March 3, 2009: City of Los Angeles
Primary: March 3
Runoff: May19
The story:
Should we even bother with an election?
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is running for re-election.His highest-profile challenger is Walter Moore, who (likeVillaraigosa) challenged incumbent Jim Hahn in 2005. Four othershave filed to raise money. Villaraigosa has pulled in funds atan astonishingclip, raising about 15 times as much money asMoore, as reported in most recent filings, and helping to chaseaway other challengers. Voters must ask themselves whetherVillaraigosa's first term has earned a second, whether they believehe would almost immediately shift focus to running for governor in2010, and - if they don't like those answers - whether Moore or the other candidates areacceptable and realistic alternatives.
Term limits leave open seats for city attorney andcontroller. The city attorney candidates who have filed toraise money are Jack Weiss (currently a City Councilmember), Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, and MichaelAmerian. Weiss is a Villaraigosa ally; he has a wide lead infundraising. Trutanich is backed by District Attorney SteveCooley.
Only Wendy Greuel, a City Council member, has a committeeto run for controller, leaving open the possibility that the officeof official watchdog, whistle-blower and auditor in one of theworld's most important cities will simply be ceded withoutcompetition of any kind.
Eight odd-numbered City Council seats are up forelection. The most interesting include the Fifth District, whichWeiss leaves open because of his run for city attorney; the First,in which incumbent Ed Reyes has drawn three challengers; andthe Seventh, in which no one - not a soul,including incumbent Richard Alarcon - hasopened a campaign fund. If a district has no council member, willresidents notice? So far, Dennis Zine, BillRosendahl, Jan Perry, Eric Garcetti and JaniceHahn have no opposition. That makes them as loved and embracedby their constituents as George Washington, or maybe Josef Stalin,both of whom also ran unopposed.
Fifth District candidates are Adeena Bleich; RonGalperin; Paul Koretz; Robyn Ritter Simon;Robert Schwartz; and David T. Vahedi. First Districtcandidates, besides Reyes, are William M. Morrison"Rodriguez"; Jesus "Jesse" Rosas; and Ernest E.Sanchez.
The first day to file a declaration to become a candidate isNov. 3; the last day is Dec. 3. But the serious money is beingraised right now.
Also on the ballot are three school board races, half ofthe Community College District Board of Trustees, and,probably, two ballot measures: "Jamiel's Law," to allowpolice officers to arrest suspects based on their illegal immigrantstatus; and "instant-runoff voting," to eliminate cityrunoff elections. But then, having only one candidate in each race is a pretty good way to eliminate runoffs too.
The Fifth District runoff will be May 19. That's also thetheoretical date of runoffs in all the other city elections, butyou need at least three candidates in any one race to get arunoff.
For a list of candidates who have notified the Los Angeles CityEthics Commission of their intention to raise funds, clickhere.
To view candidate fundraising data as reported to the EthicsCommission, and for links to fundraising and campaign literature,clickhere.