Staff and Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES — On an Election Day when the race for president was still undecided, voters in West Hollywood and parts of Hollywood apparently have elected new members of their city councils.
While county officials wouldn’t speculate on how many ballots still needed to be counted here, Los Angeles City Councilman David Ryu of the 4th District apparently went down to defeat In District 4, to Nithya Raman. At the end of counting election night, Raman led with 52.4% of the vote, more than 5,000 votes ahead of Ryu, who is finishing his first term on the council.
In West Hollywood, longtime Councilman John Duran was defeated in hos bid for re-election and incumbent Councilman John Heilman was running third in a race that only seats two.
Sepi Shine was the leading vote-getter in election night counts with 6,738 votes. John Erickson was second with 6,228 and Heilman was third with 5,333. Duran was running fifth among 11 candidates, with 2,812 votes.
All election-night vote totals are unofficial, as thousands of ballots remain to be counted. By law, the county Board of Supervisors is required to certify the election results within 30 days.
West Hollywood voters overwhelmingly approved a three-quarters cent increase on local sales taxes. The city said the tax hike was needed to cover revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
In other races of interest to area voters, congressional and state legislative incumbents were given new terms Nov. 3.
In the 28th Congressional District, Democrat Adam Schiff received 74.1% of the vote to easily defeat Republican Eric Early.
Assemblyman Richard Bloom also was easily reelected in the 50th Assembly District, receiving more than 81% of the vote.
In the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s race, former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón was leading two-term incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
Gascón had 53.8% of the vote and led Lacey by more than 200,000 votes. Lacey was not ready to concede the race, telling ABC7, “I expect those numbers to change and to change in my favor.”
Gascón said he was ready to lead criminal justice in a new direction in Los Angeles.
“I think that this has been a campaign that has been driven by passion, by an honest commitment to reimagine our criminal justice system, moving away from punishment,” he said. “It’s really about redemption.
