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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - More election results were released Friday showing community activist and public policy advocate Eunisses Hernandez widening her lead and moving closer to victory over Councilman Gil Cedillo in the race to represent Los Angeles City Council District 1.
The race includes only two candidates and will be decided once all votes are counted. As of Friday afternoon, Hernandez had a 2,019-vote lead with 53.51% of the vote, to 46.49% for Cedillo.
"The latest vote count confirms what we've said all along: CD1 demands true, honest, and responsive representation in city hall. We are so grateful to everyone who has placed their faith in our movement. We are 2,019 votes ahead of the incumbent," Hernandez said on her campaign's Instagram page after results were released Friday.
As more election results came in, mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass also widened her lead over billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso to more than six points -- but the two are still headed for a November runoff.
Initial election results from the June 7 vote showed Caruso in the lead, but when the latest tally was released Tuesday afternoon, Bass had 41.05% of the vote, with Caruso at 38.29%. Her lead grew wider with Friday's latest election results release, with Bass at 42.87% and Caruso at 36.33%. With no candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to the November general election.
Bass on Friday was also endorsed by the California Democratic Party, which represents more than 10 million Democrats and is the country's largest state Democratic party. The party's chair Rusy Hicks said, "Bass has been a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable among us, and is exactly the leader that Los Angeles needs to fight its way out of an unprecedented crisis."
In the race for city attorney, civil rights attorney Faisal Gill was leading the seven-candidate field with 96,127 votes, or 23.89%. Former federal prosecutor Marina Torres was in second place with 19.94% of the vote, but financial law attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto was just 173 votes behind with 19.90% of the vote. The top two finishers will face off in November.
There are still an estimated 74,100 ballots still left to be counted countywide from the June 7 election, according to the county Registrar- Recorder/County Clerk's office. The next update of vote totals will be released on Tuesday.