This just in: Two candidates who planned to run against Richard Alarcon for the Los Angeles City Council dropped out today and pledged Alarcon their support, after several days of what the political consultants call "frank talk" with L.A. power brokers.

Cindy Montanez, who served two terms in the Assembly, then ran for state Senate this year only to be trounced in the primary by Alex Padilla, was going to run for the council seat, which Padilla just left. And Padilla's top staffer, Felipe Fuentes, was going to go for his boss' council seat as well. But Alarcon, who just termed out of the Senate seat that Padilla won and won the Assembly seat that Montanez left in order to run against Padilla--try to keep up, please--decided he didn't want that Assembly seat after all, and filed to run for the City Council, again, against Montanez and Fuentes.

Montanez and Fuentes both issued statements explaining that the constituents of the district, into which Alarcon just moved in order to be eligible to run, would be better served by the guy who just hit them up for campaign cash and votes for the Assembly.

"It is in the best interest of this area to avoid a destructive and damaging situation," Montanez said in a news release. Fuentes, in his statement, said he could not tell you how many times residents have said "Imagine how much more we could accomplish if our elected officials worked together in the spirit of cooperation to bring more resources to the Valley."

All of which may be another way of saying how much easier things will now be for voters, who won't have to worry about having all those confusing choices.