Los Angeles Elections 1997

San Fernando Valley voters continued to show solid support for Mayor Richard Riordan in Tuesday's election but also expressed dissatisfaction with City Hall by strongly backing a measure to overhaul the city's charter. Valley voters--particularly white conservative voters--were less enthusiastic than residents in the rest of the city, however, about a bond measure to pay for school repairs and improvements, according to a Times exit poll.

With his resounding victory Tuesday, Mayor Richard Riordan has clearly demonstrated his mastery of Los Angeles' electoral politics. But to succeed as a second-term lame duck, he now must demonstrate a similar command of governing a city that is still grappling with Rodney G. King's plaintive question: "Can we all just get along?" Los Angeles remains as divided as ever--politically, economically, racially and in its institutions of government.

Relying on his weighty political influence and even heftier campaign war chest, Mayor Richard J. Riordan received strong support for a sweeping charter reform measure Tuesday, but did not succeed in getting most of his hand-picked candidates elected to the panel charged with rewriting the document. By a 3-2 margin, voters supported Proposition 8, a Riordan-backed measure that asked voters to create an elected citizens panel to revise the 72-year-old charter that acts as the city's constitution.

Giddy as they counted the last few votes endorsing the largest local school bond ever passed in the United States, Los Angeles Unified School District administrators began scheming Wednesday on how best to spend their $2.4-billion windfall. The school refurbishment measure seized 71% of the vote--comfortably above the two-thirds approval needed to pass local bond issues--despite a dismal election turnout that had been expected to dash its chances.

Giddy as they counted the last few votes endorsing the largest local school bond ever passed in the United States, Los Angeles Unified School District administrators began scheming Wednesday on how best to spend their $2.4-billion windfall. The school refurbishment measure seized 71% of the vote--comfortably above the two-thirds approval needed to pass local bond issues--despite a dismal election turnout that had been expected to dash its chances.

When election day rolls around Tuesday, the race to fill the 11th District City Council seat may not be over. That's because many political professionals who have watched the contest believe it may take a runoff election to determine the winner. And that runoff would probably feature Cindy Miscikowski, a former aide to retiring 11th District Councilman Marvin Braude, and Georgia Mercer, who once worked for Mayor Richard Riordan.

One of the candidates vying to run the nation's second-largest city is a universally described "non-politician," the other a self-proclaimed "anti-politician." Incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan has spent his life in the private sector, making money and giving it away. He never considered a career in politics, he says, until a year before his 1993 bid for the city's top office.

As L.A.'s lopsided mayoral campaign entered its final weekend, incumbent Richard Riordan spent Friday collecting a string of endorsements from predictable sources, while challenger Tom Hayden employed a reliable tactic for getting on television: posing with puppies. But while Riordan's packed schedule ended up being largely back-to-back photo opportunities, Hayden's morning news conference raised serious issues about the city's troubled Animal Regulation Department.

Fearing it will derail efforts to split San Fernando Valley schools from the giant Los Angeles Unified School District, a group of Valley politicians and business leaders Friday urged defeat of a bond measure that would raise money to repair decaying schools. Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and representatives of several community groups, including the Encino Homeowners Assn. and the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, announced their opposition to the $2.

Gregarious and irrepressible, state Sen. Tom Hayden works Los Angeles one handshake at a time. He cruises the city in his mini-school bus, jumping out to distribute his own leaflets. And he warms to the sight of a microphone, speaking without notes, with little prompting and with no evident restraint. Mayor Richard Riordan is a different kind of candidate. He prefers personal interviews to press conferences and seems more comfortable with small children and senior citizens than vocal activists.