With just a few weeks left until Election Day, it’s time to get beyond the campaign rhetoric and 30-second commercials in the race for mayor of Los Angeles. Candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti visited Zócalo for a live debate, taking questions on everything from education to pension reform to why the campaign has gotten so negative.
 
Warren Olney hosted.

You can hear the whole thing here and …

Did you know that L.A. has more than 2 million eligible voters, but that 1.6 million of them are expected to skip the election on Tuesday? This means that you, dear voter, have a lot of responsibility.
When to Vote:
Polls are open from 7AM – 8PM on Tuesday, May 21st.
Where to Vote:
Find your polling place and a sample ballot here.
Wendy Greuel vs. Eric Garcetti:
Angelenos will finally …

Just a few more days before you go to the polls.  Let’s review, shall we?
We’re in the final stretch, so here’s some information you need to know about the candidates and propositions before you punch, pull or bubble-in that ballot.
KCRW’s Warren Olney, host of Which Way, LA? and To The Point joined us, as did KCRW reporter Saul Gonzalez, who’s been covering some of the campaigns …

This Tuesday is the Los Angeles general election. Thousands of paid canvassers have taken to the streets to get out the vote. And there have been lots of TV ads that have been increasingly negative.
Much of the money for these efforts isn’t actually coming from the campaigns. They’re coming from outside expenditure groups – PACs. They can pretty much say and do whatever they …

Top prosecutor. The city attorney’s race came to “Which Way, L.A.?” last night as KCRW’s Warren Olney conducted separate interviews with the candidates in Tuesday’s run-off election. The incumbent, Carmen Trutanich – or “Nuch” as he’s commonly known – finds himself in an uphill battle to keep the job that he won in a surprise victory four years ago.
After pledging not to run for another …

Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to vote for the next mayor of Los Angeles and several other key offices. But will there be a flood of ballots, or merely a trickle?
Used to be, a lot more votes were cast in L.A. during big city elections. Here we are on the cusp of selecting a new mayor for the second most populous …

On today’s Mixer, we welcomed Gene Maddaus from the LA Weekly and Howard Blume, the education reporter from the Los Angeles Times.
There are a couple of new polls that came out this week. One comes from the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles, showing 46% of likely voters backing Wendy Greuel and 45% who back Eric Garcetti.
Nine percent are still undecided.
The Cal State survey shows Greuel polls …

Neck and neck. A new poll finds a virtual dead heat in the L.A. mayor’s race with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.
The results are good news for Wendy Greuel. The City Controller trailed in earlier surveys, but the new poll by the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State L.A. gives her a one-point lead over City Councilman Eric Garcetti – …

Green light for rail yard. Depending on whom you ask, the $500 million port railway yard that’s planned four miles from the docks will either solidify the local ports’ position as the key West Coast hub for international shippers and reduce pollution – or unnecessarily put tens of thousands of South Bay residents at risk of noxious emissions.
Despite objections from environmental groups and neighboring …

Immigrant tally. A new study confirms that the national debate over immigration reform is as important in Los Angeles as anywhere in the country.
One in 10 adults in L.A. County either crossed the U.S. border illegally or overstayed their visa, according to a report by USC researchers. In some parts of Koreatown and South L.A. that number is 1 in 3.
The report by USC’s …

Pot shots. Now that the state Supreme Court has upheld the right of cities and counties to ban pot shop shops – what’s next for medical marijuana in California? And what about the three medical pot initiatives that will be on the Los Angeles city ballot two weeks from now?
The court’s unanimous decision means that a 1996 California ballot measure approving medical marijuana notwithstanding, …

Home stretch. They weren’t exactly making nice, but when pressed both candidates for mayor of Los Angeles said their opponent was basically honest. Still, City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti found plenty of other things to disagree about during their latest debate.
Moderator Jim Newton of the L.A. Times noted the sharply negative tone of the campaign in recent weeks and asked …

The L.A. mayor’s race is entering the final-stretch run, with Monday being the final day to register  to vote in the May 21 election. In today’s mixer: union money, endorsements, and the dangers of texting.
Our panelists: Hillel Aron, a contributing writer to the LA Weekly, and Kate Linthicum from the Los Angeles Times.
So what happened this week? Candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, are …

Another week has passed in LA politics and the race for mayor is getting uglier between City Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel.
The runoff is Tuesday, May 21.
Both attacked each other’s integrity in Monday’s debate and now are running TV ads. Garcetti’s the newest entrant on the ‘boob tube’. (Can we even call it that anymore? There are no more tube TVs.)
But …

Who will be the next LA mayor? Do you have questions you still want answered?
With just a few weeks left until Election Day, it’s time to get beyond the campaign rhetoric and 30-second commercials in the race for mayor of Los Angeles. Candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti visit Zócalo for a live debate. They’ll take questions—and follow-ups—from Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s “Which Way, L.A.?”
It’s a chance to demand specifics …

Who’s in first? A new poll finds a dramatic turnaround in the L.A. mayor’s contest – with City Controller Wendy Gruel edging ahead of City Councilman Eric Garcetti by three percentage points. But not everyone is convinced it reflects the true state of the race. The poll by Survey USA It shows Greuel with 45 percent support, Garcetti with 42 percent, and 13 percent …

Patient dumping. L.A. is investigating allegations that Nevada’s main psychiatric hospital has been busing indigent patients to California cities. L.A. County mental health officials say no patients from Nevada have been identified so far. But they plan to take a closer look. The Sacramento Bee has reported that more than 200 patients released from the Nevada facility were given one-way bus tickets to L.A. …

There’s a new poll out in the Los Angeles mayor’s race. The USC Price/Los Angeles Times survey shows City Councilman Eric Garcetti leading City Controller Wendy Greuel 50 to 40 percent,  with 10 percent still undecided.
The poll also uncovers some interesting nuggets in the race, and maybe some troubling signs for the Greuel campaign.
Greuel says she’s unfazed by the new poll, and that her …

Slow going. Passengers headed to Southland airports today could be in for major delays. The Federal Aviation Administration says dozens of flights at LAX  were delayed on average by more than three hours yesterday, and today could be worse. Air-traffic controllers have started taking unpaid furlough days as a result of the federal budget cuts known as the sequester – meaning that fewer controllers …

The LA mayor’s race kicks it up another notch (apologies to Emeril Lagasse). There’s new acrimony in the campaign to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Gene Maddaus (LA Weekly) and Jim Rainey (Los Angeles Times) joined us for discussion on all the recent debates. There was one this week. Another tonight. There’s also one coming up Monday.
The candidates started the week keeping their campaigns low-key to …