US: Antonio Villaraigosa romped past incumbent James K Hahn to make history on Tuesday by being elected the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles since the city's pioneer days.
Riding a huge wave of voter discontent, the challenger avenged his 2001 loss to Mr Hahn, who possessed an iconic family name but never connected strongly with voters during his four-year term.
Mr Villaraigosa's landslide victory represented a crowning symbol of Latinos' growing clout in California, after decades of population gains that failed to produce a commensurate rise in political power.
The city's last Latino mayor, Cristobal Aguilar, left office in 1872, when the now sprawling metropolis was a frontier outpost of barely 6,000 people.
The election also produced a striking parallel with the city's last breakthrough vote in 1973, when Tom Bradley won a rematch against incumbent Sam Yorty to become the first black mayor.
Later, thanking his campaign volunteers and supporters, Mr Hahn refused to concede and mounted a rousing defence of his tenure. "This city is so much better off," he said, citing a drop in violent crime and a rise in new housing. "That stuff didn't just magically happen." But more than seven in 10 voters said they wanted the city to shift direction.
The incumbent also suffered from the erosion of his winning coalition of four years ago: whites in the San Fernando Valley and blacks in South Los Angeles.
At the same time, Mr Villaraigosa broadened the base of Latinos and white liberals that he established in 2001. According to the city clerk, only about three in 10 voters cast ballots on Tuesday.