After several days of ballot counting, a picture is emerging of which L.A. City Council candidates appear to have won their races and which ones likely will be forced into a runoff election.
Although votes are still being counted and the results of the primary election won’t be official until after the Los Angeles County registrar’s office certifies them later this month, three incumbents have already declared victory – Councilmembers Imelda Padilla in District 6, Marqueece Harris-Dawson in District 8 and John Lee in District 12.
See the latest election results
Candidates must receive over 50% of the vote to win outright and avoid a runoff. Otherwise, the top two finishers in each race will face off in the Nov. 5 general election.
We spoke with political experts this week about the three remaining races in which the incumbents could be headed for a runoff in Districts 4, 10 and 14.
The District 2 race is expected to be in a runoff as well, but neither of the top two vote-getters are an incumbent. They’re vying for the seat of Council President Paul Krekorian, who is termed out of office after winning the seat in 2009.
District 4
Incumbent Nithya Raman saw her lead over Deputy City Attorney Ethan Weaver grow but was still short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff, based on the latest vote count by the registrar’s office. As of Friday afternoon, Raman had 47.56%, Weaver had 40.99% and software engineer Levon Baronian had 11.45%.
Outside special interest groups hoping to influence the outcome of the election poured more money into District 4 than other L.A. council races in the primary. Of the approximately $1.8 million in total spending by independent expenditure committees, about $1.4 million, or roughly 77%, went toward ads and other efforts to support Weaver or to oppose Raman.
Some of Raman’s biggest critics, including the city’s police and firefighters unions, disagree with her approach to tackling homelessness,…
Read the full article here
