Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry in her City Hall office.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Councilwoman Jan Perry jokes with students from KSWG, the student-run radio station at South Regional High School #12.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry poses for a photo with Antoine King of Crenshaw after a candidate forum.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry look on as the honor guard works presents the flags at the ribbon cutting ceremony for South Regional High School #12. Her Ninth district has long been viewed as a seat of black political power.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry speaks with Greig Smith, a Republican and former councilman from the San Fernando Valley. Smith has endorsed Perry in the mayor's race.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Councilwoman Jan Perry looks on at a ribbon cutting ceremony at South Regional High School #12 with campaign aide Helen Sanchez.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry looks over notes for her speech to students at the school's ribbon cutting. The councilwoman used downtown projects to spur economic development in the poorer parts of South Los Angeles.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Councilwoman Jan Perry speaks to students at the ribbon cutting for South Regional High School #12 in South Los Angeles. The school is the first to open in the area in 90 years.

Grant Slater/KPCC

A pamphlet for Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry sits on the lap of an audience member at Mount Gilead Baptist Church in South Los Angles.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry and campaign aide Helen Sanchez ride the elevator down from the top floor of the Wells Fargo building in Downtown Los Angeles where the candidate spoke at meeting of the African American Chamber of Commerce.

Grant Slater/KPCC

Mayoral Candidate Jan Perry prepares to cut the ribbon at South Regional High School #12. Perry has often taken neglected or underutilized sites and turning them into community assets like this school.

Jan Perry's favorite spot in the city is at the corner of Slauson and Compton avenues. It’s the unlikely site of  a seven-acre, man-made wetlands park filled with flora and fauna, including a children’s garden and hiking trails. That’s quite a transformation from its original use as a storage yard for the Department of Water and Power. 

That’s been the storyline of Perry’s 12 years on the Los Angeles City Council: taking neglected or underutilized sites and turning them into community assets. For most of her tenure, Perry’s Ninth District covered downtown and much of South Los Angeles. She’s pro-business and pro-development. Her tenure has overseen the revitalization of downtown, including construction of the L.A. Live complex.

“The thing that L.A. Live embodies is the catalytic, large investment to show to smaller investors [and] small developers [that] downtown is a good place to be," said Perry during an interview in her City Hall office. "We’ve put our stake here and you should follow and that’s why it was important. It’s a foundation upon which to build."

The councilwoman used downtown projects to spur economic development in the poorer parts of South Los Angeles. New construction projects often included affordable housing units. Developers were told to hire construction workers who lived in the district. Opportunities like those will now be few and far between, since the city’s recent redistricting process severed South L.A. from most of downtown.

"The difference that boundaries make is where the dollars can be invested," Perry said. "So now South L.A., the southern part of the former Ninth District, has no middle-income community to leverage for investment in the lower income portion of the district."

Redistricting displayed Perry’s strengths and weaknesses in a way that few other political events had. In the fall of 2011, Perry publicly accused her colleagues of making backroom deals to name a new city council president and skew the redistricting process. Her frankness ended up hurting her. When the new council district lines were approved, Perry — who lives downtown — was drawn out of her own district.

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Wendy Greuel Campaign/Eric Garcetti campaign

LA Mayoral candidates Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti each expect to clear the $4 million mark in campaign fundraising, based on their most recent financial reports.

Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti pulled ahead in the money race for mayor Thursday, raising more than $727,000 over a three-month period. 

This latest haul brings Garcetti’s total campaign war chest to $3.6 million. With the matching funds he is entitled to receive, he has amassed $4.2 million for the contest.

“Eric has built a strong campaign with an agenda to solve problems for L.A. residents," said Bill Carrick, a Garcetti campaign consultant. "This will be one of the most expensive races in L.A. history, so we must keep raising money and getting out the vote every day until Election Day – and we will”

Controller Wendy Greuel raised close to that amount, with a total of $3.4 million. With matching funds, Greuel has also crossed the $4 million threshold. During the previous reporting period that ended Sept. 31, Garcetti and Greuel each had $2.8 million.

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Steven Spielberg is supporting the mayoral campaign of City Controller and former Dreamworks employee Wendy Greuel.

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LA Mayoral candidate Jan Perry has the support of actor George Takei.

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LA mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti's long list of supporters includes actress Salma Hayek.

Show business companies and workers have given nearly a million dollars to candidates running in the Los Angeles mayoral race, with Councilman Eric Garcetti getting about half the money.

An analysis by the reporting partnership of 89.3 KPCC and NBC4 found that entertainment companies and their employees, along with actors, donated at least $960,000 in the mayor's race through the third quarter of 2012. Entertainment-related donations will certainly top the million-dollar mark before the March 5 primary election.

Entertainment companies have varied interests in Los Angeles. CBS, for example, owns a billboard company that has to abide by city regulations. NBC Universal has vast real estate holdings in Universal City. Disney owns El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, and parks its cruise ships at the Port of Los Angeles. 

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Eric Garcetti campaign

A poll by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles finds Councilman Eric Garcetti leads the 2013 mayoral primary amongst voters who have already decided who to vote for. Two-thirds of voters remain undecided.

For Angelenos who have already made up their minds about the 2013 mayoral primary, their top pick is Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, a new poll released Monday concludes.

The Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University surveyed 3,749 voters as they left the polls Nov. 6. The poll indicated that two-thirds of those voters have not yet decided whom to vote for in the March 5, 2013 primary. For the 1,152 voters who had made up their minds, Garcetti led with 36 percent. Controller Wendy Greuel polled at 32 percent, while Councilwoman Jan Perry trailed with 15 percent followed by attorney Kevin James at 8.7 percent.

“We’re very encouraged by that because we think it shows the broad outlines of the Garcetti coalition,” the campaign’s Bill Carrick told KPCC. “Is it the end all and be all of all polling? No, but it’s very interesting.”

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Courtesy of Perry campaign

AEG will host a fundraiser for Jan Perry's mayoral campaign next month. The ticket price? $1,300.

In Los Angeles, the nexus of politics and business often involves the Anschutz Entertainment Group — and that will be especially true when the company hosts a fundraiser for mayoral candidate Jan Perry.

Call it an act of gratitude. As an L.A. City Councilwoman, Perry has long represented — and supported — AEG’s downtown campus, which includes Staples Center and L.A. Live. She also voted for the Farmers Field football stadium, which will be built on adjacent property if the NFL moves a team here. 

This will be AEG’s first fundraiser for Perry’s mayoral campaign. According to the most recent  contribution report, her campaign has raised $1.3 million — less than half as much as Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilman Eric Garcetti, who each reported raising $2.8 million for their mayoral bids.

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