Incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will, barring the ascent of any (other) swine, be re-elected today. And he should be.
Though he has delivered little on the promises laid out during his campaign four years ago, Villaraigosa is the only mayoral candidate worthy of legitimate discussion or consideration.
His field of opponents does not include a single individual who stands any chance at beating him in the election or at effecting any substantive change if put in his position.
The mayor’s work has not been without the energy or enthusiasm that he criticized former Mayor James K. Hahn for lacking, but the fruits of his efforts have not been impressive.
Los Angeles is still plagued, in the exact way it was four years ago, by the major issues of transportation gridlock, gang violence, poverty and homelessness.
On the one hand, efforts to clean up the city through an enlarged police force, albeit at the expense of the city’s garbage collection subsidy, show promise.
But Villaraigosa and his small army still haven’t gotten a grip on diminishing gang-related violence within the city, though Villaraigosa deceptively purports that such efforts have been enormously successful.
He has made a commendable, concerted effort to play a large role in the improvement of the Los Angeles Unified School District and has taken some responsibility for its current state.
However, the mayor failed to institute educational reform when he hammered through an unworkable governance agreement, which was stopped by the courts for the illegality of his plan.
Villaraigosa has also erased much of the support he once had by being less than straightforward with his handling of his extramarital affair.
He has also not engaged his admittedly amateur opponents in debates through his re-election campaign.
His known interest in running for governor has given us reason to question whether we should stick with Villaraigosa, because he doesn’t seem to want to stick with us.
But perhaps Villaraigosa’s greatest mistake has been his treatment of the UCLA and Westwood community, which he has routinely ignored in his campaigning efforts this time around.
Still, the mayor is far from irrelevant.
His backing has been crucial to the success of most city government candidates and legislative actions in recent memory.
Villaraigosa may win today’s election by default, but he will have to try harder to win our hearts.