With the vote from the city precincts fully tallied, mayoral contenders Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel were taking the top two positions and will face each other two months from now in a showdown. But fewer than two in every 10 voters even bothered to cast ballots -- an outrage and a disgrace.
From the LA times: "The top-two finishers in Tuesday’s election will face off in what is expected to be a bruising May 21 runoff. Only 16% of the city's 1.8 million registered voters cast ballots in the election..."
"As with most elections, however, some ballots have yet to be tallied. The pool of uncounted votes usually consists of vote-by-mail ballots, including some that were turned in on election day, as well as provisional and damaged ballots."
"Still, Garcetti and Greuel hold seemingly insurmountable leads over the next closest finishers -- attorney Kevin James and Councilwoman Jan Perry -- who appeared to be in a dead heat for third place, the vote count showed."
Eyes in L.A. are on the mayoral race, but another major issue is on the ballot, a sales tax, and it was losing in early returns.
From the L.A. Daily News' Rick Orlov: " Even after years of layoffs, cuts and service reductions, Los Angeles city voters were rejecting Measure A, a proposal to increase the city sales tax by a half-percent to bring in $200 million a year to help balance the city's budget."
"Voters were approving Measure B, a technical proposal allowing General Service workers who transferred over to the Los Angeles Police Department to buy-in their retirement time at no cost to taxpayers."
"That was considered a relatively noncontroversial City Charter amendment that was connected to the recent merging of General Services officers with the LAPD."
Meanwhile, for legislative offices the trend has been to ease term limits, but down in West Hollywood voters are going the other way.
From the LAT's Hailey Branson-Potts: "All but one of the five members of the West Hollywood City Council have spent more than a decade in office. With all 11 precincts reporting, Measure C, establishing term limits, was passed with 2,690 votes in favor and 1,653 votes opposed, according to unofficial results released by the city."
"Measure C will limit council members to three four-year terms. The term limit, however, would not be retroactive, city officials said. Each existing council member will be allowed three additional four-year terms after the measure's adoption."
"Measure C ensures that West Hollywood has a mechanism in place to bring fresh perspectives and new energy to the council," said Lauren Meister, a West Hollywood resident who helped spearhead a campaign that gathered more than 3,000 signatures and put the measure on the municipal election ballot."
In raw dollars, the newly approved federal cuts are going to hit California hard and threaten the state's economic recovery.
From the NYT's Normitsu Onishi: "After years of ballooning budget deficits, California finally seemed on firmer footing. Unemployment remained high, but revenues and housing prices were up. Taxpayers even voted themselves a tax increase to bring deficits down...."
"The cuts, which began to take effect on Friday and will accelerate as time passes, will amount to a loss of an estimated $9 billion for California this year. The military industry will incur the biggest reduction, $3.2 billion, but education, social programs and other areas that were hit particularly hard by California’s budget turmoil in recent years will also face cuts."
"State officials await word from Washington on exactly how the cuts will be put in place in the weeks and months ahead, hoping that the long-term ripple effects on California’s consumers and businesses will become clearer."
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has been a gathering place for Republicans and political events, ilncluding GOP presidential debates, but now it also is the site of a discussion on the gridlock caused by hyperpartisan politics, and Democrats are attending, too.
From the Ventura County Star's Timm Herdt: "They will gather there to talk about a common concern — the fear that their country is being brought down by an era of hyperpolarized politics that has gridlocked its government and rendered it impotent to deal with the nation’s challenges."
"Although the event was planned months ago, it could not be more timely. It comes less than a week after Republicans in Congress and President Barack Obama were unable to strike a compromise to avoid triggering a package of budget cuts that were designed to be so destructive that no sane government would allow them to happen."
"The daylong series of discussions is the kickoff of what a think tank called the Bipartisan Policy Center says will be a “national conversation” to explore ideas that would allow America to move forward despite its deep partisan divide."
