Final results show former state senator Sheila Kuehl with 43,348 votes and former Santa Monica Mayor Bobby Shriver with 34,509 votes in the supervisor race. Duran got 19,577 votes. Because neither Kuehl nor Shrive received a majority of yesterday’s votes, they will run against one another in the November general election. The 3rd District Supervisor represents two million Los Angeles County residents, including those of West Hollywood, on the five-member Board of Supervisors.
Prang emerged as the leading candidate in the race for the Assessor’s seat. But, failing to win a majority of the votes, he will face Deputy District Attorney John Morris in a race for the position in November.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Duran said he had been “severely disadvantaged on the money.” Duran raised approximately $400,000 for the race, much less than the $1.2 million raised by Kuehl. Shriver raised more than $1.9 million, however $1.7 million of that was his own money.
Duran also suggested he might seek another office in the future. “I think I come out a winner even if I don’t break through,” he said, noting that he got before many new voters in his campaign. “There may be another office for me sometime in the future.”
In March of next year, three West Hollywood City Council seats will be up for election. They include those held by Mayor John D’Amico, who already has announced his candidacy for a second term, and those hold by long term council members John Heilman and Abbe Land, who haven’t yet announced whether they plan to run again. A victory by Prang in the Assessor’s race will put a fourth seat at play. Given that West Hollywood residents traditionally return incumbents to office, there has been little turnover on the Council since it was created at the city’s founding 30 years ago.
Who will break tie votes? Oops – Paul Arevalo – he breaks just about everything else.
If Prang wins in November and he resigns by Dec 10th, his seat will be a special election on our March ballot. If he waits till Dec. 30th, then his seat will be on the June ballot. Im told the council will not make a special appointment but will operate with 4 seats during that peroid. PS since Prang would be eligible to collect his assessor’s salary as of December 1st, ($192k) odds are he would resign earlier in the month if possible.
The election is March 3. The date petitions are due for already created vacancies is early December. There is a designated multiple week filing and petition accumulating period before that. I’m not even sure if Prang won and resigned the day after the election there would be sufficient time. And remember the Council would need to meet and vote to approve the additional seat to be elected at that point. And if he resigned immediately, the nearly two month period between the election and when he is sworn in would mean additional time with only four, not five, members, unless… Read more »
I’m a bit confused. Since Prang will be leaving in December or January and the election I believe is not until April why is there a problem in filling his seat? I’m sure there will be more than three candidates so instead of three elected four could be elected just as easily with the understanding that number four will only serve two years.
Here’s my suggestion: since almost certainly if Prang wins the time of his vacating his seat and the legal mechanism for having a 4, not 3 seat election won’t be possible, someone should float the idea that whoever comes in 4th in the election will be appointed by the new sitting council rather than having a vacancy for months before another election, or the council otherwise appointing someone else.
How does that sound? We could get John Duran’s opinion about this as well.
Hasn’t been
Great, just great! Stuck with those two crooks for another term!?!? Will someone please replace the Members on WeHo City Council! I’ll give John D’Amico a shot to prove he’s truly different but that will only happen with a clean slate of Council Members. D’Amico is forced to play ball with the motley crew we have. Instead of being “of the people and for the people” our council is “of the developers and for themselves.” That has to change. There wasn’t been a fantastic original idea, true leadership or clear vision for the city from our Council in at least… Read more »
John Duran is severely disadvantaged in that he is ineffectual as a leader and has disappointed many West Hollywood citizens.
West Hollywood needs some form of “top-two” run-off elections or things will never change.
We can still have a big turnover in the next CC election if a couple of the non incumbent candidates really put their noses to the grindstone & run a real & strong campaign, especially since the usual “also rans” keep popping up in every election & sucking the votes away from the legitimate candidates who come close to winning. Sending out a mailer or two does not a campaign make! The winning non incumbent candidates need to be spending as much time “out there” as possible till every voter knows their name.”Whoever runs the fastest wins the race!” If… Read more »
Prang ended up apparently first. In a multi-candidate open primary with no party preferences and all the candidates being unknown to most voters (and low funding), that the votes would be split is no surprise. The County Dem party now will get strongly behind Prang, and he likely is a slight favorite to win. The question that should be looked into is whether if he wins his seat will then be up for election. He wouldn’t need to leave the council until he takes he new job (late Dec? January). Filling vacancies likely falls under established law – we know… Read more »
Team Change is on the move and I think many in West Hollywood are ready to turn the page from the Heilman era– it’s gonna be a fun race for the heart and soul of the city and I hope to walk the streets with every challenger.