Supervisor election pivotal

As the political race to replace retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke heats up in the final days before the June 3 election, analysts say results at the polls could lead to significantly reshaped county policies. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The race has intensified in recent months as the leading candidates, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, 64, and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, 53, have lined up endorsements, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and increasingly resorted to heated verbal exchanges.

"The Ridley-Thomas and Parks race is the most important one on the June ballot," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and senior scholar at the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development.