Parks on election night. (Sarah Golden & Dan Watson / Neon Tommy)

In every single race the incumbent candidate claimed victory, though eighth district challenger Forescee Hogan-Rowles is hoping that she could enter a May runoff with incumbent Bernard Parks.

“Her position is reasonable,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a political expert who teaches at California State University Fullerton.  “Parks is barely over 50 percent so statistically there is a chance that the remaining votes could pull him below that level.”

In the event that Parks drops below 50 percent of the vote, there would have to be a runoff.

Hogan-Rowles received around $1 million in campaign contributions from public labor unions, and had the endorsement of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, but failed to garner enough votes to win the election.

Indeed, incumbents were reelected across the board, regardless of campaign spending, some lost endorsements and widespread discontent with the political establishment.

“It is very difficult to defeat an incumbent absent a scandal or a big issue,” said Sonenshein.  

The budget might be a big deal in L.A., but few seem to have blamed their councilman for the problems. Several of the incumbents’ campaigns even suffered from political gaffes.

Parks’ campaign issued a mailer touting the support of deceased people and former supporters who are now political rivals, according to LA Weekly.

“She is a poorly known candidate running against a very well known elected official,” said Sonenshein of Hogan-Rowles.  “A well-known candidate would have, in my view, defeated Parks.”

The incumbent in the 14th district, Jose Huizar also experienced some difficulties during the campaign when a campaign consultant sent an e-mail to supporters that promised to put a “political bullet” in opponent Rudy Martinez’s forehead, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The gaffe by Huizar’s campaign consultant does not appear to have been a problem for his campaign, Huizar won the race with 64 percent of the vote, according to The City Maven.

Only about 12 percent of registered voters in Los Angeles actually voted on the election, according to LA Observed.

The voter turnout was about average for the city of Los Angeles, according to The City Maven.

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