L.A. mayor's race: It's Eric Garcetti by wide margin

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L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti greets supporters at the Hollywood Palladium on Tuesday night. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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L.A. mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel and some supporters take the stage during an election night gathering at the old Pacific Stock Exchange. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti greets supporters at his election night party at the Hollywood Palladium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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L.A. mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel greets supporters during an election night gathering at the old Pacific Stock Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti greets supporters of his son, L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, at an election night party at the Hollywood Palladium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Mitch O’Farrell, a candidate for Council District 13, greets supporters at his election night party at the St. Felix Bar in Hollywood. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Mike Feuer, right, a candidate for city attorney, gets a hug from his friend Leon Alkalai on election night. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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L.A. mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel is flanked by her son Thomas, 9, and her husband, Dean Schramm, as she monitors election returns at the old Pacific Stock Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Supporters of L.A. mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel gather at the old Pacific Stock Exchange in downtown Los Angeles for an election night gathering. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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John Choi, a candidate for Council District 13, hugs his mother, Myung Choi, on election night at Mohawk Bend Restaurant. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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“Yes on D” campaign manager Nam Le, left, claps during an election night gathering at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood as the medical pot measure takes an early lead. John Grant, center, and Rick Icaza, both with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, also show their enthusiasm. The measure would limit the number of pot shops in the city to about 130. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Supporters of Proposition D celebrate its early lead at the Lucky Strikes bowling alley in Hollywood. The measure would limit medical marijuana dispensaries to those that existed before the adoption of a failed 2007 moratorium on new pot shops. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Betsy Richardson casts her ballot at Los Angeles City Fire Station No. 88 in Sherman Oaks. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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John Monahan is the first to cast his vote at the UFCW Local 770 hall in Harbor City. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Barbara Meijers walks out of the Voyager Motor Inn in Van Nuys after casting her ballot Tuesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Paul Maes walks away from the polling booth to turn in his ballot as he carries his dog, Rocko, next to a leaping dolphin at the Cetacean Society building at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Jay Goldfard of Encino walks past empty voting booths after bringing his mail-in ballot to Los Angeles City Fire Station No. 88 in Sherman Oaks. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Where to hang the flag? Poll workers Esperanza Gaytan, left, Mathew Klempa and Barry Copilow, holding the flag, try to decide on the right spot at Allesandro Elementary School in Silver Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Deborah Murphy tries to control her dog Fiona while voting at Allesandro Elementary School. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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A sign hangs from the wheelchair of Marcelo Nuno Aceves as he casts his ballot at the Hollenbeck Park Recreation Center in the Boyle Heights. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Cindy White casts her vote for Wendy Greuel at Sinai Temple on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti and wife Amy Wakeland hug before casting their ballots at Allesandro Elementary School in Silver Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Wendy Greuel watches as her son, 9-year-old Thomas Schramm, submits her ballot at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Studio City. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, with wife Amy Wakeland, casts his ballot at Allesandro Elementary School in Silver Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Wendy Greuel watches as her son, Thomas Schramm, places an “I Voted” sticker on her jacket. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Eric Garcetti speaks to reporters after casting his ballot in Silver Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Wendy Greuel, with husband Dean Schramm, answers questions outside her polling place in Studio City. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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City Atty. Carmen Trutanich jokes with his daughter, Kristin, and her son Nathan, 14 months, before he casts his ballot in Harbor City. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Esperanza Gonzalez checks her ballot after voting at the Hollenbeck Park Recreation Center in Boyle Heights. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

By Catherine Saillant

May 22, 2013 6:22 AM PT

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

Three-term City Councilman Eric Garcetti’s relentless campaigning paid off early Wednesday as he decisively won a hard-fought race to become Los Angeles’ next mayor, scoring well with voters across the sprawling city and even challenging rival Wendy Greuel on her home turf in the San Fernando Valley.

Garcetti took 54% of the vote compared with 46% for Greuel in preliminary results, ending speculation that the race was so tight that a winner might not be known for weeks. Some mail-in ballots must still be counted, but they are not expected to significantly change the results.

“We have sent a message tonight and that message is that L.A. is ready to put the recession in the rear-view mirror and to become the city of opportunity that I grew up in once again,” Garcetti said early Wednesday in thanking his supporters.

Live video analysis: Wednesday, noon to 2 p.m.

Turnout was about 19%, a bit higher than the initial numbers in the March primary election, but still among the lowest on record. About 345,000 ballots were cast in city races.

The election also ended the one-term political career of City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, who was soundly beaten by former Assemblyman Mike Feuer, and swept Ron Galperin, a little-known Century City lawyer, to victory as the city’s next controller.

In City Council races, former Assemblyman Gil Cedillo and state Sen. Curren Price beat competitors for the seats representing the 1st and 9th districts, respectively, while a nasty race between Mitch O’Farrell, a former Garcetti’s staffer, and John Choi, a labor organizer, for the Hollywood district that Garcetti represented resulted in a decisive win for O’Farrell.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.’s race for mayor

Former Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and school board member Nury Martinez, the top two finishers in the competition for the City Council seat representing the northeast San Fernando Valley, will face each other in a July 23 runoff.

Medical marijuana supporters saw the success of Proposition D, one of three pot measures that were on the ballot.

Measure D would shrink the number of pot shops in Los Angeles to about 130 -- allowing only those operating before a failed 2007 city moratorium on dispensaries to stay open -- and tax them more heavily. The measure was backed by a coalition of older shops as well as a labor union that has organized workers at many of them.

Monica Ratliff defeated Antonio Sanchez for the 6th District seat on the Los Angeles school board, preliminary results show. And in a race for a seat on the L.A. Community College District board, Nancy Pearlman decisively defeated opponent David Vela.

The mayor’s race turned out to be much less competitive than either camp was predicting in recent days. Garcetti and Greuel worked dawn to dusk for weeks, racing around the city trying to lock up votes.

Garcetti, who has represented Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park for 12 years, dominated the Los Angeles basin and also did well on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley, an early analysis of the vote shows. An exception was South Los Angeles, where Greuel, who started her political career as an aide to Former Mayor Tom Bradley, appeared to poll above Garcetti.

As Greuel’s early slim lead collapsed late Tuesday and the ballot count turned in Garcetti’s favor, he thanked supporters jamming the Hollywood Palladium for their hard work.

“We faced some powerful forces in this race; we didn’t have the most money or necessarily the biggest name endorsements always, but we had something more important -- we had a people-powered campaign,” Garcetti said, alluding to the more than $7 million in contributions spent by public employee unions and other interests to elect Greuel.

“We had a commitment, with that people power, to let the voters of Los Angeles choose the next mayor of Los Angeles, not any power brokers.”

Greuel conceded the election early Wednesday as the vote count climbed against her, calling Garcetti to congratulate him. She is expected to make a public concession later Wednesday morning.

In an emotional address, she thanked her backers, including “our electrical workers,” a reference to the union that represents many workers at the Department of Water and Power. During the campaign, Garcetti repeatedly hammered Greuel over the support she had received from the DWP union, telling voters she was “the DWP’s mayor.”

Late Tuesday, the controller appeared unrepentant for accepting the union support.

“A lot of people were telling me I needed to throw working people under the bus to win this race,” she said, and the crowd groaned. “That was never going to happen on my watch.”

For the record 10:08 a.m., May 22: An earlier version of this post misspelled the first name of state Sen. Curren Price as Current.

For the record 8:31 p.m., May 22: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Mitch O’Farrell as Eric Garcetti’s chief of staff.

ALSO:

L.A. voters oust Trutanich as city attorney

Measure to limit medical pot shops in L.A. ahead

Garcetti is L.A.’s next mayor; Greuel calls to concede race

Twitter/@csaillant2

catherine.saillant@latimes.com