Beginning on July 1, the new Mayor of Los Angeles will be Eric Garcetti. Or Jan Perry. Or Wendy Greuel.
If purely the quality of the contenders becomes pivotal, they may call him Mayor Kevin James, a dominant voice in last evening’s debate that brought all of the frontliners together for the first time to a common table.
With nearly a half-year to go before the March 5 primary election, they already are, unintentionally, putting daylight between themselves with the way they perform, or don’t perform.
The sponsoring Hollywood Chamber of Commerce knows how to stage an architectural spectacular with populist appeal – even if the largest daily newspaper in Los Angeles blew it off or slept through the snappy one-hour, four-question program that operated as if a bomb were going to be detonated in the 61st minute.
Fittingly for auditioning the next mayor, the Hollywood setting showed off the town at its shiniest, a fabulously ornate secular temple, the huge, marble-floored Taglyan Cultural Center on Vine Street, reminiscent of those palatial other-world buildings that kept cropping up in silent films 90 years ago.
An Edifice for Entertaining
Constructed as a tribute to the culture of Armenia, its nearly sky-tall ceilings are illumined by gigantic chandeliers, which fell one bulb short of making night-time brighter than daylight.
On another brilliant evening for Mr. James, an attorney and onetime radio talk show host, his much higher-profiled rivals were decidedly less efficient.
Although there are cement-laden odds against his candidacy – if only because his opponents have natural daily access to the media – there was no question in one mind who won the whiz-bang four-question scrum.
The capacity ballroom crowd of 400 was well behaved. They did not seem disappointed when the television-seasoned moderator, Traci Savage, who had a good night, said the slim, manicured script was pre-set. No further questions would be entertained.
Sizing up the candidates’ most exposed audition:
• Mr. Garcetti, former President of the Council and the favorite at the six-month mark, had the home field advantage as Hollywood’s Council rep. Smug bordering on arrogant, he seemed to be making rhetorical motions devoid of commitment.
• Ms. Greuel, former Councilperson and now City Controller, smart and organized, usually is finger-pricking sharp in public appearances. Not this time. She was vague, wandering, pointedly inspecific with her responses.
• Ms. Perry, a loud-voiced Councilperson the last 11 years, gives the impression she is regurgitating memorized lines instead of speaking from her presumably nimble mind.
• Mr. James, for the second straight public forum, delivered crackling, reflective and eye-catching responses, as if he were completing an interminable jigsaw puzzle – City Hall – in a single liquid move.
(To be continued)
