Wendy Greuel called Eric Garcetti early Wednesday morning to concede the mayoral election, a Greuel campaign source told The Times, ending a two-year campaign to determine Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's successor and the new political leader of Los Angeles.
Garcetti will be the first elected Jewish mayor of the city. At 42, he will also be the youngest in more than a century. He is scheduled to take office July 1.
"Thank you, Los Angeles," Garcetti wrote in a tweet posted at 2:52 a.m. PDT. "The hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let's make this a great city again."
 
 
During early returns Tuesday, Greuel led the race by a slight margin. But as the night wore on, Garcetti's lead grew. Election tallies from the city clerk's office posted at 1:38 a.m., with nearly 73% of precincts reporting, showed Greuel had fallen 8 points behind Garcetti.
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After seeing those numbers -- Greuel 46%, Garcetti 54% -- she called Garcetti at 1:42 a.m. to concede the race.
"It was positive," the source, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, told The Times. Greuel told Garcetti, "Congratulations. You did a great job. I'll officially concede tomorrow, but it looks like the results are in."
Greuel is expected to officially concede the election in Van Nuys on Wednesday morning.
She had hoped that absentee ballots, which are sometimes counted later than ballots cast at polling places, could make a difference, the source said.