May 19 was special Election Day in California and a few races were particularly close and exciting. Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich beat Jack Weiss in the Los Angeles City Attorney race. Trutanich will replace outgoing City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo. Truranich got 55.74 percent of the vote and Weiss got 44.26 percent.
Weiss was backed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, while Trutanich was supported by Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. Trutanich is a former deputy district attorney.
The runoff contest to replace Weiss in the Los Angeles City Council’s 5th District is still too close to call. Paul Koretz, who has two decades of experience as a politician, is currently slightly ahead of David T. Vehedi, a candidate who came out of the neighborhood council system. The most current, unofficial results showed Koretz leading Vahedi by a mere 335 votes.
At the state level, a series of measures aimed at balancing the budget and narrowing the deficit failed, with the exception of a measure to deny raises to elected officials during recessionary periods. Democrat Curren D. Price Jr. easily took the State Senate seat in the 26th District, winning 70 percent of the vote over Republican candidate Nachum Shiffren, who received 21 percent of the vote. The Peace and Freedom Party candidate, Cindy V. Henderson, got eight percent of the vote in the district.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/Coun
