Eric Garcetti

Eric Garcetti's lead in the Los Angeles mayor's race has narrowed to seven percentage points, but his strength among conservatives has blocked rival Wendy Greuel from securing a San Fernando Valley base that is vital to her chances, according to a new USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll. As the candidates and their partisans swarmed across the city in advance of Tuesday's runoff election, Garcetti, a city councilman from Silver Lake, held a 48% to 41% lead, the survey found. Voters in the Valley and every other key region of Los Angeles favored him over Greuel, the city controller.

City Councilman Eric Garcetti's supporters began filling up the Hollywood Palladium theater long before the first results were released, as the Los Angeles mayoral hopeful awaited returns with his family at a nearby hotel. The choice of the cavernous venue - the campaign was expecting several thousand supporters Tuesday night - was a hint of the team's optimism about their chances. While his opponent, City Controller Wendy Greuel, stumbled in her fundraising efforts in the final days, Garcetti's campaign was comparatively flush, aides close to Garcetti said, to outgun her in advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts that will be crucial in a low-turnout race.

In exactly one week, Los Angeles will wake up with a newly elected mayor. The lucky leader of 4 million restless campers with cracked sidewalks could be Wendy Greuel, the business-suited Valley kid who worked for Mayor Tom Bradley and President Clinton and would be the first female mayor in city history. Or it could be Eric Garcetti, who seems to have done everything in his 42 years except pitch for the Dodgers and kayak to Borneo, and whose adopted daughter may one day celebrate both a bat mitzvah and a quinceañera . Last week, I wrote about a Greuel visit to Tolliver's barbershop in South Los Angeles, where she was relaxed and sharp in front of a crowd that thinks she's the one. Today I'll report on my outing with her opponent, who, like Greuel, helped create some of the city's problems but now promises to deliver peace and prosperity to one and all. L.A. ELECTIONS 2013: Sign up for our email newsletter When Garcetti walked into a Westwood Village pizza parlor late Monday night, he was not recognized until after he'd selected artichokes, olives, onions and peppers as toppings.

He's only 12, but Adam Brown has already volunteered for a presidential campaign, started his own nonprofit to get other kids involved in politics, and, last month, ran for student body president at Sylmar's Los Angeles Mission College, where he takes classes. His most recent plum? Introducing city councilman and mayoral hopeful Eric Garcetti during a fundraiser at his family's Northridge home. Poised but sneaking peeks at his notes, Adam, wearing a polo shirt and a campaign button, called Garcetti a "great leader" and ticked off his political biography.

Working a recent breakfast gathering of business owners in Northridge, Los Angeles mayoral contender Eric Garcetti introduced himself in Hindi when a Sikh businessman approached. A few hours later, Garcetti donned a colorful Peruvian headpiece with ear flaps as he spoke Spanish with immigrants on the steps of City Hall, part of a show of solidarity for designating a stretch of Hollywood's Vine Street as "Peru Village. " After lunch, Garcetti joined rabbis at a City Hall menorah lighting.

After remarks by Magic Johnson and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, it was Wendy Greuel's turn to remind a few dozen black supporters at a South L.A. rally on Saturday that African Americans could swing the mayoral election Greuel's way on Tuesday. "They always underestimate this community," Greuel, the city controller, told the crowd outside her Crenshaw Boulevard office. "They've always underestimated me too. And what do we do? We prove them wrong. " While Greuel cast herself as the underdog in Tuesday's runoff, her rival, Eric Garcetti, warned volunteers in Westchester not to take victory for granted in a contest that remains fluid to the end. "We're ahead, but we're not winning," the city councilman told them on a break from making phone calls to voters who might need some prodding.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti said Friday that Wendy Greuel's dwindling campaign treasury would only bolster his argument that her campaign is being sustained by the independent spending on her behalf. With 11 days left before the May 21 runoff election, City Councilman Garcetti's latest campaign finance report shows that he has 10 times as much cash-on-hand as his rival , who reported $275,000 in her bank account and debts of nearly $535,000. “She's now broke,” Garcetti said after appearing at a Mexican Mother's Day event at San Antonio Winery in Lincoln Heights with telenovela star Jaime Camil, whose surprise appearance brought gasps from the women assembled for the luncheon.

Wendy Greuel called on Eric Garcetti on Friday night to stop all negative advertising in the last 11 days of the Los Angeles mayor's race, a challenge that her rival dismissed as "disingenuous" for a candidate whose campaign is effectively "bankrupt. " "OK, my campaign consultants are probably not going to like this, but I say no more negative ads," Greuel told Garcetti in a debate aired live on KABC-TV (Channel 7). Garcetti said he had already endured "eight weeks of pummeling" by Greuel, including an accusation that he was "causing cancer for children" with a lease of oil drilling rights beneath his family's property in Beverly Hills.

Kevin James, the Republican attorney who finished third in Los Angeles' mayoral primary, will endorse top vote-getter Eric Garcetti on Tuesday over runoff rival Wendy Greuel. "The voters have made a decision and there are two candidates that remain," James said in an interview Monday evening. "I had to look at both of those candidates and decide which one is best to lead the city forward for the next four years. I think the opportunity for independence is greater with Eric.… The potential for independence he shows in the future I think is significant because of the way labor has lined up for his opponent in this race.

Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel stepped up attacks on rival Eric Garcetti on Tuesday, repeating ethical accusations brought up at Monday night's televised debate and adding a new one - that Garcetti accepted thousands in donations at a fundraiser hosted by an ex-felon. Greuel, the city's controller, called the media to her Boyle Heights campaign office to reiterate recent attacks against Garcetti that she says call into question his ability to lead a city as large and complex as Los Angeles.

After remarks by Magic Johnson and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, it was Wendy Greuel's turn to remind a few dozen black supporters at a South L.A. rally on Saturday that African Americans could swing the mayoral election Greuel's way on Tuesday. "They always underestimate this community," Greuel, the city controller, told the crowd outside her Crenshaw Boulevard office. "They've always underestimated me too. And what do we do? We prove them wrong. " While Greuel cast herself as the underdog in Tuesday's runoff, her rival, Eric Garcetti, warned volunteers in Westchester not to take victory for granted in a contest that remains fluid to the end. "We're ahead, but we're not winning," the city councilman told them on a break from making phone calls to voters who might need some prodding.

Eric Garcetti's lead in the Los Angeles mayor's race has narrowed to seven percentage points, but his strength among conservatives has blocked rival Wendy Greuel from securing a San Fernando Valley base that is vital to her chances, according to a new USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll. As the candidates and their partisans swarmed across the city in advance of Tuesday's runoff election, Garcetti, a city councilman from Silver Lake, held a 48% to 41% lead, the survey found. Voters in the Valley and every other key region of Los Angeles favored him over Greuel, the city controller.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday waded into the heated contest to choose his successor, calling for two ads aimed at Latino voters that attack candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel to be taken off the airwaves. Both were financed with independent donations not controlled by the candidates. Villaraigosa, who has not made an endorsement in the race, said a TV ad from the super PAC Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti falsely portrayed Greuel as a supporter of Proposition 187, the 1994 state ballot measure that sought to deny illegal immigrants access to public education and other services.

In exactly one week, Los Angeles will wake up with a newly elected mayor. The lucky leader of 4 million restless campers with cracked sidewalks could be Wendy Greuel, the business-suited Valley kid who worked for Mayor Tom Bradley and President Clinton and would be the first female mayor in city history. Or it could be Eric Garcetti, who seems to have done everything in his 42 years except pitch for the Dodgers and kayak to Borneo, and whose adopted daughter may one day celebrate both a bat mitzvah and a quinceañera . Last week, I wrote about a Greuel visit to Tolliver's barbershop in South Los Angeles, where she was relaxed and sharp in front of a crowd that thinks she's the one. Today I'll report on my outing with her opponent, who, like Greuel, helped create some of the city's problems but now promises to deliver peace and prosperity to one and all. L.A. ELECTIONS 2013: Sign up for our email newsletter When Garcetti walked into a Westwood Village pizza parlor late Monday night, he was not recognized until after he'd selected artichokes, olives, onions and peppers as toppings.

The importance of Latinos in next week's mayoral election was highlighted again Wednesday as a new round of dueling attacks ads emerged seeking to undermine both candidates' appeal to Spanish-speaking voters. In one spot appearing on Spanish-language television channels, longtime Democrat Wendy Greuel is criticized for having been registered as a Republican in the early 1990s during the era of former Gov. Pete Wilson - a figure reviled by many Latinos for his sponsorship of a ballot measure to deny immigrants in the country illegally certain government benefits.

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti ventured into school district politics Tuesday, lending support to non-controversial actions and mostly taking a respite from their recent sniping in the Los Angeles mayoral contest. A week before voters go to the polls, Greuel addressed the Los Angeles Unified School District board, coming out in favor of a program that provides students breakfast in classrooms and for discontinuing a policy of suspending students for "willful defiance. " The school board, as expected, approved both items.

Basketball legend Magic Johnson endorsed Wendy Greuel to be Los Angeles' next mayor on Thursday, saying he selected her because of her broad range of experiences in the public and private sectors, her longtime ties to the African American community and the historic nature of her candidacy to be the city's first woman mayor. “We love this woman because she loves us. We love this woman because she's been in our community many, many years and the fact that she's going to get the job done,” he said, standing alongside religious, civic and elected officials who are backing Greuel.

Surrounding himself with the City Council's three African American members, mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti traveled Saturday morning to Leimert Park -- the historic heart of black Los Angeles -- for a rally in which he sought to galvanize support among black voters. Speaking before a crowd of just a few dozen people, Garcetti presented himself as a candidate with strong family ties to South Los Angeles, speaking about the barber shop his grandfather owned a few miles away. He also touched on issues that resonate with many black Angelenos, making references to crime and a debate over whether the park will be a stop on a future rail line.  “We've got a community that deserves transit and a transit stop right here, wondering if they will get the sort of equity and opportunities that other places have,” Garcetti said, drawing applause.

A new mailer sent out by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel's allies to Latino voters that strongly suggests voting for her will result in an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour drew sharp criticism from her rival Monday. In addition to the mailer, labor members supporting Greuel drove through Latino neighborhoods over the weekend broadcasting a song, "La Wendy," with the same message. Greuel's opponent, Councilman Eric Garcetti, called the efforts a "cynical attempt to buy votes" and "give false hope to people who are struggling to make ends meet.

Chris Robbins could be a poster child for mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti's vision for Los Angeles. Each morning, Robbins straps on a backpack, cues up his iPod and sets out on a short walk to the subway, which whisks him to his downtown public relations job. He and his wife share one car. On the weekends, they like to stay local, savoring their neighborhood's array of new restaurants and bars. Over 12 years as Hollywood's councilman, Garcetti has emerged as a leading champion of "smart growth," which aims to entice residents like Robbins out of cars by densely concentrating new development along transit lines.