LA Mayor Candidates Try To Persuade Voters To Pay Attention
The candidates have spent a record amount of money. They've stumped hard in a city that isn't easy to campaign in — 470 square miles sliced up into neighborhoods divided by a web of freeways.
Yet despite nearly $20 million in spending in the March primary alone, turnout is expected to be low next Tuesday in Los Angeles when voters go to the polls to pick a new mayor to replace the term-limited Antonio Villaraigosa.
As a result, City Councilman Eric Garcetti and his opponent, City Controller Wendy Greuel, are engaged in an all-out blitz for votes across the sprawling city.
With a recent poll showing a tightening in the nonpartisan race between the two Democrats, who had similar records while serving together on the City Council, Garcetti and Greuel have been eager to court South LA's influential African-American and Hispanic vote.
"Welcome. Buenos dias," Garcetti said, as he shook hands with attendees before a forum one night this week in Watts.
Both smiled and swayed to the gospel music inside the historic Macedonia Baptist Church as the event was beginning.
After a few minutes of singing, as Hispanic voters tried on their headphones to listen to translation, it was down to business.
"Tonight we are gathered in Watts because Watts is one of those places in our city that has been left out, forgotten and forsaken," decried the church's pastor, Shane Scott, who introduced Garcetti and Greuel to the audience.
Both are seen as outsiders in neighborhoods like this. Garcetti represents Hollywood on the City Council, and Greuel hails from the suburban, and predominantly white, San Fernando Valley.
But Garcetti has Mexican heritage and has picked up key endorsements from Hispanic leaders. For her part, Greuel often talks about working for popular former Mayor Tom Bradley and President Bill Clinton, as she mentioned during the forum.
"It is about jobs," Greuel said. "President Clinton the other day said at an event ... when I introduced him that there's no better social program than a good job."
Business Vs. Labor
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