Darrick Rainey

Please see today's L.A. Weekly cover story, "L.A. Mayor With Baggage Seeks Job: Antonio Villaraigosa's quest for Wall Street, Washington and wealth," and check out the mayor's original, unedited schedule, obtained by the Weekly, at the end of the next page.

In 2008, L.A. Weekly obtained Mayor Villaraigosa's official work schedule and discovered that he spent only 11 percent of his time on direct mayoral work. Critics dubbed him "the 11 percent mayor." Four years later, as he leaves office, we revisited his calendar. We found that Villaraigosa is deeply devoted to photo ops, ceremonies and travel, spending just 15 percent of his day on core duties such as deciding upon policy or weighing laws. He spends 42 percent of his working hours traveling outside Los Angeles.

During the 15-week period from September 1 to December 16, 2012, he logged roughly 1,234 hours of official work, 12 hours a day. He divides his time into the same five categories we unearthed in 2008: Trips, Gap Time (getting from event to event), Personal Time/Blacked Out, Ceremonial or PR, and City Work.

Here's the breakdown by category of how he really spends his time, 2012 versus 2008:

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Jose Gardea (left), Gil Cedillo (right)

Update: Gardea is closing the distance to Cedillo. See details at bottom.

Updated at bottom to explain that the city election web site's confusing "7.52 percent reporting" is wildly misleading. Far far more votes have been counted. First posted at 9:05 p.m.

Gil Cedillo is leading Jose Gardea in early vote results for Los Angeles City Council District 1, with Cedillo getting 2,715 votes or 56.57 percent and Gardea 2,084 votes or 43.42 percent.

Cedillo and Gardea are vying to represent an Eastside council seat in a community with a dense population of Latinos, mostly immigrants from Mexico and Central America. CD 1 is one of the poorest neighborhoods in L.A., extending from Northeast Los Angeles to the Pico-Union area. The two men share some fascinating similarities and differences:

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Charges of election fraud are flying in Little Armenia, as council candidates John Choi and Mitch O'Farrell have filed complaints with the district attorney accusing each other of stealing votes. The latest sign that something suspicious might indeed be going on is the above photo -- posted last month on Instagram -- which appears to show a large number of vote-by-mail ballots sitting on somebody's bed.
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Wendy Greuel

In an internal memo this weekend, Wendy Greuel's pollster took aim at the new USC/L.A. Times poll and argued the race is a "dead heat" heading into Tuesday's vote.More »

Eric Garcetti

Eric Garcetti has a 7-point lead over Wendy Greuel in the race for L.A. mayor with just four days to go before the runoff election, according to a new USC/L.A. Times poll out this evening. The results:More »

Wendy Greuel attacked Eric Garcetti on his home turf today, challenging his jobs figures and blaming him for a recent spike in rapes, which she called the "dirty little secret" of Hollywood.More »

Antonio Villaraigosa

So much for staying neutral. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has said that he would not get involved in the campaign to succeed him, saying he wants to maintain good relations with both Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti.More »

Garcetti for Mayor TV ad

We're already getting a little nostalgic for the L.A. mayor's race, which will be over next Tuesday. Call us crazy, but we think we'll miss the attack ads the most. There's just something compelling about seeing fundamentally decent public servants portray each other as child-killing monsters.
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Trutanich mailer

Gov. Jerry Brown has weighed in on the race for L.A. city attorney, recording a robocall attacking incumbent Carmen Trutanich for "misleading voters" on the issue of prison realignment.

Trutanich supported Brown's realignment plan when he ran for district attorney last year. But now that he's running for re-election as city attorney, Trutanich has turned against realignment and is attacking opponent Mike Feuer for supporting it.

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Scott Ochoa had never met Brian D'Arcy, the head of the powerful electrical workers' union, when D'Arcy called him up in a rage last year. Ochoa, the Glendale city manager, was trying to work out an agreement on behalf of Glendale Water & Power, the city utility. D'Arcy didn't like how the negotiations were going.
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Garcetti and Greuel debate

The last televised mayoral debate is tonight on KCAL, which means one more opportunity to point out that the candidates agree with each other on everything. That's been one of the recurring themes of the race: Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel are fundamentally the same.

The problem with that is not that it's wrong. Hell, we've written several versions of that ourselves. The problem is that it's useless. Voters who are trying to make up their minds don't need to know how alike the candidates are. They need to know the differences.

Here then is a user-friendly guide to the five key differences between Greuel and Garcetti. Clip it. Save it. Take it with you to the polls on May 21.

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LA Jobs PAC ad

Eric Garcetti's Los Angeles

Mic check! Finally, someone has dragged (finally, someone has dragged...) Occupy L.A. into the race for mayor. In a web-only video released today, the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce attacked Eric Garcetti for inviting the Occupy movement to "stay as long as you need to" on the City Hall lawn back in the revolutionary days of 2011.
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Wendy Greuel

Updated below. Campaign finance figures show Greuel is running on empty. More »

Wendy Greuel for Mayor attack ad

It turns out that reports of the demise of Wendy Greuel's TV campaign were premature. Greuel released a new attack ad this afternoon, attacking mayoral rival Eric Garcetti for holding a polo fundraiser with a convicted felon.
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Garcetti for Mayor TV ad

Councilman Eric Garcetti launched a new TV ad today attacking mayoral rival Wendy Greuel over her support from the union that represents Department of Water and Power workers.
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Eric Garcetti admires a CODA

CODA Automotive filed for bankruptcy this week, reigniting a controversy over whether the City of Los Angeles should have pledged $1 million to lure the electric car-maker from Santa Monica.More »

Obama and his girls via Pete Souza for the White House.

Did President Obama not get the memo? The election is over. You don't need to tap L.A.'s rich people for campaign money anymore. You won.

Wait, what? Ah: There are midterm congressional elections on the horizon. Democrats want to crack the alleged gridlock imposed by Republican filibusters. Friggin' busters:

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Courtesy Tom Ferda

Scores of people, police and, of course, Occupy L.A. hit downtown yesterday for the annual May Day marches and rallies. The streets were clogged with an estimated 10,000-plus people who were there to speak their minds on immigration reform, and -- wait! -- did that sign just say what we think it said?

Of course, it would just be an example of someone exercising their First Amendment rights. The phrase is not unknown to us, right? It has been used in various protests across the world at least since the N.W.A song made the phrase popular in 1988.

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Eric Garcetti

Eric Garcetti has a one-point lead in the race for L.A. mayor, according to a new poll issued by Working Californians, the DWP union-backed campaign supporting Wendy Greuel.
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Kuehl campaign

Sheila Kuehl

It came as a surprise to no one following L.A. politics, but one-time TV actress, former state senator, and current and proud lesbian and gay rights icon Sheila Kuehl announced her run for Los Angeles County Supervisor on Thursday.

Kuehl, 72, could be the first openly gay person elected to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

In an email to supporters, Kuehl wrote, "I will bring continuing stability to county government, as well as innovation and diversity, big picture thinking as well as attention to the daily lives of those who depend on us, an open door and an open mind, collaboration with anyone willing to work with me, years of experience and lots of energy."

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