Los Angeles News

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― The names of 10 candidates for mayor of Los Angeles will appear on Tuesday's ballot, but with $2.9 million in the bank and no serious competition, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to easily win reelection.

This low-key campaign is in sharp contrast to the bitter 2005 race that pitted Villaraigosa against former incumbent Jim Hahn.

In the last four years, Villaraigosa has taken on public safety, education, transportation and the environment.

Four years ago, he pledged to increase the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department by 1,000 officers. To pay for those new officers, the city trash collection fee was increased from $11 to $28 over a four-year period. The fee was increased again last year -- to $36.32 a month for single-family households and $24.33 a month for apartment buildings.

The LAPD expects its ranks to swell to 9,852 officers in the next month, which would be an all-time high for the department.

During the same time, reported crime has dropped throughout the city.

There were 381 homicides in 2008, 15 fewer than the previous year and the lowest number since 1969 when there were 377 murders.

Villaraigosa experienced early setbacks in his bid to take control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The mayor successfully pursued Assembly Bill 1381, which shifted decision-making authority from the LAUSD board to a district superintendent and gave the mayor of Los Angeles a significant role in managing the country's second-largest school district.

The victory was short-lived as courts invalidated the bill.

During the 2007 school board elections, four candidates backed by Villaraigosa were elected to the board, and last year Ramon C. Cortines, seen to be an ally of the mayor, was hired as superintendent of LAUSD.

Villaraigosa was also given control of 10 of the district's lowest-performing schools through the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

In November, the mayor scored a victory on the transportation front with the passage of Measure R, a half-cent sales tax that will generate an estimate $40 billion over the next 30 years for transit projects in Los Angeles County.

Since 2005, the city has synchronized traffic lights, increased enforcement of parking restrictions during rush hour and deployed traffic officers to congested intersections.

On the issue of the environment, Villaraigosa has repeatedly said he wants to make Los Angeles the greenest city in the country. His goal is to provide 20 percent of the city's energy through alternative resources by 2010.

A major part of that effort is the Solar LA plan, which would allow the Department of Water and Power to meet 10 percent of the city's energy needs with solar power by the year 2020.

Last year, the mayor announced a $1 billion, 20-year plan to meet the city's long-term water needs. The plan calls for a six-fold increase in the DWP's recycled water use, and upgrading of the Tillman Wastewater Treatment Plant and Hansen, Tujunga and Pacoima "spreading grounds."

It also tightened the city's water ordinance, and Villaraigosa has already warned Angelenos that they will be asked to ration water this spring.

Attorney Walter Moore, who received 2.77 percent of the vote in the 2005 primary, has raised $208,122 for his race, making him the most serious of the nine challengers facing Villaraigosa.

Last year, Moore authored Jamiel's Law, a proposed ballot initiative that would have allowed Los Angeles police officers to arrest gang members who are in the country illegally. The petition effort to get the measure on the ballot failed to receive enough signatures to qualify it for the ballot.

Also on the ballot are David Hernandez, who led the fight against a city measure that extended term limits for council members, and David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg, a gadfly who typically attends council meetings in an oversized white T-shirt, black sunglasses and a knit cap but who began appearing in a suit once he qualified for the ballot.

Saltsburg was briefly questioned and released this week by LAPD detectives about threats he allegedly made against Craig X. Rubin, another candidate. A complaint was lodged with the police by Rubin. Saltsburg vehemently denied making any threats.

The remaining candidates on the ballot are:
-- Carlos Alvarez;
-- Gordon Turner;
-- Phil Jennerjahn;
-- James Harris;
-- Bruce Darian; and
-- Craig X. Rubin.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)