The tight race for mayor of Los Angeles, the nation’s second most populous city, has been a talker for residents across the area. In particular, Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV villain who is a Republican, has grabbed attention in a region where Democrats dominate the voter rolls.
But one problem for Mr. Pratt is that many of the people who want to vote for him won’t actually have him on their ballots.
While the city of Los Angeles, with about 3.9 million residents, is the political center of the region, Los Angeles County has 88 independent cities and numerous unincorporated communities that together make up a population of 9.8 million.
Among those 88 are suburbs that are more conservative than the city of Los Angeles, and perhaps more likely to have voted for Mr. Pratt — if they were eligible.
The thicket of jurisdictions is hard for outsiders to parse, and it can be confusing even for people who live in the region.
Residents of Pacific Palisades, the neighborhood where Mr. Pratt lived until his house was among the thousands that burned in last year’s devastating Palisades fire, can vote for the mayor of Los Angeles. Residents of Altadena — the community decimated by the Eaton fire, which broke out hours later some 35 miles to the east of the Palisades — cannot.
People who live in Hollywood can vote in the Los Angeles mayoral election because Tinseltown is technically a Los Angeles neighborhood. Residents of West Hollywood, which became a small, independent city in 1984, cannot.
Some cities, including West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, are entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. Residents there may feel like they are Angelenos, though they actually are not.
As a result, there will likely be voters who look at their ballot on Election Day and wonder why the mayor’s race isn’t on there. The answer is probably in their address.
Shawn Hubler contributed reporting.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
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