Marisa Alcaraz, a top staffer to City Councilmember Curren Price, trailed Padilla, according to the results. If Alcaraz’s position holds, she will face Padilla in the June 27 general election.
Marco Santana was in third place following Friday’s vote count, trailing Alcaraz by about 300 votes.
Padilla led Tuesday night after the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder counted about 9,000 ballots in the City Council District 6 race. Friday’s update included an additional 4,400 ballots.
More votes are expected to be counted in the coming days. Ballots that are postmarked by election day will be accepted until Tuesday. The election results will be certified by April 14.
The District 6 seat became available after Nury Martinez resigned in October following revelations that she made racist remarks in a closed-door meeting.
Unions, corporations and other special interests pumped more than $270,000 into the race, with most of those funds supporting Padilla and Alcaraz.
Alcaraz also loaned herself $18,000 in the final days of the election, according to campaign disclosures.
Rose Grigoryan, in fourth place, according to Friday’s update, reported spending more than $18,000 on mailers and television, or cable airtime and production costs, according to campaign disclosures she filed with the city.
Grigoryan’s campaign has yet to file copies of those mailers or descriptions of those TV ads, as required under city ethics rules. Grigoryan, in an email to The Times, blamed “a severe case of negligence” on the part of the outside treasurer she hired for her campaign.