Villaraigosa Defeats Hahn

Of my many New Year's resolutions, one of them was to vote in every election that I was eligible for -- state legislature, county clerks and even the local sanitation commissioner. While I made it to the first mayoral vote for Los Angeles, work kept me from casting a ballot in today's run-off.

One more failed attempt at being a better person, I guess.

As is usually the case with these campaigns, I ended up feeling distaste for both candidates by the time the polls opened up this morning. Villaraigosa won, for what it's worth, but since both men are Democrats, I doubt there will be a dramatic shift in the political landscape of the city.

There was low voter turnout, which isn't a surprise given the lack of a Red vs. Blue storyline for the press to latch on to, and I'm pretty sure the 70% of registered voters who decided to skip out on they're civic duty today would tell you the same thing I know from following local coverage: Jim Hahn is White and Antonio Villaraigosa is Latino.

After that, they're both politicians. Men with money and many character flaws. The people who were motivated cast their ballots, and the machine will keep chugging along.