Adrin Nazarian, Heather Hutt claim victory in Los Angeles City Council races

Adrin Nazarian claimed victory Tuesday in a race to represent parts of the San Fernando Valley on the Los Angeles City Council, while Heather Hutt held on to the seat she was appointed to in 2022.

With Ysabel Jurado’s victory over incumbent Kevin de León to represent parts of downtown and the Eastside, the council will be majority female for the first time.

Hutt on Tuesday emailed supporters to thank them for helping elect her to represent a district stretching from Koreatown to the Crenshaw corridor.

Hutt, 65, was first appointed to the post by the council in 2022, after then-Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted on corruption charges.

She is the first woman, and first Black woman, elected to the seat. When the new members start work on Dec. 9, she will be one of eight women on the 15-member council.

“We felt good with seven — eight makes it great,” Hutt said in an interview Tuesday. She said homelessness, public safety and cleaning the streets and sidewalks would be her priorities for the next four years.

Hutt led in the District 10 race with 63% of the vote Monday night, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

With a dwindling number of votes left to count, her opponent, Grace Yoo, appears to have no path to catch up.

Hutt was backed by Mayor Karen Bass and had support from business and labor unions. She was a strong supporter of Healthy Streets L.A, which was passed by voters in March and requires the city to build bus and bike lanes.

Yoo, an estate planning attorney and longtime City Hall critic, raised nearly half a million dollars in the primary and general elections — slightly more than Hutt. Yoo had run two previous times for the District 10 seat, losing to incumbent Herb Wesson in 2015 and to Ridley-Thomas in 2020. Ridley-Thomas was indicted by federal prosecutors the following year and remains free while he appeals his conviction.

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District 10 takes in all or parts of Mid-City, Little Ethiopia, Leimert Park, La Cienega Heights, Baldwin Hills, Jefferson Park, Koreatown and South Robertson.

In the race to replace outgoing City Councilmember Paul Krekorian representing the eastern San Fernando Valley, Nazarian had 54% of the vote as of Monday night, a lead of nearly 10 percentage points over Jillian Burgos, a small business owner and member of the NoHo Neighborhood Council.

Nazarian, a former state Assembly member and former aide to Krekorian, said in a phone call Tuesday that he was “tired” but in “great spirits.”

The longtime politician raised more than $1 million during his campaign, a fraction of the amount brought in by Burgos. He was backed by business and labor groups and also endorsed by Bass.

Burgos, who was endorsed by a number of left-of-center groups, including the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, had been hoping to expand the bloc of “super-progressives” who have been pushing the council to the left.

The group includes Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez, who will soon be joined by Jurado, the new District 14 representative.

Neither Burgos nor Yoo immediately responded to requests for comment.

Nazarian, 51, said that some of his first actions as a council member will be focused on homelessness in District 2, which include all or parts of North Hollywood, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and other areas.

Summing up the mood of the city, Nazarian cited a “sense of insecurity that a lot of people are feeling.” Voters told him during the campaign that they didn’t feel comfortable walking down the sidewalks, and in some instances, seeing open drug use, he said.