The poll by the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles shows Greuel with 46% of likely voters and Garcetti with 45%, and 9% undecided, 12 days before the May 21 election.  The survey arrives less than three weeks after a USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll showed Garcetti with a commanding 10-point lead in the race to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is leaving office after the maximum two terms.  FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor  Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute, said expected low voter turnout "makes the election volatile and hard to predict."  The Brown/Cal State poll shows a decided gender gap. Greuel, the city controller, bested Garcetti, a city councilman, with female voters by 53% to 38%. She has emphasized she would the first female mayor of Los Angeles.  Garcetti was leading solidly among men, the survey found, but by a less decisive margin -- 51% to 40%.  L.A. ELECTIONS 2013: Sign up for our email newsletter  That is a stark contrast to last month's USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll, which showed Garcetti leading among women, 50% to 41%. Since then, Greuel has more frequently trumpeted the historic nature of her campaign and her support from U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers of America.  The poll shows Greuel leading among white voters (53% to 42%) and with a substantial lead among African Americans (63% to 31%), while Garcetti holds the lead among Latinos (48% to 36%) and Asians (69% to 22%).  The telephone survey of 674 likely voters was conducted April 29 through May 7. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four points, with larger error margins among certain subgroups.  The Brown Institute is playing host to a debate Friday at 7 p.m., which will be televised live on KABC TV Channel 7.  The poll suggested that views of the two contenders have been shaped by recent television ads. The most cited negative against Greuel was that she is too close to special interests and unions. Voters’ most frequent critique of Garcetti was that he cannot be trusted. An anti-Greuel ad depicts her as being beholden to the union representing Department of Water and Power workers, who have contributed about $1.5 million to an independent campaign backing her candidacy. Anti-Garcetti ads depict him as a political manipulator who is “in it for himself.”  Likely voters split when asked about specific qualities of the candidates. By 43% to 31% they chose Greuel as the candidate who “cares more about people like me.” They also chose the city controller, by 42% to 32% as the one who would do a better job with the public schools. Garcetti had a slight edge on the question of who would keep the city safe from crime — 39% to Greuel’s 34%. Garcetti had a small lead — within the poll’s margin of error — when respondents were asked to name the candidate with the best leadership qualities. He was cited by 42% of likely voters on that question, compared to 39% who cited Greuel for leadership.  The Pat Brown Institute plans Monday to release more complete results of its poll — which also asked voters about the races for city attorney and city controller.  “Any significant shift in participation by key electoral groups could swing the outcome,” Sonenshein said in a statement. “The composition of the groups turning out is just as important as the level of turnout itself.”  The institute contacted 1,705 adults in the city of Los Angeles. Among them were 904 registered voters, of whom 674 were deemed likely to vote in the May 21 election. While Asian American voters were interviewed, the pollsters said they were too small a subgroup of the sample to be examined in detail. Interviews and data collection were conducted by Interviewing Service of America, Van Nuys, California under the overall direction of Susan Pinkus, PBI Polling Consultant.  Fund set up for victims' families, survivors of Bay Area limo fire  Pit bulls fatally maul jogger, remain on the loose; warning issued  Friend says she tried to stop dazed Michael Jackson from taking stage
A new poll shows City Controller  Wendy Greuel  and City Councilman  Eric Garcetti  in a virtual dead heat in the campaign to be the next mayor of Los Angeles.