Feuer Has Lead Over Delgadillo in City Attorney’s Race

Councilman Mike Feuer is leading Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, 40% to 31%, in the battle to become Los Angeles’ next city attorney, a Los Angeles Times Poll has found. But with a week to go before the June 5 municipal runoff elections, about 29% of voters have yet to make up their minds.

“With such a large number of undecided voters, it’s anybody’s race,” said Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus.

Significantly, 70% of undecided voters know nothing about either candidate, thus heightening the importance of television ads and political mailings in the final days of the campaigns.

The poll consisted of a telephone survey, conducted last Tuesday through Sunday, of 857 voters considered likely to cast ballots in next week’s city elections; the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The poll found that most voters who have settled on a candidate are not likely to change their minds--79% of Feuer supporters said they are certain of their choice, as did 76% of those favoring Delgadillo.

Although the race features two Democrats competing for a nonpartisan office, their supporters split decisively along party lines. Democrats preferred Feuer by a 44% to 27% margin and Republicans favored Delgadillo, 41% to 30%.

Those numbers are not surprising, given that Feuer, who has represented the Westside/San Fernando Valley 5th Council District since 1995, has the backing of the California Democratic Party and endorsements from a long list of Democratic elected officials. Delgadillo, who heads the economic development programs of Republican Mayor Richard Riordan, has wide support from the city’s business community.

The poll also found differences based on race and geography. Voters in the Westside--Feuer’s home base--are evenly split between him and Delgadillo, as are voters in the southern part of the city. But Feuer leads Delgadillo in the San Fernando Valley, 45% to 32%, and by 45% to 33% in the city’s urban core, which includes the Eastside neighborhood where Delgadillo grew up.

During the April primary election, Latinos supported Delgadillo, according to a Times exit poll; however, Latinos are divided in the days leading up to the runoff, with 40% favoring Delgadillo and 37% supporting Feuer. Black voters also appear somewhat split, with 37% favoring Delgadillo and 32% Feuer.

Feuer leads among whites 43% to 28%, and he has a comfortable lead among women voters: 45% to 25%.

When asked what factor they considered most important in a city attorney, 37% of voters mentioned support from community leaders. Although Feuer has the longer endorsement list, including many elected officials and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Delgadillo’s includes some prominent and influential people: Riordan, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and basketball-star-turned-businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Riordan has spent more than $75,000 of his own money on an independent mail campaign on Delgadillo’s behalf, and Johnson appears in Delgadillo’s television commercials and radio spots.

Delgadillo has the edge in fund-raising and is spending the lion’s share of the roughly $700,000 he has collected on television ads. On Friday, he began airing a commercial that attacks Feuer, as a member of the council’s Public Safety Committee, for failing to enact police reforms and allowing the Rampart Division police corruption scandal to fester unchecked before surfacing publicly.

Delgadillo also got help from the outdoor advertising industry, which has spent about $425,000 on scores of billboards around the city. Feuer, who has clashed with the industry over his efforts to more tightly regulate billboards, has called the industry’s lavish support for his opponent obscene.

Feuer, who has made a point of refusing campaign contributions from lobbyists and political action committees, had raised about $470,000 heading into the final weekend of the campaign, according to city campaign disclosure records. He, too, has spent a substantial portion of that on television ads featuring his efforts to combat gun violence and improve neighborhoods and touting his support from police union leaders.

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Times Associate Poll Director Jill Darling-Richardson contributed to this story.