The once crowded race to fill a vacancy on the LA City Council after the resignation of Nury Martinez has narrowed to the top two candidates.

Imelda Padilla and Marisa Alcaraz, the remaining candidates in the District 6 special election, are now in a runoff election.

The two candidates joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to discuss their top priorities and to show what makes them the right person to represent the district.

Padilla received 3,424 votes — just slightly more than Alcaraz with 2,819 — in what was a poorly participated election, where only about 11% of eligible voters cast a ballot.

If elected, Padilla says she would focus on is cleaning up and renovating the district’s parks in order to give children and families more places to gather.

“I believe we need to pay more attention to our parks. There are some parks in District 6 that have not gotten the attention they need and deserve,” Padilla said.

Another priority for Padilla would be to work with the different water agencies to combat the recent floods that have affected the area, while also implementing new ways to store water to prevent runoff.

“We have thousands of examples throughout history, throughout thousands of years, of societies existing without electricity, but they have never existed without water,” Padilla said. “We in Los Angeles have to stop this trend of pushing water out into the ocean when it rains, and we need to find ways to seep it back into the earth.”

If elected, Alcaraz says she would focus on the interconnected issue of homelessness and housing affordability. These are the issues almost everyone in her district can relate to.

“It’s really about bringing people up to a living wage, not just a minimum wage. That They are able to not just survive but thrive in our city,” Alcaraz said. “A lot of people live paycheck-to-paycheck and are struggling. I think it’s the job of city leaders to step up and try to improve conditions for the people in our city,” Alcaraz said.

Both candidates have drawn criticism from residents of the district while on the campaign trail.

Criticism has been lodged toward Padilla for her past involvement with Martinez, serving as a field deputy for her for 18 months. Martinez resigned last October after racist audio tapes of her were leaked.

Padilla says this was an early career opportunity which allowed her to both work for her local community and a show what she can accomplish with civil service.

“It was a learning experience, an opportunity I very much valued and learned very much from, and I’m proud of the work I did in those 18 months,” she said.

Alcaraz gained a lot of support from various unions, something she takes great pride in as someone who grew up in a union family.

“My dad was a carpenter, my mom was a nurse, uncle’s a firefighter. Really union family, valley family,” Alcaraz said.

A point of contention people have is Alcaraz accepting money from the Los Angeles Port Police Association, even though she said she would not accept any money from law enforcement.

Alcaraz says the reason for doing so is the Port Police Association is part of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

“We have talked about possibly returning the money if that was an issue for certain people. But as I see it, they’re part of a larger [sic] labor organization,” Alcaraz said.

When it comes to what separates the two candidates, Padilla believes it’s her work experience in both the public and private sectors that gives her the edge in the close race.

“I don’t think my opponent has that intergovernmental, interconnecting resources and stakeholder’s lens that I will be able to bring to the table,” Padilla says.

For Alcaraz, she says people have really resonated with the fact that she is a single, working mom. She believes this experience would give her an important advantage if elected to the City Council.

“They know that nobody fights like a single mom,” Alcaraz said. “They believe that I’m going to go to bat for our kids.”

There is about a month left for both Padilla and Alcaraz to campaign. The deadline for residents to cast their vote in the runoff election is June 27.

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