Residents of the City of Los Angeles voted yesterday, closing seven races where a single candidate received a majority of the vote, while seven other races will move the two top candidate to the May 21 General Municipal Election.

Races in Council District 5 and 15 and LAUSD District 4, with two candidates participating in the primary, were expected to have a clear winner today.  Voters in District 3, District 7, District 11, and LAUSD District 2 voted overwhelmingly for single candidates as well, closing those races and advancing the top candidate to the elected position.  Council incumbents Paul Koretz (CD4) and Joe Buscaino (CD5) sailed to easy re-elections in their races.  In District 3, Bob Blumenfield captured 51.6% of the vote to shut out five opponents for Dennis Zine's vacated seat, while District 7's Felipe Fuentes secured Richard Alarcón's former seat with 51.3% of the vote.  Finally, District 11 gave 61.2% of its votes to Mike Bonin to replace outgoing councilmember Bill Rosendahl.

In LAUSD races, Board of Education president Mónica García easily fought of challenges from four other opponents to retain her seat with 56% of the votes cast, while Steve Zimmer of District 4 won 52.1% of the votes in the heated race against challenger Kate Anderson.

Run-off elections will include races for mayor, city attorney, controller, council districts 1, 9, and 13, and LAUSD District 6.

LA will elect either Eric Garcetti, the outgoing District 13 Councilmember, or outgoing Controller Wendy Greuel to the city's top elected position, both of whom bested the field of eight opponents by a minimum of 40,000 votes.  Incumbent City Attorney Carmen Trutanich faces tough opposition in a run-off with challenger Mike Feuer, who received 12.6% more votes than Trutanich in the primary election.  Outgoing Councilmember Dennis Zine will face off against Ron Galperin for the controller's seat after scoring within one-tenth of a percentage point of each other in that election.

In Measure news, Measure A, the LA sales tax increase, was defeated with 55.2% of voters saying no to it, while Measure B, the LA public safety pensions measure, passed with 58% of the vote.

Arts for LA will be updating its Arts & Culture Candidate Surveys over the next several weeks, inviting any additional candidates to respond prior to the May 21 General Election.  We'll continue to promote candidate forums taking place throughout Los Angeles County for all ongoing races.  Stay tuned to ArtsforLA.org for updates and news.

Election results information gathered from the Los Angeles Times website: http://graphics.latimes.com/la-primary-results-march-2012/