Mitch Englander vs. Brad Smith: Los Angeles City Council District 12 Election Results

By Simone Wilson Wed., Mar. 9 2011 at 8:00 AM

Welcome Mitchell Englander to the City Hall fraternity

Update: A grand turnout of 19,819 District 12 residents cast their votes in the City Council election yesterday. All said and done, Englander stayed in the No. 1 spot with 57.76 percent of the vote, and Smith trailed at a distant but admirable 25.22 percent.

Update: As of 11:10 p.m., Englander has fallen the tiniest bit, to 57.75 percent -- and that's with almost half the district's votes counted. Smith moved up a few tenths to compensate, but nothing major.

Mitchell Englander has done everything a good power climber should to reach the ultimate City Council District 12 throne: He started as a political consultant for his uncle's firm, made his way to City Hall and served his time as current Councilman Greig Smith's chief of staff.

And tonight, without a pinky toe's worth of shock or awe, we're here to announce that Englander made the cut -- if his (very early) 58 percent of the vote sticks, that is.

If by some miracle it does not, half a million dollars just went down the drain:

Englander spent more on his campaign than any other candidate in any other race -- over $500,000 -- proving there are some rich mofos with some very special interest in seeing the 40-year-old prodigy get a vote on California's most powerful city council.

So much for a Clean Sweep.

Brad Smith, the only District 12 contender with any press (or money), is at 24.32 percent, which is better than hippie fave Stephen Box in District 4, but still only half of what Englander's got. Can't help but wonder whether he might regret re-entering the race after a mid-January dropout?

Pretty much the only remaining chance for an upset here would be if (Brad) Smith and the four other randoms in the District 12 race collectively pushed ahead far enough to dunk Englander under 50 percent. That way, there'd have to be a runoff election on May 17...

Which, of course, the half-million-dollar man would probably win as well. But at least we'd have a few more months to hate our predictable Los Angeles lives a teeny bit less.

One small sprig of cheer did come from this race: The most backhanded Times endorsement in the long, repressed history of backhanded Times endorsements. It's priceless, really:

Other candidates in the race have lived in the district longer, have better credentials as entrepreneurs and can make more credible claims to speak for those who believe the district is an afterthought to City Hall. Navraj Singh, a rags-to-riches restaurateur, knows all too well the excessive barriers that the city puts in front of new businesses. And Kelly M. Lord Jr., a real estate broker, Brad Smith, an engineer, and Armineh Chelebian, an accountant, all offer good ideas about governance and development drawn from their work on neighborhood councils.
Englander isn't the top choice for angry voters wanting to shake a fist at City Hall, or for those eager for an outsider to bring completely new thinking to the council. But he is bright and capable, and seems more attentive to the neighborhoods' concerns than Smith has been. The Times urges a vote for him.

More to come as the numbers fill out.

Originally posted at 10:55 p.m.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Brad Smith, District 12, Election 2011, election results, Greig Smith, incumbents, Mitchell Englander

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Jason Broder

Congratulations Mitch and the hundreds of volunteers, supporters and community friends who pitched in many long hours to make it happen!! Not mentioned here and on blogs was the FACT that hundreds of people like me from the community joined in the effort. So while this and other blogs denounce Mitch being "anointed" "coronated" and "hand picked" all of us know the real truth - that he worked his butt off for this victory and earned every one of his votes. Now he can go BACK to working 14 hour days instead of 18 hour days.

anonymous

Harvey Englander's LA City Hall lobbyist rates must have gone up overnight.

Robert

What's interesting in this race is little Mitch got about 11,000 votes but over 8,000 people didn't vote for him and voted for other candidates. That sends a powerful message. Another interesting point is there's a lot of community activists not only the LA Clean Sweep guys who don't support little Mitch because he's what's wrong inside City Hall. I have a feeling its not going to be smooth sailing with him in council and constituents citywide will be watching and going after him. Sadly, if you don't have money in this city its hard to get elected. Mitch can thank his uncle Harvey Englander the biggest lobbyist in City Hall for all those political favors his friends in the Valley gave him putting little Mitch in office. Gee, I wonder if Uncle Harvey needs some political paybacks inside now????