Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Where it counts in January, that is. The mayor's got $2.4 million in the bank to spend on ads and getting out the vote, compared to about $1.6 million for both Antonio Villaraigosa and Bob Hertzberg. The campaign reports filed Monday show the candidates separating into tiers, with those three being the most competitive, and with Bernard Parks ($459,226) and Richard Alarcon ($417,446) trailing behind. "The fundraising is pretty much fulfilling the expectations," campaign expert Raphael Sonenshein says in the Times story. The Daily News makes more of the city rules that say Hahn won't be able to spend all of his cash unless independent committees start spending against him (which probably will happen.) Good recovery from the weak weekend brief in which the DN compared Hertzberg's new total to Hahn's three-month-old total and concluded that the Valley candidate had "raised the same amount" as the mayor.
Hertzberg's total reflects the most matching public funds ($646,000). Campaign reports can be perused online at the Ethics Commission website. Stories in Times, Daily News and Daily Breeze.
* Add Parks: The councilman was the only candidate to spend more than he took in during the last period. Looks like hiring a big team of Democratic consultants from out of town didn't pay off. Eric Jaye's Storefront Political Media in San Francisco got $61,000, campaign manager Carol Butler $36,000 and consultant Mark Fabiani $30,000. Parks spent double what Villaraigosa and Alarcon did, during the crucial period when he should have been stocking the treasury.
Also: In the one L.A. city council race where an incumbent won't win, Flora Gil Krisiloff has a slight fundraising lead on Bill Rosendahl in the Westside's 11th district.