Christine Essel for L.A.’s 2nd District City Council seat

The Times has endorsed former studio executive and city commissioner Christine Essel in Tuesday’s 2nd District City Council runoff. We urge voters in that district -- from the hill communities of Lake View Terrace, Sunland and Tujunga, south to the boulevards of Sun Valley, Valley Glen, Van Nuys, North Hollywood and Valley Village, and back up into the hills of Sherman Oaks and Studio City -- to go to the polls and vote. And just get it over with.

This has been a frustrating and troubling special election season. Even before Wendy Greuel resigned her council office to become city controller July 1, the campaign to fill the seat has become a surrogate for all of the emotional issues -- but few of the substantive ones -- that confront Los Angeles. In the first special election campaign, in which Essel and two elected officials faced off against seven self-styled grass-roots candidates, a disturbing percentage of the debate focused on who had lived in the district longest. Another line of discussion centered on which candidate had been least tainted by politics and City Hall -- as if naivete were a virtue in office and inexperience a weapon to be effectively wielded in public service.

Several of the grass-roots candidates demonstrated an impressive grasp of the city’s processes and problems, but none articulated a platform that went much beyond “just say no” to current policies. We need someone who can say “yes” -- someone who can present a workable vision for managing severe financial problems while showing how government can serve the needs of the people, those who pay the taxes and weather the daily assaults on their quality of life caused by poor planning and decision-making that often appears based more on ego or political gamesmanship than on smart outcomes.

Anyone hoping for a higher grade of discussion in the runoff between Essel and Assemblyman Paul Krekorian was likely to be disappointed. Each candidate jostled to be depicted as less friendly with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and more alienated from city workers and their unions. There have been allegations of Watergate-like theft and invocations of the Armenian genocide that began in 1915. Both candidates are sullied by the empty and childish campaigns.

In the end, we continue to believe that Krekorian has an insufficient record of success in Sacramento to warrant a midterm transfer to city government, and that Essel is the candidate most likely to arrive at solutions that work for the city and for her 2nd District constituents.