Clinging grimly this morning to a slender branch of hopes and wishes, 8th District challenger Forescee Hogan-Rowles still was not willing to concede defeat to Bernard Parks in their Los Angeles City Council race, banking on the longshot possibility of a runoff.
Except for Mr. Parks, incumbents everywhere else marched to wide victories, including on the hotly argued Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees where all four jobholders cruised. Of the 10 charter measures on the ballot, nine passed. Only the oil production tax failed.
Typically, a mere 12 percent of registered voters bothered to participate, and that could be a boon to Ms. Hogan-Rowles, a career business executive.
As the only one of seven City Council incumbents to be even vaguely tested, Mr. Parks finished with 50.89 percent of the vote, barely surpassing the runoff barrier of 50 percent plus one so far.
However, fewer than 1,100 votes separate the top two finishers in a three-cornered race — 7,934 for him, 6,858 for her, 43.99 percent.
The remaining numbers place her chances of gaining another swing at Mr. Parks in a potential May 17 runoff in the shadowy area of maybe.
“We are less than one percent away from forcing a runoff,” Ms. Hogan-Rowles said in the darkness of today’s first hours.
“We are awaiting a better estimate of how many provisional ballots and absentee ballots received yesterday remain to be counted.
“We expect the City Clerk to provide this information later today.
“I am proud we have Bernard Parks on the ropes. He is desperately swinging and missing.
“Given the trends we saw as the results came in, we are in position to force a runoff.”
With an estimated 1,800 to 3,000 more or less late-arriving ballots still to be tabulated, Ms. Hogan-Rowles is unlikely to catch Mr. Parks. But she doesn’t need to do that.
She is not conceding on the day after because she has at least a remote chance of scaling back Mr. Parks’s proportion to below the 50 percent threshold to create another showdown with him in two months.
While the presence of a third candidate, Jabari Jumaane, never was taken seriously, he turned out to be an X factor in the finals. If his almost invisible 797 votes had mostly gone to Ms. Hogan-Rowles, she already would have clinched a runoff against the now obviously vulnerable Mr. Parks.
The last bizarre note:
It was reported overnight that Mr. Parks, celebrating in Leimert Park just blocks away from Ms. Hogan-Rowles’s headquarters, scheduled a press conference for 5 a.m., then abruptly canceled it on the grounds it would interfere with his “official duties.”
Elsewhere
Longtime Culver City favorite Herb Wesson, aiming for his second term on the City Council where his profile has been soft, clobbered five challengers with 74 percent of the vote.
Incumbents Jose Huizar, Tom LaBonge, Tony Cardenas and Paul Krekorian won without breaking a sweat and newcomer Mitch Englander took the only open seat by whacking five opponents.
Trustees Trusted?
Despite a presumably influential series of stories in recent days in the Los Angeles Times harshly criticizing the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees for asserted sleaziness, voters ignored the charges.
Mona Field retained her seat 59.25 percent to 14.45 percent.
Steven Veres fended off a stronger challenge from Joyce Burrell Garcia, 57.98 percent to 42.02 percent.
Scott Svonkin never was in trouble against Lydia Gutierrez, 35.29 percent to 14.37 percent.
Miguel Santiago defeated Erick Aguire, 66.07 percent to 33.93 percent.
