Twenty percent of registered voters in West Hollywood cast ballots in last week’s City Council election. The final unofficial vote count, released yesterday by the City Clerk, showed 4,929 of 25,067 registered voters participated.
With the final vote count Mayor John D’Amico remained the front runner in the race for three Council seats with 2,312 votes, or 18 percent of the total. He was followed by challengers Lauren Meister with 2,138 votes (16 percent) and Lindsey Horvath with 2,135 votes (or 16 percent).
Councilmember John Heilman, who lost in last week’s election but is running for Council in the June 2 special election, got 2,066 votes (16 percent). He was followed by challenger Joe Guardarrama with 1,881 votes (14 percent).
Larry Block, who also has filed for the June 2 Council race, scored 1,032 votes (eight percent). Of the remaining candidates, James “Duke” Mason and Matt Ralston each got three percent of votes cast. Christopher Landavazo and Tristan Schukraft each got two percent. Brian Funnagan and John Allendorfer took one percent each.
Last week’s turnout equalled the 20 percent in the 2013 City Council race but was significantly higher than the 14 percent turnout in the June 2014 state and county primary election.
The unofficial final results will become official on March 16, when the new Council will be formed with D’Amico, Meister, Horvath and Councilmember John Duran, who was not up for re-election. The fifth Council seat, left empty in December when Jeffrey Prang took office as L.A. County Assessor, will be up for election on June 2.
Have we come to this – evoking Hitler and Ghandi ? PLEASE STOP IT !!! Let’s deal with the issues. I’m concerned this June election may turn VERY nasty and that horrendous anti-Lauren Meister flyer will, in hindsight, look rather tame. Heilman is SO totally desperate to reclaim a CC Seat that who knows what depths he or his supporters will go to. Time will tell. BTW – the entire local, state and national elections have become SO toxic, especially with The Supremes ruling in favor of Citizens United (do I have that correct?) a few years ago, allowing the… Read more »
FK – I have no connection to Heilman, I have zero ties to developers, I’ve never had any contact with Heilman. Why is it that those who oppose him deny the possibility that people recognizing they live in a great, well-governed city might not reasonably credit long-term council members? It’s really offensive that you can’t disagree without being disagreeable and resort to making baseless claims. How do I know you aren’t Larry Block or Lauren Meister? I could equally make that sort of baseless claim about you.
Chris… what are your ties to Heilman? To developers? To those with business interests before the city? You seem to have a real affinity toward Heilman and you seem very much committed in the comments to every article on Wehoville where Heilman is mentioned to defending him and providing the rebuttal to those who would like to see someone else on council. But it just isn’t clear why it is that you’re so vehemently supportive of him.
Do you have a source for that statement Rudolf? He might have decided on his own not to run – either because he’d already committed months to this, or because at the last minute he didn’t want to compete with Heilman as his own choice. If he did demur to a request, though, it does raise a question – what was the promise? The minimum is that he is next in line, but maybe it is more interesting – that the city and county Dems dump Duran and he and Heilman might run together in two years, assuming that Heilman… Read more »
Heilman/Duran asked him not to run.
Does anyone know why Guardarrama isn’t running? He stood the best chance at defeating Heilman in my opinion.
Steve, you make some valid points, but your description of people as “loyalists” is a bit condescending. Just as one can make a rational case for change, one can also make a case for the status quo and rationally choose Heilman or in other cases incumbents for reasons other than bland loyalty. One of the good things about this year’s election(s) is that more people are speaking out on both sides, and each one makes some good points.
West Hollywood is interesting because it has always had a high number of transient residents who don’t plan on making WeHo their permanent home. Thus they feel less concerned about keeping up with or getting involved with local issues. As pointed out, people who are generally satisfied with the City may have no reason to vote. But alternatively, people who believe that big money is what matters in West Hollywood elections may feel that there vote simply is irrelevant. I am sure there were stay at home voters in both categories. It appears that the residents who voted seemed split… Read more »
Added up the #s – 4929 voters x 3 possible votes = 14,787 maximum votes
The candidates received 13,087 votes
So 1,700 possible votes weren’t cast – that’s about 11.5%
My guess is that a lot of the core supporters of some of the candidates cast only 1 vote, and then of course quite a few only cast 2
Some people might have been confused and only cast 1
Despite D’Amico’s call for increase turnout and his goals of 30% nobody listened. We don’t hear him anymore because he is no longer speaking to me or for me. He became a dirty politician. His cronie Shink is not qualified and a sure loser. I’m glad to go back to the polls for Block.
@ Mike Dolan We must remember the principles that this city was founded on? You mean like affordable housing? That is all well and good IF you are one of the lucky ones who wins the lottery for an affordable apartment. Have you seen the prices of new apartments on the east side? $2200 for a studio? $5500 for a 2 bedroom? Where do you live? Are you in a rent stabilized apartment and if so WHAT would you do if one of these Heilman supported developers evicted you? Where would you go in West Heilmanland, oh I mean West… Read more »
Experience, clear and believable vision, deep love and concern for solving the issues of all West Hollywood resident is why we are voting for John Heilman. We must remember the principles that this city was founded on. This is paramount! John’s shown he is and has the strength of conviction that is unselfish and only for the city we all love and call home. John Heilman is our only choice without question.