In West Hollywood, Roseanne Barr owes a debt of gratitude to Thomas Hoefling. If not for Hoefling, the conservative candidate of America’s Party, Barr would have come in dead last among WeHo voters in Tuesday’s presidential election. Barr, the actor and candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party, got 69 votes to Hoefling’s 17. Of course Barack Obama was the overwhelming favorite of West Hollywood voters, with 11,237 votes to Republican Mitt Romney’s 2,147. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate got 149 votes, and Jill Stein of the Green Party got 140 votes.
West Hollywood supported incumbent Assemblywoman Betsy Butler by a big margin in her heated battle with Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom for the 50th District Assembly seat. Los Angeles County Registrar records show Butler got 60 percent of the vote to 40 percent for Bloom. District wide results show Bloom and Butler neck and neck with final results depending on absentee ballots still being counted.
West Hollywood voters differed from countywide and statewide voters on several measures. State Measure 37, which would have required special labels on some fresh produce and processed foods whose DNA has been scientifically altered, won 66 percent of the West Hollywood vote. The measure was defeated 57 percent to 43 percent statewide.
West Hollywood also gave overwhelming support to Proposition 34, which would have eliminated the death penalty. While that measure won 67 percent of West Hollywood votes, it failed statewide with only 47 percent of the vote.
Finally, West Hollywood took a different position than Los Angeles County overall on Measure B, which required adult film starts to wear condoms. The measure passed with 56 percent of LA County voting “yes.” In West Hollywood, 54 percent of voters opposed the measure.
In all other contests, West Hollywood voters were aligned with those of Los Angeles County generally and California. For example, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein won an overwhelming majority of West Hollywood votes in her re-election campaign, as did U.S Rep. Adam Schiff, running for re-election to his 28th District seat. Two-thirds of WeHo voters supported Jackie Lacey’s bid for L.A. County Attorney General. West Hollywood also supported Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure to restore public education funding, and rejected Proposition 38, a competing initiative backed by attorney Molly Munger.
Fifty-seven percent of West Hollywood’s 24,608 registered voters participated in Tuesday’s election.
