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Greuel has fraction of Garcetti’s cash in race’s last days, reports show

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Wendy Greuel had roughly one-tenth of the cash on hand of her rival Eric Garcetti as she headed into the final two weeks of the mayoral election, according to new campaign finance reports.

Greuel, the city’s controller, reported raising nearly $937,000 in the four weeks ending Saturday and loaning her campaign $100,000, putting her over the $1 million edge in documents her campaign filed with the city ethics commission late Thursday. Her campaign reported spending $2.6 million in the same time period, leaving it with just under $275,000 cash on hand and debts of nearly $535,000.

A top strategist for Greuel’s campaign, buoyed by a new poll released by Cal State L.A. on Thursday that showed the candidates in a dead heat, said in a statement that the campaign’s strategy was working.

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“Our opponents are running a 1970s strategy where everyone votes on election day. We’re running a 21st century campaign where half the votes are cast by mail. You can see from the polling that it’s worked, and we’ll have enough resources to communicate with voters right up through election day on TV, through the mail, and in the field,” said John Shallman.

Greuel’s cash on hand is a fraction of the money rival Eric Garcetti reported, according to campaign disclosure documents provided by his campaign late Thursday but not posted on the city ethics website before the midnight deadline.

(Garcetti’s campaign said it provided its report to the commission at 6 p.m. Thursday. Attempts to reach officials with the commission late Thursday were unsuccessful).

According to the documents provided by the campaign, Garcetti raised $1.6 million in the same time period, and spent $1.4 million, leaving the city councilman with $2.3 million cash on hand. The report showed nearly $105,000 in debt.

But Greuel has a financial edge that Garcetti does not – millions of dollars being spent by public-employee unions and others backing her bid. While Greuel has had to reduce her spending on television ads – at one point going dark -- the independent efforts have been able to fill the gap.

Garcetti, who is receiving less outside support than Greuel, noted the discrepancy and highlighted the spending by the union that represents many workers at the city’s Department of Water and Power.

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“I’m grateful that so many Angelenos are stepping up to help us compete against the DWP union Super PAC that’s spending almost $4 million to buy the mayor’s office for Wendy Greuel,” Garcetti said in a statement.

Twitter: @LATSeema

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