•Results below
In an era of worldwide unpredictability and uncertainty, Los Angeles held another Election Day yesterday, and Form undeniably won.
From Culver City to East Los Angeles, with new state Sen. Curren D. Price Jr. straddling the lead horse, favorites galloped to victory in virtually every race.
By 8:01, one minute after the polls closed last night, Sen. Price had established an insurmountable lead for his new Culver City area seat.
He will take the Senate chair formerly held by County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. Later this summer, there will be another special election to replace Sen. Price
Nor that every result necessarily is inal.
Paul Koretz, former state legislator and an early West Hollywood City Councilman, looks as if he has won the most prestigious chair on the Los Angeles City Council, succeeding Jack Weiss as the high-powered, always-visible delegate from the Westside.
However, the noisy Mr. Koretz’s win is nearly as far from being sealed as it was before Election Day.
Unofficially, he nosed out neighborhood council upstart David Vahedi by the shaky margin of 359 votes among 31,000 cast.
This will trigger a recount, which means the bitter and squeezingly tight race between the two of them is wide open again and could tilt in either direction.
The most written-about race, the battle for City Attorney between the very well-known Mr. Weiss and very little known private attorney Carmen Trutanich roared to a decisive finish.
It Was Not Close
Mr. Trutanich, one of those rare candidates from San Pedro, clubbed the increasingly toxic Mr. Weiss, 56 percent to 44 percent, a towering accomplishment since the winner’s namhas been one of the city’s most active and visible politicians.
This was the thorniest mudslinging matchup of all. It resembled television wrestling in its worst moments.
Another faceoff of interest was in East L.A. for the Congressional seat formerly held by Hilda Solis until President Obama selected her to be his Secretary of Labor last winter.
Although the race to go to Washington attracted a dozen contenders, most were not known outside of their families.
Early, the fight resolved itself into a two-person showdown between Judy Chu of the State Equalization Board and state Sen. Gil Cedillo.
He was in the news several years ago for loudly advocating driver’s licenses for illegals, a novel idea at the time that gave him statewide traction. He gathered support from important persons, including law enforcement agencies.
It was fairly clear, though, that Ms. Chu would win — even though Mr. Cedillo owns a decent reputation. As a career politician, Ms. Chu has adroitly maneuvered herself from one electoral position to another, greatly aided by the state Democratic Party and the County Federation of Labor.
She handily defeated Sen. Cedillo, 32 percent to 23 percent, with the remaining 45 percent strung out among 10 challengers.
The final two contests were for seats on the Community College District Board. Incumbent Nancy Pearlman solidly defeated Robert Nakahiro with 61 percent of the vote, and incumbent Angela J. Reddock lost to Tina Park, 54 percent to 46 percent.
A New Era
Perhaps the most impressive victor was now-Sen. Price (D-Inglewood), who blew away to lesser known and drastically underfunded opponents by gaining 70.4 percent of the vote in the broad-shoulders 26th District, stretching from Hollywood through Culver City and around to South L.A.
On a day when Sen. Price could have gone fishing, but didn’t, Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a Republican, was the runnerup, 49 percent farther back with 21.1 person, and the Peace and Freedom Party’s Cindy V. Henderson attracted 8.4 percent.
For the last 2 1/2 years, Sen. Price’s day job has been serving as a member of the state Assembly. He has been quite busy advocating a wide plateload of ideas and policies.
Interestingly, the former Inglewood City Council member portrays himself equally as a friend of the working man and ally of the small business owner.
Fred MacFarlane, Sen. Price’s spokesperson, told the newspaper that “getting people back to work will be his No.1 priority when he moves to the Senate.”
After the blistering defeat that was inflicted on the five statewide propositions that were supposed to raise taxes to compensate for the state budget deficit, Sacramento may not look as friendly to legislators as it did previously. The outcome was a stinging rebuke for every lawmaker who backed the propositions, and most members did.
Sen. Price’s objective is to create 10,000 new jobs by the end of 2011, Mr. MacFarlane said.
The results:
State Senate
Curren D. Price Jr., 32, 693, 70.4%
Nachum Shifren, 9,804, 21.1%
Cindy V. Henderson, 3,913, 8.4%
L.A. City Council
Paul Koretz, 15, 917, 50.5%
David Vahedi, 15, 582, 49.4%
City Attorney
Carmen Trutanich, 131,777, 56%
Jack Weiss, 104,622, 44%
U.S. Congress
Judy Chu, 15,338, 32%
Gil Cedillo, 11, 244, 23%
Community College Board
Nancy Pearlman, 169, 783, 61%
Robert Nakahiro, 106, 383, 38%
Tina Park, 148, 243, 54%
Angela J. Reddock, 125,311, 36%
