30.43% of the vote, Hahn came in at 25.05% and Soboroff got 21.25%, followed by City Councilman Joel Wachs at 11.01%, Becerra at 5.97% and state Controller Kathleen Connell with 4.82%.

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%, 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 a race for mayor with no incumbent.

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CERTIFIED FINAL ELECTION RETURNS

Los Angeles

Mayor

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Antonio Villaraigosa 152,031 30 James K. Hahn 125,139 25 Steve Soboroff 106,189 21 Joel Wachs 55,016 11 Xavier Becerra 29,851 6 Kathleen Connell 24,062 5

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City Attorney

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Mike Feuer 183,750 39 Rocky Delgadillo 177,593 38

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Controller

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Laura Chick 277,417 62

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City Council

District 1

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Ed P. Reyes 9,188 50

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District 3

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Dennis P. Zine 9,942 27 Judith Hirshberg 8,013 22

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District 5

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Tom Hayden 15,872 34 Jack Weiss 10,390 22

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District 9

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Carl Washington 6,081 34 Jan Perry 5,158 29

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District 11

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Cindy Miscikowski * 32,722 72

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District 13

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Eric Garcetti 6,341 25 Mike Woo 6,194 24

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District 15

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Janice Hahn 9,398 33 Hector J. Cepeda 7,544 27

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Los Angeles Community College District

Office 2

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Michael D. Waxman 264,872 57

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Office 4

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Kelly Candaele * 349,559 100

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Office 6

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Samuel J. Hill 161,035 35 Nancy Pearlman 142,823 31

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Los Angeles Unified School District

District 2

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Jose Huizar 24,705 75

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District 4

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Valerie Fields * 43,658 38 Marlene Canter 37,230 33

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District 6

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100% Precincts Reporting Votes % Julie Korenstein * 52,617 55

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An asterisk (*) denotes an incumbent candidate.

* Candidates in a runoff election are in bold type.