Challenger Hernandez expands lead over LA Councilman Cedillo

Community activist and public policy advocate Eunisses Hernandez again widened her lead in her bid to unseat Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo, while the race for Los Angeles city attorney saw a new candidate move into position to advance to the November runoff, according to updated election results released Tuesday.

According to the latest tally of ballots from the June 7 election, Hernandez had a 2,389-vote lead over Cedillo in the race for the District 1 seat. That’s up from 2,019 last Friday, when the last update was released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.

The updated results give Hernandez 54.03% of the vote, while Cedillo has 45.97%. The race includes only two candidates and will be decided once all votes are counted.

In the race for city attorney, civil rights attorney Faisal Gill was leading the seven-candidate field with 136,977 votes, or 24.23%. But in the race for second place — and a trip to the November runoff election — financial law attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto overtook former federal prosecutor Marina Torres in a neck-and-neck race.

The latest results showed Soto with a 351-vote lead over Torres, collecting 19.92% of the vote, compared to Torres’ 19.85%.

Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass again widened her lead over billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso — although the pair 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 43.14% of the vote, with Caruso at 35.98%. With no candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to the November general election.

The next vote-counting update is set to be released Friday. According to the Registrar-Recorder’s Office, roughly 13,790 ballots countywide still need to be tallied. The results are expected to be completed and certified by July 1.