California: Jack Weiss

Well, just about final, since there's one precinct in Council District 9 still left.  But here's a recap, pending provisionals (which could only seriously risk affecting who participates in a runoff in one race):

• Villaraigosa avoids the embarrassment of a runoff with 55.56%.
• Measure B appears to have failed.
• David Vahedi and Paul Koretz are headed to a runoff in CD5 after being separated by 60 votes; Adeena Bleich took a more distant third.
• Republican attempts to win College Board seats failed, as Santiago and Lowry retain their seats.  The other incumbents, Angela Reddock in seat 2 and Nancy Pearlman in seat 6, fell a few points shy of winning outright and will face a runoff.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa secured a second four-year term in Tuesday's election. But one of his closest allies, Councilman Jack Weiss, was headed for a May 19 runoff in the contest for city attorney.

With about half of the votes counted, Villaraigosa avoided a runoff against the second-place candidate, attorney Walter Moore.The mayor had been expected to secure the needed majority, given that he had appeared in television commercials for himself and two other campaigns -- and had outspent Moore by a ratio of 15 to 1.

Taking the stage shortly before 11 p.m. at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel downtown, Villaraigosa was greeted with a short burst of applause.

The countdown to today's city election in Los Angeles was marked by a flurry of last-minute spending and a fusillade of charges in the races for city attorney and controller as union representatives made a final push to get out the vote for a $3-billion solar energy initiative backed by the mayor.

Voters will also decide whether to give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a second term, and 33 other cities in Los Angeles County will sort though candidates and issues in the spring primary election.

Most of the attention, however, has focused on the city of Los Angeles, where voters will cast ballots for two contested school board seats, five ballot measures and eight City Council races -- though only the Westside seat being vacated by city attorney candidate Jack Weiss is viewed as competitive.

Of the 363 lobbyists who worked the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall last year, no one took the city to court more than Benjamin Reznik.

By his own calculation, the veteran land-use lawyer and lobbyist has filed more than 150 lawsuits against the city's boards, commissions and elected officials over the course of his 32-year career, more than any of his peers.

Yet Reznik, 57, is also a frequent campaign fundraiser for elected officials, the same ones who decide not only whether to approve his clients' development projects, but whether to fight or settle should they wind up in court. One recent beneficiary was City Councilman Jack Weiss, a candidate for city attorney who held a $1,000 per person fundraiser at Reznik's Encino home.