LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Voters in Los Angeles, a city still struggling to rebound from a sustained economic slump, went to the polls on Tuesday to narrow the field of candidates for mayor as veteran Democratic city officials Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel led in early results.
The non-partisan primary election in the nation's second-largest metropolis was expected to end with the top two contenders advancing to a May runoff, as no candidate is likely to secure a majority of the electorate to win outright.
With 8 percent of ballots counted, Garcetti, a Los Angeles city councilman, was ahead with 34 percent of the vote compared to 29.4 percent for Greuel, the city's controller. Both candidates have led consistently in pre-election polling.
The eventual victor will succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is one of the nation's most high-profile Latino politicians and chaired the 2012 Democratic National Convention. He is barred from running again after two terms in office.
Garcetti and Greuel are both Democrats. Trailing them in recent pre-election polls were former talk-show host Kevin James, a Republican, and City Councilwoman Jan Perry, a Democrat.
In the early ballot results, Perry had 17.6 percent of the vote count compared to 13.5 percent for James.
"I still remain optimistic that we'll make the run-off and I'm confident that we'll stay in the top three," James told over 200 cheering supporters at a bar east of Hollywood.
A total of eight candidates were on the ballot.
While a USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll conducted late last month showed Garcetti and Greuel to be the clear front-runners, the same survey found considerable fluidity remaining in the electorate.
Among voters who said they had decided on a candidate, 46 percent said they could still change their minds, a factor that could swing the race unexpectedly, especially given the relatively low voter turnout anticipated.
Reflecting that lack of conviction, voter Mary Milelzcik, 64, said she cast her primary ballot for Greuel. "But I don't know if I'll vote for her in the final runoff. I'll need more information about how she's going to get things done."
Just over a third of registered voters cast ballots in the last mayoral primary in which no incumbent was seeking re-election, in 2001, when Villaraigosa first ran. He was defeated in a runoff only to win office four years later.
SEEKING TO GIVE BUSINESSES A BREAK
The city's sluggish economy and bleak fiscal outlook are likely to overshadow other issues preoccupying the next mayor, and they have loomed large in the campaign.
All three leading candidates - Garcetti, Greuel and James - have opposed a Villaraigosa-backed half-cent sales tax hike on the ballot and called for cuts in business taxes to promote economic growth, even as the city scrounges to plug a budget hole set to top $1 billion over the next four years.
The business tax structure that the leading candidates vow to overhaul is known as the gross receipts tax, and it varies by type of commerce. Internet-based companies, for instance, are taxed at $1 per $1,000 in receipts, while professional service firms pay $5 per $1,000.
The two front-runners were separated in the USC Price poll by just 2 percentage points - 27 percent for Garcetti to 25 percent for Greuel - despite sharp differences in their political pedigree and backgrounds.
Garcetti, 42, who served as council president from 2006 to 2011, is known as a consensus builder who has touted his record on environmental initiatives and his role in the urban revival of once-blighted areas of Hollywood.
A onetime Rhodes scholar, he is also the son of former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who was the city's top prosecutor during the murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
Greuel, 51, in her current role as controller is tasked with uncovering waste and fraud, while in her former position on the council she was known as the "Pothole Queen" for her dedication to street repair in her suburban district.
She previously served as a deputy mayor in the administration of late former Mayor Tom Bradley.
Garcetti and Greuel have led in fundraising by pulling in more than $4 million in contributions each, according to campaign records from the city. But Greuel, a former DreamWorks executive, has received an added boost in over $2 million spent independently on her behalf, records show.
Most of that comes from a group called Working Californians to Elect Wendy Greuel that is backed, in large part, by city employee unions.
Outside groups and individuals have set a record by spending more than $4.8 million for or against the mayoral candidates and the contenders for other city offices.
James, 50, had 15 percent support in the USC Price poll, and Perry, 58, who represents a sliver of the city's downtown and areas to the south, stood at 14 percent. She was first elected to the council in 2001.
(Additional reporting by Dana Feldman and Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Patrick Graham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-mayoral-candidates-square-off-primary-043506829.html
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