By Agencies - Global Times Source:Global Times-Agencies Published: 2013-5-23 17:48:01
Eric Garcetti, a liberal democrat, won the election for mayor of Los Angeles and will become the first Jewish and youngest political leader of America's second-largest city.
Garcetti, a city councilman, received 54 percent of the 337,000 votes cast, while his opponent Wendy Greuel garnered 46 percent, figures from the City Clerk's Office show, CNN reported.
"Thank you Los Angeles - the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years," Garcetti said in a tweet early on Wednesday.
The results remain incomplete as some mail-in ballots have not been counted, Jose Heras, a senior official at the City Clerk's Office, told Reuters. However, the outstanding ballots are not expected to alter the election results and the 42-year-old future mayor is scheduled to take office July 1.
Garcetti's mother is Jewish, and his father, Gil, the former district attorney whose office lost in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in the 1990s, is of Mexican and Italian descent, CNN reported.
The LA mayoral race attracted nationwide attention, but was marked by low voter turnout, with just over 19 percent of registered voters casting ballots, according to the figures from the City Clerk's Office.
The Chinese-American community played an active role during the election. Chinese-American senators from California, Ted Lieu and Leland Yee, gave their full support to Garcetti, the man they thought could help develop their community in future. Congresswoman Judy Chu and some other Chinese-American elected officials backed his opponent Greuel.
Both candidates promised to promote trade between LA and China and improve their future relationship. Garcetti, who has been to China six times, also undertook to establish an office in Beijing and Shanghai to increase investment after being elected.
However, the new mayor faces massive challenges, as the city's shaky $7.7 billion budget hardly covers the rising pension and retiree health care bills for municipal workers, AP reported.
Outgoing mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged his successor to try to block a 5.5 percent pay increase for civilian employees while new contracts are on the horizon.