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Thursday, November 6th, 2008
“State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas scored a knockout victory Tuesday night to become the first Black man ever elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Ridley-Thomas had 250,198 votes or 61.4 percent of the votes, compared to 157,294 (38.6 percent) for L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks.”
“A resounding victory over Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks and a reputation for shrewd consensus-building was expected to aid Ridley-Thomas in an ambitious agenda, including better compensation for county workers and a pledge to reopen Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital by January 2010.”
3. L.A. Watts Times (PDF):
“In the most hotly contested local campaign of this election season, State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas captured more than 60 percent of the vote to defeat Eighth District Councilman Bernard Parks 250,198 to 157,294 in the battle for the second district Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor’s seat being vacated by Yvonne Braithwaite Burke.”
4. Betty Pleasant’s The Soulvine:
“YES WE DID! We won an historic double-header Tuesday: We put the first Black man in the White House and the first Black man on the county Board of Supervisors, both of whom were, far and away, the better candidates who trounced their opponents to prove it.”
“State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas was elected to the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, defeating a bid by city councilman and former police chief Bernard Parks.
Ridley-Thomas won 61 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election for the 2nd District seat being vacated by Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke.”
6. Daily Breeze:
“As the first new member elected to the Board of Supervisors since 1996, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas said Wednesday his first order of business is to assemble an effective staff and focus on immediate needs in South Los Angeles, including reopening Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital.”
7. L.A. Weekly:
“MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS’ BLOWOUT WIN FOR L.A. COUNTY SUPERVISOR
They brought the roasted pig out in a cardboard box. And even if it was a “victory” party, all in attendance knew that their Los Angeles County Second District candidate, Bernard Parks, was cooked.”
“On a night of unbounded jubilation for blacks and other liberals practically everywhere on earth, Mark Ridley-Thomas elevated the already shrill volume with a historic contribution of his own, scoring a crushing victory over Bernard C. Parks in the stunningly lopsided race for Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s seat on the County Board of Supervisors.
On the eve of his 54th birthday, Mr. Ridley-Thomas last night became the first black man elected to arguably the most powerful local body in the country by the nose-flattening margin of 61.4 percent to 38.6 percent for Mr. Parks, an L.A. City Councilman.”
9. La Opinion (Spanish):
“State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, who on Tuesday won the contest as a representative of District 2 on the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles, said in his first public appearance after the election day, that the welfare of Latino families is one of his priorities.”
