Residents in East San Fernando Valley have gone nearly six months without an official with voting powers representing them on the Los Angeles City Council. Now, it’s time to choose their next representative to replace former Councilmember Nury Martinez, who resigned in October for her role in a leaked racist audio recording.
Voting has begun and will continue through Tuesday, April 4, in the special election in Council District 6, which includes residents in Arleta, Lake Balboa, North Hills, North Hollywood, Panorama City, Sun Valley and Van Nuys.
Seven names are on the ballot in the following order: Isaac Kim, Imelda Padilla, Rose Grigoryan, Marisa Alcaraz, Antoinette Scully, Douglas Sierra and Marco Santana.
Unless one of the candidates captures more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff election on June 27.
Of the candidates whose names appear on the ballot, three of them – Alcaraz, Padilla and Santana – have experience working as a staffer in a political office.
Alcaraz, Padilla and Santana have also raised the most money for their campaigns, according to campaign finance reports filed with the city’s Ethics Commission.
Through March 18, Alcaraz had raised more than $155,000 through campaign contributions while Padilla had raised over $90,000 through contributions and received over $150,000 in public matching funds. Santana had raised over $81,000 and received more than $115,000 in matching funds.
Candidates with larger war chests, volunteers to knock on doors, or staffed phone banks, tend to have an easier time getting their messages out to voters.
Alcaraz, Padilla and Santana “have resources to be able to communicate with the voters, either with volunteers, walkers, or their mailers and things of that nature,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.
Guerra does not believe the leaked audio scandal will drive more people to vote in this…
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