Richard Riordan

Los Angeles' mayoral election is still nearly two years away, but the field of candidates already is taking shape. And the race is certain to present voters with starkly different choices about who should run Los Angeles next. More contenders undoubtedly will find themselves drawn to the opportunity, but here are the early candidates to watch. Wendy Greuel L.A.'s controller was the first candidate officially in the race and the only one to have already been elected to citywide office.

Gladstone's Malibu, the iconic 33-year-old seafood restaurant that lays claim to 700 feet of prime beachfront real estate where the river of traffic on Sunset Boulevard flows into the estuary of the Pacific Coast Highway, had been having a bad decade, or two. If it was going to weather the twin storms of recession and the wrath of Yelp, it was going to need an extreme restaurant makeover. But the fact that it would be saved by Sam Nazarian — one of Hollywood's most glittering night-life players — made for a particularly interesting rebirth.

Woofing about Riordan Re "Unleashed," Opinion, May 8 Where was Hizzoner in taking on the unions when he was in a position to actually do something? If former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan had fought to reduce the pension promises to all new hires who started with the city during his eight years, we would not now be looking at the ballooning pension costs that may cripple the city's fiscal future. If Riordan, with tons of his own money to finance his political career, and ostensibly no further political ambitions, couldn't face down the powerful public unions, who can?

Richard Riordan spent eight years as mayor of Los Angeles, but he didn't start his civic engagement with L.A. when he was sworn in, and he didn't end it after he was termed out. Since then, he's become part tribal elder, part fun uncle, but just now the City Council isn't sending any love his way. It's pretty irked by Riordan's warnings that the city may have to resort to bankruptcy to save itself. Riordan's post-mayoral resume includes a short stint as California Secretary of Education -- a still-public life in the public eye. Personally and through his foundation, the attorney/investor/venture capitalist has given away what he figures is tens of millions of dollars to L.A. causes.

The celebrity endorsements of former KB Home Chief Executive Bruce Karatz resumed Friday morning when billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad took the witness stand to defend the character of the man federal prosecutors say made millions of dollars in illegal profits by secretly backdating stock options. Broad, who co-founded the company that became KB Home in 1957 and later operated SunAmerica insurance company, told jurors that he had known Karatz for 38 years and considered him to be a man of impeccable integrity.

Former KB Home chief Bruce Karatz turned to a powerful ally Thursday in his defense against stock-options backdating charges, presenting former Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan as the first of his character witnesses. Riordan, who served as mayor from 1993 to 2001, told jurors at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles that he's known Karatz for 30 years, considers him a close friend and does not believe Karatz would knowingly commit a crime. "I think he's an outstanding character who respects the law. He has a very high level of integrity," said Riordan, whose voice was so powerful that defense attorney John Keker instructed him to back away from the microphone.

The Times endorsed studio executive Christine Essel in the Sept. 22 special election to fill Los Angeles' 2nd District City Council seat. Essel was one of the two top finishers and is competing in Tuesday's runoff against Assemblyman Paul Krekorian; we continue to believe she is the best candidate, and we reiterate our endorsement and hope voters cast their ballots for her. But most of all, we hope they vote. Even in regular city elections only a fraction of voters bother making a choice, and turnout this time -- in a special runoff for a single council district -- could make this election feel like a semiprivate affair.

Nancy M. Daly, a widely respected children's advocate, philanthropist and arts leader in Los Angeles, has died. She was 68. Daly, who had high-profile marriages to entertainment executive Robert A. Daly and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan, had been battling pancreatic cancer. She died Friday in St. Louis while traveling back to Los Angeles from New York in a motor home with her three adult children. "It's exactly what she wanted," her daughter Linda Daly said Saturday.

Gladstone's oceanfront restaurant just south of Malibu -- noted for its killer location, long waits for a table, big portions and foil doggy bags sculpted into swans and mermaids -- is getting a recession-era makeover. Owner Richard Riordan, the former Los Angeles mayor, has hired nightclub impresario Sam Nazarian to help give the restaurant a younger, hipper and fresher feel. In fact, Riordan said he plans to sell him a part interest in the sprawling restaurant that can seat as many as 792 diners.

Eleven years ago, Robin Kramer and I were part of a delegation that accompanied then-Mayor Richard Riordan on a trip through the Far East, she as his chief of staff, I as a reporter. One afternoon, we were stuck in a conference room in Beijing, surrounded by a cluster of scrambling mayoral aides and business people. They were frenetically preparing for a meeting, but nevertheless found the time to fret about a story of mine in that day's paper. In it, I recounted how the mayor had muffed the introduction of a Chinese official the night before.