Serving Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods of Los Angeles since 2011.

Why Vote?

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Voting by mail began Monday in the race among the five candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles. But if you are like most Los Angelenos, you are undecided and you probably won’t even vote in the March 5 primary.

With only 25-30% voter turn out expected, all a candidate needs to make it into the run off is one-eighth of the votes cast. According to the Secretary of State’s office, there are over 1.7 million registered voters in the city. If only 25% or 440,000 vote, the candidate who gets just over 110,000 votes is likely to make it into runoff.

At this point, the race is still wide open, explained Raphael Sonenshein, Director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State LA. “With five people in the race, every vote could make a difference,” said Sonenshein.

Defy the cynics, take advantage of the numerous candidate forums to listen to the candidates, and vote!

This Sunday, you can join your neighbors along Wilshire Blvd, for the Wilshire Blvd Mayoral Town Hall on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at John Burroughs Middle School.

Mayoral Candidates Kevin James, Jan Perry and Emanuel Pleitez have agreed to participate in this real life civics lesson complete with students from John Burroughs Middle School asking questions. Organizers have space for front runners Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti if they become available.

There are dozens of forums around the city but the one should be even more interesting because the presumed front runners have said they can’t attend due to scheduling conflicts. “This could be very interesting,” commented Sonenshein, “It should give the other candidates a chance to really shine.”

City Council District Four representative Tom LaBonge will kick off the forum. Publisher, editor, author and journalist Kevin Roderick will moderate the discussion that will also be webcast on the John Burroughs web channel.

The forum was organized by the Larchmont Buzz, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles Citywide Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, The Larchmont Chronicle, League of Women Voters, Mid-City West Community Council, Miracle Mile Chamber of Commerce, Miracle Mile Civic Coalition, Miracle Mile Residential Association, Park LaBrea News-Beverly Press and Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council.

And, if that’s enough to get you involved in this election, you can also register to vote!
The Office of the City Clerk Election Division will be on hand to register voters, provide voting guides and recruit poll workers.
Please RSVP at [email protected].

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Patricia Lombard
Patricia Lombard
Patricia Lombard is the publisher of the Larchmont Buzz. Patty lives with her family in Fremont Place. She has been active in neighborhood issues since moving here in 1989. Her pictorial history, "Larchmont" for Arcadia Press is available at Chevalier's Books.

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1 COMMENT

  1. AND, there is a super important race for LAUSD School Board! With a budget of almost $7 BILLION (almost twice the City’s budget!), the 7 elected members of LAUSD’s Board are responsible for a major impact on our City. Even if you don’t have kids, the quality of our public schools affects us all. With three seats up for election, this one is hotly contested and will determine whether LAUSD maintains “status quo” or moves towards more reforms and much-needed improvements. Many of us believe that LAUSD can become a great district again, but a lot needs to change to do that!
    I personally support Monica Garcia in District 1(current Board President and a nationally recognized ed reformer) and Kate Anderson in District 4 (running against the incumbent, Steve Zimmer, who has been against every effort to make substantive change at LAUSD). PLEASE make an informed vote in these races!

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