Opinion: Many cheer Bass’ mayoral win. Some wonder why L.A. elects only Democrats.
LOS ANGELES – The campaign season is over, and as most mayoral candidates already know, one thing is certain. After eight years, it’s time to go.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles voters elected an end to a time when the nation’s third-largest and third-largest metropolises elected nonpoliticians and had no one in public office with the ability to influence the city’s direction.
With over 100,000 votes counted, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa bested former Councilman Ed Lee and former state Sen. Gloria Romero Barrow in the nonpartisan race for mayor. The two Los Angeles mayors and five other candidates were all Democrats. As a result, L.A.’s city council is now officially the most Democratic in America.
L.A.’s first non-Democrat was elected mayor in 1962. Since then, no other L.A. mayor has run in an election besides Democrat Ed Davis, who was elected in 2002.
Many voters, both in the city and the suburbs, found this election night a referendum on L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who received almost 40 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary election.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board’s conclusion: “It’s a sad day for Los Angeles, an era of non-politics that has brought more than its share of pain and dysfunction to this city. The defeat of an elected mayor would seem to be, at first glance, a positive.”
Villaraigosa said, “This election proved once and for all that Los Angeles is ready for a change.”
“The city has grown so big and so fast that it has become very difficult to be an effective and effective mayor,” said Villaraigosa, “And that’s not me. I am here to represent the people of Los Angeles.”
While Villaraigosa is not the first mayor to win in a nonpolitician primary, he is poised to be the most