Voters

Almost four years ago, long before the 2012 presidential campaign heated up, CNN took a poll to learn who Republicans might choose as their party's next nominee. There were two clear front-runners: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, limped in third. By the time the campaign arrived, of course, Palin and Huckabee were pursuing careers as television pundits and after-dinner speakers, not presidential candidates.

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 barbershop 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.

The residents of the close-knit coastal enclave of San Pedro have long felt like the city's redheaded stepchild, geographically and culturally removed from the downtown power structure, the bright lights of Hollywood and the sprawling San Fernando Valley. But in the Los Angeles mayoral race, they are seeing fresh attention from Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti as the rivals try to stitch together coalitions to win the May 21 runoff. Within the span of a week, the candidates appeared at port workers' union halls a block apart in the area's historic downtown, pledging they would not forget this corner of L.A. "This is the economic engine of our entire city," Greuel said Saturday as she rallied supporters at the headquarters of ILWU Local 63, the Marine Clerks Assn.

As Los Angeles faces the possibility of having no women holding elected office at City Hall come July, some of California's most well-known female politicians joined forces to promote Wendy Greuel's mayoral bid. Greuel was endorsed by U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who appeared Thursday alongside other politicians who had already endorsed Greuel, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, and Reps. Janice Hahn and Judy Chu. In the evening, Boxer headlined a fundraiser for Greuel that was also hosted by EMILY'S List, an organization devoted to promoting pro-choice, Democratic women.

California needs to change the way it fills state legislative vacancies. Current law requires a special election that often creates a chaotic, costly and time-consuming process of legislative musical chairs. The state soon will have had half a dozen legislative special elections this year, and easily could have at least another half-dozen to fill vacancies later this year. Why so many legislative vacancies that trigger special elections? First, term limits. Termed-out legislators often leave old jobs early for new elected positions.

A Virginia judge has dismissed eight felony counts against a Republican Party campaign worker who threw voter registration forms in a dumpster. Colin Small, 23, still faces misdemeanor charges related to the incident in October, according to his lawyer, John Holloran of Harrisonburg, Va. But the felonies were thrown out during a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Holloran said in an interview. “I think they charged it three days after the event and thought it was the tip of the iceberg and that there was this huge voter fraud conspiracy that was occurring,” Holloran said.

A minority of voters living in a daisy chain of small, suburban and relatively upscale enclaves around the county's outer rim were largely responsible for last fall's razor thin defeat of a $90-billion transit tax that received lopsided ballot box support, a Times analysis shows. The review comes as several of Los Angeles' senior politicians have joined state lawmakers to push for a reduction of the threshold for passage of such measures, arguing that the current two-thirds requirement is undemocratic and hinders the region's growth.

Longtime Westside leader Barbara Broide said she quickly grew suspicious of a telephone call she received a few days ago. After giving his first name and that of an independent group supporting Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's reelection, the caller dropped a political bombshell: Broide said he told her that former lawmaker Mike Feuer, Trutanich's opponent in the May 21 runoff, had promised to hire former City Councilman Jack Weiss - a hot-button figure to some Westside voters - as his chief of staff if Feuer won. That seemed preposterous to Broide and some others who heard similar rumors from the independent campaign group or in emails or phone calls from individuals backing Trutanich.

Voters born in California are less likely to participate in the state's elections than voters born elsewhere who now live in the Golden State, according to a report by Political Data Inc. that surprised its author. Some 73% of California-born voters cast a ballot in the November 2012 election, while turnout was more than 80% for California voters born in 30 other states, including New York, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, according to Political Data Inc., which analyses voter information for campaigns.

Since winning spots in the mayoral runoff, Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel have been scurrying around Los Angeles rolling out new endorsements as they seek to gain an edge in what is expected to be a tight, low-turnout election. In statewide and national races, many endorsements are seen as little more than window dressing. But political observers say that in this mayoral contest, some nods could play an outsized role, both in differentiating two Democrats who are similar in many ways and in determining who goes to the polls in an election that few voters appear to care about.