Mar 02 2009
Villaraigosa Expects Sweeping Re-election
Voters in the city of Los Angeles will be heading to the polls tomorrow to decide on a number of important positions of governance. Most notably, incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be seeking re-election to a second term in office. The mayor is running on a record that he claims has made progress on issues such as education, greening the city and reducing crime. After attempting to take over the LA school district early in his first term, Villaraigosa was able to politically maneuver the ouster of former superintendent Brewer. As for the Mayor’s pledge to plant a million trees across the city, the effort is tempered by the destruction of the 14 acre community garden in South Central that occurred under his tenure. Nevertheless, by gaining the endorsements of publications like La Opinion and the Los Angeles Times, and by vastly outspending his opponents, the mayor is expected to win a second term easily, but in the end observers are speculating as to whether Villaraigosa would complete it or opt instead to run for Governor in 2010.
Seven members of the city council are also up for re-election with any of the incumbents, such as Janice Hahn, Jan Perry, and Eric Garcetti, running unopposed. The positions of city controller and city attorney are also open with current council member Jack Weiss vying for the city attorney seat against Carmen Tructanich, and Michael Amerian, and City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel running against Nick Patsaouras for city controller.
GUEST: Fernando Guerra, Director of the Levy Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University
2 Responses to “Villaraigosa Expects Sweeping Re-election”
The guest on this segment defended Villaraigosa’s inaction re: Ralph Horrorwitz’s spiteful demolition of the South Central Farm(1)–but wasn’t Villaraigosa on City Council when the illegal back-room deal was made to sell the farm to Horrorwitz?
(BTW, Villaraigosa strongly committed himself to protecting the Sout West Indian Musuem in Mt. Washington (as did Councilman Sleazar), but once in office, he went against the will of the community and sided with the Gene Autry. See: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/01/213072.php
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(1)The farm was leveled because, as Horrorwitz put it, the plants “needed pruning.”
In the interests of accuracy, the article mistakenly states that the incumbents in the Council races ran unopposed in the election held yesterday (unless my reading of the article is incorrect). I ran against Council President Eric Garcetti, and I know that most of the other incumbents running for re-election had opponents as well.