Alcaraz, a top advisor to City Councilmember Curren Price, and Padilla, a community advocate, are vying for the Council District 6 seat formerly held by City Council President Nury Martinez, who resigned last year.
Martinez stepped down from the council in October after a leaked recording surfaced on which she was heard making incendiary comments about her colleagues and various groups, setting the stage for a special election.
Padilla, who had briefly worked for Martinez a decade ago, was met with loud cheers when she walked into her packed election party at a Mexican restaurant in Sun Valley shortly after 8:30 p.m.
“Oh my goodness, what a great start,” Padilla told the crowd, which included Rep. Brad Sherman and former L.A. City Councilmember Felipe Fuentes.
At Alcaraz’s campaign event in Panorama City, the room burst into cheers when she came out to greet her supporters at about 9:30 p.m. Someone pulled Alcaraz onto the makeshift dance floor in the center of the room as Marc Anthony’s “Vivir mi Vida” played over a speaker.
After dancing with and hugging supporters, Alcaraz spoke briefly, thanking the campaign team and saying how much she appreciated them.
“We’re going to still see what happens. Like I said, we’ve still got a long way to go and I just want to celebrate with all of you,” Alcaraz said, thanking the group again as someone handed her a bouquet of red roses and baby’s breath flowers.
Wade Watson, a 20-year member of the Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters, had an “I Voted” sticker affixed to his gray carpenter’s polo shirt. He said that Alcaraz — the daughter of a union member — came from “carpenter blood” and “stands for what we stand for.”
“There’s still more to be counted,” Watson said.
Voter turnout was slow in the April primary, but was expected to pick up slightly in Tuesday’s election.
Just before the polls closed Tuesday, a steady stream of voters trundled into a Panorama City Goodwill office to mark their ballots.
“Not a lot of people know there’s an election,” said Jasmine Lemus, a 34-year-old clad in a T-shirt, jeans and sunflower-covered checkered Vans shoes.
The Arleta resident had to come to vote after finishing work at a local nonprofit. But she’d been unsuccessful in convincing her husband to join her in voting. He felt like his vote wouldn’t make a difference, she said.
Lemus planned to vote for Padilla, she said, because she’d heard good things about her.
“She’s very involved with the organizations and with the community, wanting to improve everything that’s been going on with our homeless community,” Lemus said. “I’m hoping the best with her.”
In general, Lemus didn’t think that the policymakers at City Hall paid enough attention to her corner of the northeastern San Fernando Valley.
“We have more homelessness out here, we have more families struggling, we have so many more businesses closing,” Lemus said as a handful of other voters trickled out the door in front of her.
With Alcaraz and Padilla agreeing on many city policies around homelessness and policing, the election focused in part on the differences in the candidates’ resumes.
Alcaraz touted her experience crafting legislation to help street vendors and grocery store workers, while Padilla talked up her community work in the district.
Both candidates also vowed to improve the city’s homelessness crisis and rebuild trust in local government following Martinez’s resignation and a string of other political scandals at City Hall.
In a blow to Alcaraz’s campaign, her boss, Price, was charged with 10 felony counts two weeks before Tuesday’s election. The councilman said he is innocent and is fighting the charges, which are related to votes on developments and his wife’s business, as well as medical benefits that she received.
But whether the charges altered the outcome of the race wasn’t clear. Many ballots had already been mailed in.
Labor groups, including those whose members have business before the City Council, spent heavily in the race.
The Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters spent more than $270,000 to support Alcaraz. IBEW Local Union 18, which represents Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers, spent more than $100,000 to back her.
United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the union representing city firefighters, spent more nearly $200,000 to back Padilla. Agroup backed by the California Apartment Assn. and the American Beverage Assn. spent more than $219,000 to support Padilla. Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local 300, spent more than $200,000 to back Padilla.