Measure L: Sacramento 'Strong Mayor' Initiative Fails

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A measure to give the mayor's office more power in Sacramento over the budget and actual veto power has failed.

Measure L, otherwise known as the Strong-Mayor Initiative, was spurred by the momentum from Mayor Kevin Johnson's success in brokering a deal to keep the Sacramento Kings from moving out of town.

Johnson sounded optimistic about the measure's challenge when he addressed the crowd at 10 p.m.

"We did it above ground; we took the high road; we did it the Sacramento way," he said, noting that most of the results that had come in were from vote-by-mail voters—a demographic he wasn't optimistic about carrying.

But that optimism didn't match the votes at the ballot box. At midnight, the measure was going down to defeat by a 57.31 percent to 42.69 percent margin