Padilla Is Ahead of Sanchez in Early Returns

Making good use of endorsements and a bulging campaign treasury, Alex Padilla led Corinne Sanchez and four other rivals in early returns Tuesday for the 7th Los Angeles City Council District.

Despite a strong showing, Padilla said late Tuesday he was doubtful he would get the majority vote needed to avoid a June runoff for the northeast San Fernando Valley seat. At one point, Padilla’s margin reached 47% to 25% for Sanchez.

The contest divided the city’s political leadership and drew a flood of special interest money from downtown and East Los Angeles.

The bitter election was marked by heavy spending by Padilla and Sanchez, a torrent of negative campaign mailers and, in the end, lower-than-expected voter turnout.

As election returns came in, Padilla said he didn’t expect to win outright Tuesday, predicting a runoff would be needed. But he was confident he would be the leading vote-getter.

“We knew that the person that was going to win this race was the one that got the most people out in the community,” Padilla said, “and we did that.”

The 26-year-old aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) said voters appreciated his ties to the district.

“I’m from this community. This is my home. I think the voters know that and recognized that tonight,” Padilla said as he watched election returns come in with 100 supporters at a party at the Casa Torres restaurant in Sylmar.

Sanchez, the 52-year-old president of social services agency El Proyecto del Barrio, was surrounded by 250 supporters as they waited for election returns at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in Pacoima.

The crowd chanted “Runoff! Runoff! Runoff!” as the returns were reported on television.

“I feel very, very hopeful and positive about it,” Sanchez said of her chances of making the runoff.

Sanchez nervously sipped tonic water with a lemon while supporters danced to salsa music in the restaurant decorated with red, white and blue balloons.

She was less sanguine about the tone of the race at the end.

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“Initially it was very positive and focused on the issues. It wasn’t until the end that people resorted to extreme measures,” she said.

As the votes were still being counted, former San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez II and housing agency manager Ollie McCaulley said they were not discouraged by their standing in the early returns.

Rounding out the field were youth services director Tony Lopez and former Mission College consultant Barbara Perkins.

It appeared that nearly one-fourth of the registered voters in the 7th District went to the polls, according to the city clerk’s office.

Sanchez spent nearly $250,000, a record for a primary in the district, and had the key endorsement of former 7th District Councilman Richard Alarcon, whose election to the state Senate in November triggered Tuesday’s special election to fill the remaining two years of his council term.

Sanchez, criticized for moving into the district from Panorama City to run, also had the backing of the United Farm Workers, City Council members Laura Chick, Cindy Miscikowski and Mike Feuer, and four of the five county supervisors, including Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina. Molina and Yaroslavsky helped Sanchez campaign on the theme of bringing the Valley district its fair share of city services.

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Padilla, from a working-class immigrant family and a graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also emphasized the need for improvements in basic city services. He was able to match Sanchez in spending with fund-raising help from backers including Mayor Richard Riordan, Cardenas, Eastside Councilman Richard Alatorre and the County Federation of Labor.

Labor groups sunk another $60,000 into an independent mail campaign for Padilla.

About 200 union volunteers joined 300 Padilla workers on the get-out-the-vote effort Tuesday.

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“A lot of the people here are our people,” said Miguel Contreras, head of the county federation. “But he [Padilla] clearly had a great operation with a lot of youthful enthusiasm. He probably didn’t need us.”

With so many strong candidates, Alarcon, like many other observers, had predicted no one would win a decisive majority Tuesday to avoid a runoff. But the outcome was still important for the front-runners, according to Richard Lichtenstein, a political consultant not involved in the race.

“It will be most important in terms of finances,” Lichtenstein said. “The wider the margin, the more safe money will go into the campaign.”

Sanchez and Padilla planned to stick with their strategies if they make the runoff, Sanchez arguing that she has more experience and Padilla touting his closer district ties, their campaign consultants said.

In the other three City Council races in the San Fernando Valley:

* Fourth District Councilman John Ferraro was leading challenger Benjamin Lucas, a construction supervisor.

* Second District Councilman Joel Wachs led challengers John Joseph Bunte, a retired city employee; businesswoman Kathy Anthony, and John Spishak, a marketing manager.

* Twelfth District Councilman Hal Bernson was leading retired civil servant David R. Guzman Sr., business manager Howard Nussbaum, attorney Charles Rubel and journalist Marilyn Stout.

Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Miguel Bustillo and Hilary E. MacGregor contributed to this story.

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