L.A.’s Villaraigosa Re-Elected Handily

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was re-elected Tuesday without much fanfare.

Villaraigosa outpaced nine opponents in Tuesday’s election, winning more than 55% of the vote against nine opponents to avoid a runoff. His campaign outspent second-place finisher Walter Moore by a 15-to-1 ratio, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Voters appear to have defeated the Villaraigosa-backed Proposition B, a plan for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to install solar panels on city and commercial rooftops to generate 400 megawatts of power.

Critics of the plan noted that the measure lacked a specific implementation and financing plan, though it did authorize the use of revenue bonds.

They said the plan threatened to sharply increase electricity rates and to muscle out smaller solar power installation businesses by giving DWP workers, represented by the International Brotherhood of Electricity Workers, a monopoly on solar-panel installation.

Proposition B was trailing 49.7% to 50.3% with all precincts reporting, but many mail-in ballots yet to be tallied. Only 15% of registered voters turned out, the city election office said.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles County, voters in six smaller cities approved measures to either continue, increase or impose local utility or hotel taxes, while Beverly Hills voters rejected a measure to increase business taxes, according to published reports.

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