Council incumbents ahead in defending seats

Seven of the 15 Los Angeles City Council seats were up for election on Tuesday with all but one race featuring an incumbent.

Los Angeles has just under 4 million residents, and with only 15 councilmembers, each council district represents nearly 265,000 people, making it arguably the most powerful city council in the nation.

All told, six incumbents and 25 challengers whose names appeared on ballots battled it out for one of the seven open seats during this primary election.

Only candidates who receive more than 50% of the vote will win their races and avoid a runoff election. Otherwise, the top two finishers in each race will advance to the November general election.

While some voters cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday, others waited until election day. For some races, the results may not be known for several days or weeks, as votes are still being counted.

After polls closed at 8 p.m., the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/ County Clerk's office released its initial vote count, which reflected voteby-mail ballots the office received before election day. A second wave of results was to include ballots cast in person before election day.

Here's a look at where the races stood just after the polls closed Tuesday.

District 2

Former Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian had the early lead in this seven-person race to replace Council President Paul Krekorian, who could not seek reelection due to term limits. With 40% of the vote, Nazarian led the pack. Sam Kbushyan, principal of a public affairs firm, was in second place with 22% while North Hollywood Neighborhood Council member Jillian Burgos was third with 14%.

Others in the race include therapist Jon-Paul Bird, attorney Marin Ghandilyan, TreePeople policy director Manny Gonez and Rudy Melendez, who works in Hollywood's