Without objectively reliable polling in the Los Angeles City Council districts, only the three citywide races are safe to project:
By Wednesday morning, we may have Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Atty. Mike Feuer and maybe City Controller Dennis Zine.
Messrs. Garcetti (48-41) and Feuer (42-24) can almost exhale, while the Controller’s race, between newcomer Ron Galperin and Councilman Zine, is over there in a corner, splattered thick with dust and what feels like galloping disinterest. Mr. Zine holds a three-point lead (31-28). Let the yawning begin. And continue.
Morally and ethically, Mr. Garcetti is the superior choice for mayor. The policy gap between him and Wendy Greuel, however, is smaller than the space between newlyweds on their wedding night.
Direct Your Attention
[img]1610|left|Mr. Feuer||no_popup[/img]Overwhelmingly the most intriguing race is for city attorney, matching two good guys who are as different as brothers one year apart, definite don’t-invite-’ems.
They haven’t, don’t and won’t like each other because their off-stage lives and professional objectives are more separate and opposite than a freshly divorced couple’s.
While both grew up in ethnically strong homes, the foci and the trajectories of their law careers have been as distantly spaced as San Francisco and Los Angeles. Since stepping down as executive director of Bet Tzedek Legal Services two decades ago, Mr. Feuer has been on an eye-narrowing mission for increasingly wider political offices – from the City Council to Sacramento and back.
Last March 5, he walloped Mr. Trutanich by 14 points in the primary that never was close. However, a dozen years ago, Mr. Feuer also won the primary but lost the runoff to Rocky Delgadillo.
Never mentioned in these distant days is perhaps Mr. Feuer’s most recommendable asset, his valiant heart, his near-miraculous resiliency.
Last December, en route to the inauguration of new County D.A. Jackie Lacey, Mr. Feuer was severely injured coming down the off-ramp of a freeway near USC. His car was rammed by another, and his internal injuries sent him swiftly to an ICU unit.
With similar injuries, normal people would have been recovering for six weeks, doctors said.
“Can’t afford the time,” Mr. Feuer abruptly declared from his hospital bed. By Saturday following the Monday collision, he walked out of the hospital and promptly resumed his campaign.
What no one but his family and physicians know is how long the depth and scope of pain were intolerable. Mr. Feuer only grimaced when out of view.
On the Other Side
[img]1697|left|Mr. Trutanich||no_popup[/img]Mr. Trutanich, six years older at 61, seems to be suffering punishment for having changed his mind about running for a different job before being two-termed-out in the city attorney’s office.
Big deal. A puff of smoke.
I would estimate 95 percent of the time 95 percent of voters don’t know whether the city attorney is Walt Disney or Walter Reuther.
Seems dastardly unfair to a family man, a hometown boy whom the same 95 percent of the people would enjoy being around 95 percent of the time.
If a man, a mature man, can be called sweet, that is Mr. Trutanich. As sincere as your favorite clergyman, as folksy as Lawrence Welk, and as serious about the law as Mike Feuer, but in a different way, that is Carmen Trutanich.
He came up the grinding way in San Pedro, a lawyer away from the limelight most of his life, until recruited for the city attorney’s race in his late 50s.
Mr. Trutanich’s campaign, which has a much harder edge than he himself does, repeatedly has taken Mr. Feuer to court this spring over alleged ethical violations. They have been defeated as fast as filed.
While the campaign has been scrambling, the smooth Mr. Feuer’s wrinkle-free campaign calmly has been reeling in an almost choking number of endorsements and done enough fundraising to send you and me to the moon every weekend until he is out of office.
One more distinction:
With Mr. Trutanich, you sit down at a pizza parlor and shmooze over a beer.
With Mr. Feuer, in a quiet setting, you will enjoy an aperitif.
