Political Campaigns

Candidates in the March 3 primary election in Los Angeles have zeroed in on the thousands of newly registered voters who lined up at the polls in November's presidential election, hoping to boost turnout in an off-year race that lacks a big-ticket political slugfest. This year's mayor's race lacks the sizzle of the 2005 election, when Antonio Villaraigosa snatched the office from incumbent James K. Hahn in a crowded and hotly contested campaign.

First there was the "healing through laughter" seminar. Then "Orit the Carpenter," sort of a lesbian Martha Stewart, took the microphone and yelled, "We have seen our share of candidates over the years . . . all oozing testosterone and ego. But I have news for them: We, the woman, can do this!" Later, transsexual pop star Dana International performed a bouncy disco song and announced, "I now formally invite you to the diva sisterhood."

An Eastside street corner was alive with mariachis, folklorico dancers and a pumped-up Antonio Villaraigosa on Saturday afternoon as the Los Angeles mayor kicked off his reelection campaign -- and skipped an invitation to face off with a group of his mostly unknown challengers across town. As hundreds of supporters cheered Villaraigosa with "Si se puede!"

Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) has collected tens of thousands of dollars in personal income by charging double-digit interest on money she lent her campaign 11 years ago and soliciting donations from Washington lobbyists at "debt retirement" fundraisers.

In the midst of a bruising final few weeks of the Los Angeles city attorney's race, two groups are calling on candidate Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich to stop running a television commercial that they say unfairly depicts Latino men as gang members. But Trutanich's campaign consultant contended that the complaints were orchestrated by supporters of City Councilman Jack Weiss, who is also running for the job.

Los Angeles city attorney candidate Jack Weiss criticized his chief rival Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich on Wednesday for representing a man accused of shooting at sea lions. As a private lawyer several years ago, Trutanich represented John Gary Woodrum, a charter boat captain who ultimately admitted to firing a rifle at sea lions near Santa Catalina Island.

In the flashy television ad that has served as his calling card to voters, Los Angeles city attorney candidate Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich compressed his 30-year legal career into a narrow sliver: the time he spent prosecuting serious gang crimes. Not mentioned is the mainstay of Trutanich's work: his expertise in environmental law, developed as a young prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and finessed as a private attorney defending a number of polluters.

When four of the candidates running for Los Angeles city attorney recently debated on the home turf of their chief opponent, City Councilman Jack Weiss, there was no question about whom they were targeting -- or the level of animosity that simmers among some of Weiss' Westside constituents.

If any section of Los Angeles knows how to confound the political establishment, it's the City Council's 5th District, a string of affluent Westside neighborhoods that has been electing newcomers and outsiders for decades. In 1953, voters picked 22-year-old Roz Wyman, now known for helping to woo the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Twelve years later, they threw out Wyman in favor of Ed Edelman, a 34-year-old political newcomer.

Of the 363 lobbyists who worked the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall last year, no one took the city to court more than Benjamin Reznik. By his own calculation, the veteran land-use lawyer and lobbyist has filed more than 150 lawsuits against the city's boards, commissions and elected officials over the course of his 32-year career, more than any of his peers.