Los Angeles is holding a primary race (really the first round thanks to reform of election laws in California) on March 5th for the mayoral election on May 21st. The major candidates are mostly Democrats: City Council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry along with City Controller Wendy Gruel (who is considered more conservative than her counterparts) with the sole Republican candidate being the talk show host Kevin James.
Mayoral races have always been “everybody runs together the first time, with the top two returning for a runoff if neither got at least 50%”, haven’t they?
I wonder how the left-wing Democrat will win. Wait, sorry, let me rephrase that as I left out something: I wonder by how much the left-wing Democrat will win. It’s California. Sure, there’s bastions of Conservativism in the southern and more rural parts, but LA is pretty left-wing as a city, I’m told.
Never been there myself, but always wanted to visit the nicer portions.
But the Dems are not very LW as a party. Dennis Kucinich – who is no socialist – defines the Outer Limits, and I’m pretty sure you have to look hard to find Dem pols as LW as he even in CA. The real lefties there are Greens or outright Reds.
James is a fiscally-conservative republican, but he’s also a gay, socially-liberal republican. A guy like that could win in L.A…he’s not a Jim Inhofe type conservative. His record would be more impressive if he had admininstrative experience, though.
Indeed, he’s voter-friendly to LA, and he presents well - with the radio background he’s an effective communicator - and he’s running as an outsider against a lot of insiders. But, anyone with half a brain can understand that LA is a big complex place - you really don’t want a novice taking it on.
Gruel’s your standard blue state Democrat. Not conservative at all in any meaningful sense, but she is the favorite candidate of the public employee unions and party establishment. She works hard, and she knows the ropes, so she wouldn’t make a bad choice. I just don’t like how beholden she is to the usual suspects. She’s not the one to conduct a much needed house cleaning or shake things up in any way. She’s a Valley Girl and her hubby’s a Hollywood producer, so she’s not surprisingly liked on the Westside and in the Valley.
Barring a big upset, she’ll take it, and it’ll be business as usual here in Coyotetown. Could be better, could be worse.
Jan Perry’s done a lot for downtown (where I work) and she deserves a lot of credit. But for some nasty machinations by Herb Wesson and other black political bosses, she’d be able to keep doing good for downtown. I don’t think she has it together enough to be mayor of the second largest city in the country. I don’t question her work ethic or accomplishments, but she’s shown some flakiness in the past that makes me think she’s not a major league player - yet.