See also, "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons," and "Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?"

DonkeyHotey

Michael Bloomberg gives L.A. a taste of his teacher reform views.

Los Angeles Unified School District, whose teachers union UTLA has squelched attempts to raise student learning by making ineffective certified teachers relearn subject matter and skills, just attracted $1 million from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to elect candidates in three LAUSD school board races.

Bloomberg has forced change upon New York's under-performing low-skills teachers. Now, he's reached across the U.S., trying to oust LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer, a Westsider who for years has waffled and flip-flopped on reform. Zimmer faces fellow Westsider Kate Anderson in the March 5 primary. Bloomberg is also trying to elect Antonio Sanchez in the Valley and Eastside incumbent Monica Garcia, a slow-starter who now backs reform -- and is hated by UTLA union activists. It's about to get juicy, folks:

More »

Richard Bloom

The vote count has taken forever in the closely contested Assembly District 50 race, but on Wednesday night Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom declared victory over Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. After the latest count by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, Bloom leads by 1,246 votes.

"Our calculation is that the lead is too big to overcome," Bloom tells L.A. Weekly, noting that his victory is a "pretty safe assumption."

Bloom ran an underdog campaign during the primary and run-off, raising much less money than Butler in both races and without the backing of the California State Democratic Party.

More »

Richard Bloom

A few weeks ago, we conducted an informal exit poll for the hotly contested Assembly District 50 race, wanting to know why people voted for Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom and Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. Then last week, we got an email from CalTech political science graduate student Andrew Sinclair.

As part of his dissertation on primary election reform in the United States, Sinclair had conducted a major phone survey involving 1,134 voters in AD 50 during the few weeks leading up to last June's primary. It's something that's very rarely done for state assembly races. What he found was fascinating, particularly when it comes to Bloom's underdog campaign, who has widened his lead to 888 votes.

More »

Ted Soqui

Richard Bloom and Betsy Butler

The Los Angels County Registrar-Recorder completed another count on Monday for the nail-biting Assembly District 50 race, and Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom increased his lead again over Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. Bloom is now ahead by 888 votes.

By the end of last Friday's count, Bloom was winning by 430 votes, so he more than doubled his advantage on Monday. During the registrar-recorder's extended vote count for the AD 50 race, Butler has never pulled ahead of Bloom. With fewer and fewer ballots to count, Butler's chances of winning are not looking good.

More »

Richard Bloom

Another Friday, another vote count for the too-close-call Assembly District 50 race. This time, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom has widened his lead over Assemblywoman Betsy Butler to its largest margin since the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder started counting provisional and mail-in ballots nearly three weeks ago.

By the end of Friday, November 23, Bloom went ahead by 430 votes. Only days before, Bloom's lead had shrunk to 79 votes. It's a major shift in favor of Bloom, but more ballots need to be counted.

More »

Ted Soqui

Richard Bloom and Betsy Butler

And the vote continues for the hotly contested Assembly District 50 race under the watchful eye Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan, who many people wish would hurry things up.

It's been two weeks since Election Day, and all we know at this point is that Democratic Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom still leads Democratic Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. Logan's office refuses to release any more details, and only promises that the winner will be announced on December 4.

More »

No on Measure B

If you're among the 56 percent of L.A. County voters who said yes to Measure B earlier this month -- thereby ensuring that performers in the adult film industry will have to rubber up before acts of intercourse -- Funny or Die has a message for you:

You're ruining porn.

Check out the video embedded below, which imagines a world in which porn is regulated much like OSHA regulates ordinary workplaces. Guess what: It's not particularly sexy.

More »

Richard Bloom

In the nail-biting California Assembly District 50 race, it's still a close contest, but Democratic Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom continues to maintain a lead over Democratic Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. In fact, he has increased it by 73 votes.

According to the latest count by Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, which was posted Friday afternoon, Bloom has 80,934 votes to Butler's 80,643. That puts Bloom ahead by 291 votes. Last Tuesday, Bloom was leading by 218 votes.

The L.A. County Registrar-Recorder will certify a winner by December 4. Right now, according to a spokeswoman, the county is counting provisional and mail-in ballots.

More »

Ted Soqui

Richard Bloom and Betsy Butler

In the too-close-to-call Assembly District 50 contest, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom has reversed a shrinking lead and now has 218 more votes than Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. Last Friday's count put Bloom up by only 103 votes.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder won't certify a winner in the race until December 4. Right now, according to a spokeswoman, the county is counting provisional and mail-in ballots. Every Tuesday and Friday, the registrar-recorder updates the AD 50 vote count on its web site.

More »

Richard Bloom

In the hotly contested California Assembly District 50 race, which still yet to be called, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom's lead over Assemblywoman Betsy Butler has shrunk from a little over 200 votes to 103.

Every few days, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder updates the AD 50 vote count on its web site. The latest results were posted on Friday, November 9.

Both candidates are Democrats, but Butler received the support from the state and local Democratic party establishment. She raised over $1.3 million compared to Bloom's $507,000.

More »

Ted Soqui

Richard Bloom and Betsy Butler

Take the L.A. Weekly exit poll after the jump. We want to know why you voted for Betsy Butler or Richard Bloom.

While Assemblywoman Betsy Butler and Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom wait for election results to be confirmed in the too-close-to-call Assembly District 50 race, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder has released voter totals for various parts of Los Angeles County -- and we're going to break down the numbers right here.

Bloom, the underdog who's winning so far by a little more than 200 votes, kept the race close by not getting blown out in any one area, except for West Hollywood where Butler won convincingly 7,252 to 4,814 -- more on that later.

Bloom did perform strongly, however, in Agoura Hills, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills.

More »

LA County / YouTube

Proposition 35 was a big hit with California voters Tuesday, passing with 81 percent approval.

But some of its provisions, including requiring the email addresses and user names of sex offenders convicted of such things as misdemeanor indecent exposure (which can involve, for example, having consensual sex in front of an open window), has drawn the ACLU's ire:

More »

Richard Bloom

Update, 1:05 p.m.: Bloom campaign releases cautious statement about possibly victory, after the jump.

Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom holds on to an extremely slim lead over Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Bloom captured 69,280 votes, or 50.08 percent, to Butler's 69,062 votes, or 49.92 percent.

If those figures stay steady, underdog Bloom will upset Butler, who was endorsed by power players in the state and local Democratic establishment. Bloom raised only $507,000 compared to Butler's $1.3 million.

More »

Diamond Fresh / Flickr

Updated with the initiative winning. The industry says it will challenge the measure in court. First posted at 9:38 p.m. Tuesday.

Despite disapproval from the porn industry, the Los Angeles Times and the L.A. Daily News, the L.A. county initiative that would mandate condoms in porn was winning tonight.

According to early L.A. County Registrar-Recorder figures measure B was winning 63 percent in favor to 36 percent against.

That's with ...

More »

Four years ago, Senator Barack Obama won the presidency, but gay folks across the country were outraged that California voters approved Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ban.

Last night, it was a completely different story -- and one of the most historic and significant nights for the LGBT community, the gay rights movement, and the advancement of overall equality in the United States.

Throughout the country on election night, gay issues and candidates won major races -- with gay rights activists working hard on the front lines and straight folks opening up their hearts and minds.

More »

Unions have spent heavily to defeat Proposition 32.

Updated Wednesday morning with complete results. See the bottom of this post for tallies with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Proposition 32, the measure designed to stop unions from deducting political contributions from employee paychecks, appears to have gone down to defeat tonight.

The race was initially tight. With 12 percent of ballots counted at 8:45 p.m., the measure was losing, but somewhat close, with 51.5 percent opposed and 48.5 percent in favor. But as time went on, that margin became increasingly lopsided.

By midnight, preliminary results show that just 45.8 percent of Californians voted in favor, with the rest opposed. (That includes nearly 52 percent of precincts reporting.)

More »

California Department of Corrections

San Quentin State Prison's death chamber.

California voters chose not to repeal the death penalty, Proposition 34.

Los Angeles County voters actually voted to end the death penalty, backing Proposition 34 by a wide margin of 1,191,545. or 54.04 percent Yes, to 1,013,477, or 45.96 percent No. But the local vote was not nearly enough to overcome statewide sentiment as a half-million more No than Yes votes poured in on Election Night.

Proposition 34 failed 4,269,535, or 47.2 percent Yes to 4,776,815, or 52.8 percent No.

More »

By Hillel Aron

See also: Measure J Transit Tax -- Too Soon?

Update: Los Angeles County voters rejected Measure J, which needed 66.7% to pass, by two percentage points, 64.72 to 35.28. See next page for more.

Things are not looking good for Measure J. With 33% of precincts reporting, the proposal is about two points shy of the 66.67% it needs to pass, according to the Registrar's website.

Its proponents better hope that the votes already counted come from outlying areas and not the city of LA, which stands to benefit the most from light rail construction. If passed, Measure J would accelerate the construction of a number of transit projects funded by Measure R, the 30-year, half-percent sales tax passed by LA County voters in 2008.

An internal poll obtained by LA Weekly showed the tax extension clinging to a 68% lead.

More »

STEPHEN LAM/REUTERS/NEWSCOM

Jonathan Youtt performs a puppet show in support of Proposition 37.

California voters rejected Proposition 37 last night by a margin of 47% to 53% with 98.5% precincts reporting.

More »

Newly-elected Ed Chau with Representative Judy Chu.

Democratic Attorney and Montebello school board member Ed Chau was able to stave of an upset by Republican Dr. Matthew Lin last night. Chau beat his opponent in the race to represent voters of newly-drawn Assembly District 49 by a healthy margin.

More »