Los Angeles mayoral election is today

By Richard K. Barry

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti wrapped up their campaigns yesterday in the race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. As a local newspaper put it, they have been campaigning furiously in an attempt to "avoid the potential lowest turnout for an open mayoral seat in modern history."

Reuters:

Tuesday's vote is a runoff between the two veteran Democrats, who in March were the top vote-getters in a primary election in which Garcetti got 33 percent and Greuel 29 percent. One of them would have had to have won more than 50 percent of the ballots cast to have been elected outright.

The non-partisan campaign has centered on what Greuel and Garcetti agree is a dire financial outlook facing America's second most populous metropolis, and the political clout commanded by the city's public employee unions.

Though turnout might be low, that hasn't stopped the candidates from spending record amounts of cash, which passed the $33 million mark on Sunday:

In the campaign's final days, Garcetti vastly outspent Greuel on the airwaves and other campaign efforts, but Greuel had far more support from the outside groups.

A new poll by the Los Angeles Times and USC has Garcetti with a narrowing lead of 7 points.

Here is Chuck Todd's analysis. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

Behind the Ad: Will Ferrell endorses Eric Garcetti for Los Angeles Mayor

By Richard K. Barry 

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.) 

Eric Garcetti

Who: The Eric Garcetti mayoral campaign

Where: Los Angeles. 

What's going on: Haven't done one of these since November, but that doesn't mean that elections of one sort or another aren't always going on somewhere. In this case, actor and comedian Will Ferrell does a hilarious spot for Eric Garcetti, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles.

I don't know much about Garcetti other than that he's a member of Los Angeles City Council; he's a Democrat and he has a lot of friends in show business. He was an early Obama supporter and he declared his intention to run for mayor of L.A. on Sept. 8, 2011.



Read more »

Sucks to be Arizona

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The beloved Phoenix Suns, now in the NBA's Western Conference finals (and the team I'm now rooting for, mainly because of Steve Nash), don't much care for their state's draconian anti-immigrant law, and, understandably, much of the rest of the country is turning away from Arizona, with the state's tourism industry suffering the brunt:

Arizona took another hit Wednesday as Republicans cast a vote for the home of their 2012 convention. Phoenix made the short list but lost out to Tampa.

It was little surprise to tourism officials in Arizona. Since the state passed the nation's toughest immigration law three weeks ago, its meeting and events business has fallen drastically.

Hispanic civil rights groups are boycotting Arizona and urging others to do the same. Officials at the National Council of La Raza, one of the groups driving the boycott, had privately asked the RNC not to meet in Phoenix.

The city risks losing as much as $90 million in hotel and convention business over the next five years because of the controversy, according to city estimates released Wednesday. The state's hotel and lodging association has counted 23 canceled meetings for a loss of between $6 and $10 million. On Wednesday, Los Angeles became the largest city to join the boycott.

And it gets worse for Arizona. Consider the extent of L.A.'s boycott, which, the L.A. Times reports, includes a ban on "most city travel to Arizona and future contracts with companies in that state."

Hopefully the boycott with continue to grow. (Some) Arizonans may deserve better, but the state deserves to be isolated.

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Meanwhile, Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a new law banning the teaching of ethnic studies courses at state-funded schools. I've never been a big fan of these courses, particularly at the university level, as I agree that they can be divisive and counter-productive, but this goes way too far. And it's yet another law specifically targeting Hispanics.

Arizona may not be Nazi Germany, but it's turning into a reprehensible little shithole of bigotry before our very eyes.

Making sense in the City of Angels

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Hopefully this is the start of a broader movement to isolate Arizona:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday that he supports a boycott of Arizona by the city of Los Angeles, and he called that state's newly passed immigration law "unpatriotic and unconstitutional."

"No person should be treated differently in the eyes of the law," he said at a news conference.

The mayor said boycotts have worked in the past and cited the city's divestiture from South Africa in the 1980s to protest apartheid.

It's never good to be compared to apartheid South Africa, but... if the shoe fits...

Okay, Arizona isn't quite at that level, but I think Councilman Jose Huizar is right: "If you look like me, you should be concerned about traveling to the state of Arizona."

That's not a place with which one should want to do business.