City Councilman Eric Garcetti won the race for mayor of Los Angeles last night, defeating his opponent, city controller Wendy Greuel, by a margin of eight percent.

The non-partisan election, which pitted the moderate Garcetti (who polled well with Republicans and distanced himself from organized labor) against the also moderate Greuel (who was supported by unions and women), was a long slog that lasted two years, finally ending last night in a decisive win for Garcetti.

“Los Angeles is ready to put the recession in the rearview mirror and become the city of opportunity that I grew up in once again,” Garcetti said. “It’s time for Los Angeles not just to be a big city, but a great city once again. Whether you’re down and out, or whether you’re at the top, we all believe one thing, that L.A. is worth fighting for.”

Garcetti is another moderate Democrat looking to govern along the lines of Bloomberg in New York and Emanuel in Chicago, meaning for a moment, a trifecta of large, traditionally liberal American cities being run by pro-business technocrats without any connection to the conventional Democratic machine (this all changes when NYC shifts hard to the Left in November).

Garcetti becomes the first Jewish mayor of Los Angeles, and is also the son of Gil Garcetti, the district attorney who prosecuted O.J. Simpson. He is of Mexican-descent and speaks Spanish fluently.

He is not to be confused with former Baltimore Mayor Tommy Carcetti, who was an ambitious, centrist-Democrat and former city councilman with eyes on the governor's mansion (also, he's fictional but he had my vote).