The final, albeit unofficial, tally of votes in last Tuesday’s West Hollywood City Council election shows John Heilman remains in the lead with 2,315 votes. That represents 46 percent of the total votes cast.
But what political observers have found most surprising is that 20 percent of the city’s registered voters cast their ballots in the special Council election to fill the seat vacated by Jeffrey Prang’s election as L.A. County Assessor. Many had predicted a much smaller turnout than the 20 percent who voted in the March 3 general election in which 12 candidates competed for three Council seats.
Also of interest to the political cognoscenti was the fact that Heilman’s 2,315 votes last week put him three votes ahead of the 2,312 votes that John D’Amico scored in his March 3 election victory. D’Amico, who has frequently expressed his dislike for Heilman, campaigned against him in last Tuesday’s election. Heilman came in fourth in the March 3 race with 2,066 votes. In addition to D’Amico, winners in that election were Lauren Meister (2,138 votes) and Lindsey Horvath (2,135 votes).
The final tally, which included a count of late mail-in ballots and ballots cast at the wrong polling place, was a total of 5,025 votes, 96 votes more than were cast in March. Heidi Shink came in second with 1,403 votes (28 percent), followed by Larry Block with 763 votes (15 percent) and Cole Ettman with 486 votes (10 percent). Fifty-eight votes were for write-in candidates. The votes will be certified, or made official, at the June 15 City Council meeting.
Gee, I guess this was a great victory at $100 per vote given what was spent by the Elect Heilman campaign and the two developer dominated “independent” expenditure campaigns. . That does not count the sums spent in the March election. 46% for a 30 year incumbent with a huge pile of money, faced with unknown challengers; don’t see a ringing mandate there. The numbers from both elections speak for themselves; this City is very divided and the calls for healing and compromise are well taken and should be acknowledged by both sides. Loving the status quo and having concerns… Read more »
@ Oliver – right on!
Just want to say thanks to all the 763 voters who punched their ballot for Block. We spent about 15k, – less than $20 a vote. No ground game or staff as the big money candidates had. Including the independent expenditure the winning candidate spent $100-$150 per vote. It’s been an honor to be a candidate and thank you to everybody.
The March 2015 election results left the electorate starved for reason, intelligence, and decorum. June 2015 special election brought a ravenous West Hollywood a badly needed and much deserved SaneWich. D’Amico and his minions would be wise to take this lesson in humility and disgrace without the hysterics. The community needs time to heal and wants the Council to act like grown ups. Get back to work and accept that you will all have to negotiate and compromise to get the people’s work done. Meister needs to reign in her bitterness as well. She should take heed from these results… Read more »
@Jimmypalmieri–you crack me up, but I agree. those two will have a much more difficult time of attaining their” (and by “their” I mean his, with one who follows w/o question”agenda” of firing Paul Aravello, ending rent control, ending new construction of affordable housing, firing our top city managers, I could go on & on. Thank G-d Heilman agreed to run & keep our city on the right track!!
The two biggest losers were not candidates.
Doesn’t get any better than that…..John Heilman re-enters stage left with a record vote of confidence.
We got who we deserve.
John Heilman was the biggest vote taker of the four available seats from the combined Municipal and Special West Hollywood Council elections. Congratulations to John Heilman and West Hollywood. Victory, back on top and now for the hard work of keeping our city moving forward for all.
The difference b/w 46 and 47% is whether you count among ballots counted or votes cast. Their #s come to 99%, with 1% for no one. (Among votes counted, Heilman got 46.6, or rounded off, 47%). And turn out increased from March, which has to be the single biggest upset.