Ysabel Jurado leads Councilmember Kevin de León; Hutt and Nazarian also ahead
Tenants rights attorney Ysabel Jurado held a significant lead over Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León on Wednesday in the race to represent an Eastside district, according to partial returns.
The bruising, yearlong contest pitted Jurado, a first-time candidate, against De León, a veteran lawmaker who was politically wounded by his participation in a secretly recorded conversation that featured racist and crude remarks.
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Jurado said her campaign was about making sure that city services are delivered equitably, among other things.
“It’s about racial justice. It’s about change. It’s about bringing good governance, and local government that works for people,” she said.
Addressing about 200 cheering supporters Tuesday night, she said her campaign had been ridiculed and belittled, yet remained “unbroken” and “unyielding.”
De León, appearing at his election night party, said he was proud of his work over the past four years creating park space, fighting homelessness, removing trash from city streets and providing meals to needy families.
“It’s always, always been about making everyday life better for residents of our district,” he said, addressing a crowd that included Councilmembers John Lee, Monica Rodriguez and Traci Park.
The 14th District, which takes in neighborhoods stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock and El Sereno, was one of three council seats up for grabs Tuesday.
In the San Fernando Valley, former state Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian held a double-digit lead over small business owner Jillian Burgos in the race to replace Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who is departing because of term limits, according to partial returns.
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Nazarian was “cautiously optimistic” about the initial results, saying he thinks his message resonated with voters.
“My campaign was about making Los Angeles a place where businesses can thrive, where families can thrive, where people can feel safe and have an affordable, sustainable life,” he said.
Jurado said De León failed to effectively represent the district. De León said Jurado is extreme, aligning herself with activists who want to defund the LAPD.
Jurado and Burgos were running to push the council further left on such issues as public safety and city spending. Backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, LA Forward and other progressive groups, they have been looking to expand the bloc of council members who would rein in spending at the Los Angeles Police Department and carry out new tenant protections.
Burgos said voters repeatedly voiced fears about high housing costs, with many saying they had to work multiple jobs or live with multiple people in order to afford the rent.
“A lot of people are afraid that unless we expand rent control and work on implementing our tenant anti-harassment ordinance, that people are going to be pushed out of the district,” Burgos said.
Adrin Nazarian, former state Assembly member and onetime aide to outgoing Councilman Paul Krekorian, is up against Jillian Burgos, a business owner and NoHo Neighborhood Council member.
Nazarian served in Sacramento from 2012 to 2022 and was, at one point, a high-level Krekorian aide. District 2 takes in all or parts of North Hollywood, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and other areas.
In a district stretching from Koreatown to the Crenshaw Corridor, Councilmember Heather Hutt held a lead of more than 20 points over attorney Grace Yoo, partial returns showed.
City Councilmember Heather Hutt faces her first election for the seat. Attorney Grace Yoo argues she should lead the district.
Hutt, a onetime staffer to several state elected officials, was appointed to the City Council in 2022 as a temporary replacement for Mark Ridley-Thomas after his indictment on corruption charges. After Ridley-Thomas was convicted, the council reappointed Hutt to the interim post.
Minutes after the polls closed, Hutt said her campaign was about “bringing commonsense resources to the community,” such as trimming trees and picking up “bulky items” from the curb and sidewalk. She said she had followed in the footsteps of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and former Councilmember Gilbert Lindsay, who were appointed to their offices.
“I think that’s great company to be in,” she said.
Yoo ran for the 10th District seat twice before — in 2015 and 2020 — losing both times. She promised to be more aggressive than Hutt in tackling homelessness, trash removal and neighborhood quality-of-life issues.
In an interview, Yoo said her campaign was about change.
“It was about having an elected official who listens to the people about basic city services, about taking care of problems,” she said.
Early Wednesday morning, all three of the leading candidates were ahead by double digits. Still, late-arriving mail-in ballots will be counted in the coming days by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. In previous years, some election results have shifted as those ballots were tabulated.
Residents of Los Angeles also signed off on several amendments to the City Charter, the document that spells out government operations at City Hall.
Voters overwhelmingly supported Charter Amendment DD, which would take redistricting — the process of creating new boundary lines for the city’s 15 council districts — out of the hands of city politicians, turning it over to an independent panel of citizen volunteers.
The proposal was first unveiled in the wake of the 2021 redistricting process, following frustration over efforts to redraw several districts in the Valley. It gained new momentum after the 2022 audio leak scandal, when three council members, including De León, and a high-profile labor leader were heard on a recording discussing ways of drawing the lines that would benefit either themselves or their allies.
Voters also approved a companion measure, Charter Amendment LL, which would put independent redistricting in place at the Los Angeles Unified School District. Both DD and LL would go into effect in time for the next redistricting, which coincides with the release of U.S. census results in 2030.
Charter Amendment ER, a plan to strengthen the power of the City Ethics Commission, also coasted to victory. That measure, drafted in the wake of several City Hall corruption scandals, would ensure the agency has a minimum budget of $7 million starting in 2025-26.
Krekorian, who worked to get DD, ER and several other measures on the ballot, said voters had embraced “a new way of doing business in Los Angeles.”
“This is the end of gerrymandering in Los Angeles, and it’s the beginning of a new era of focusing on ethics and a more robust democracy,” he said.
Voters also appeared on their way to approving Charter Amendment FF, which would allow officers in some of the city’s smaller law enforcement agencies to switch into the more lucrative Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions system.
Charter Amendment FF would apply to about 460 park rangers, port police officers and law enforcement officers assigned to the city’s airports. It would cost the city’s general fund $23 million at the outset and about $1 million per year after that.
Yet another city measure, Charter Amendment HH, passed easily. That measure would expand the subpoena powers of the city attorney and clarify that the city controller can obtain records involving city contractors. It would also require that the Board of Harbor Commissioners have at least two local representatives — one from San Pedro, the other from Wilmington.
Charter Amendment II, which makes a series of technical changes to the City Charter, won voter approval. That measure would, among other things, clarify that the Los Angeles Zoo and the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument are park property.
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