Voters in seven Los Angeles City Council districts went to the polls Tuesday to decide who will win outright and who will go on to a second round in a series of races that could reshape City Hall.
Thirty-one candidates were competing in contests that will help determine the future of the city’s fight against homelessness, its approach to policing and public safety, and its ongoing efforts to make housing more affordable, particularly for the city’s renters.
Six of the seven races feature incumbents who are seeking a four-year term.
On the Eastside, Councilmember Kevin de León was hoping to fend off seven challengers, including State Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo, both Democrats, and tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado.
De León, a former state lawmaker, has been attempting a comeback after being at the center of a scandal over a secretly recorded conversation with former colleagues that featured racist and derogatory remarks. Since then, he has repeatedly apologized for his role in that conversation, which took place in October 2021.
Meanwhile, in the northwest San Fernando Valley, Councilmember John Lee was facing off against nonprofit leader Serena Oberstein. That race, in its final days, has focused heavily on the issue of ethics.
Oberstein spent much of the campaign highlighting an ongoing ethics commission case against Lee, which deals heavily with allegations that Lee violated laws governing the reporting and acceptance of gifts provided to city politicians. Lee, for his part, criticized Oberstein over a 2019 court case that dealt with her eligibility to run for council, which ended when a judge found that she was legally barred from running.
In a district that straddles the Hollywood Hills, Councilmember Nithya Raman was looking to fend off challenges from Deputy City Atty. Ethan Weaver and software engineer Levon “Lev” Baronian. Raman had been running in a race that was sharply different from the one that elected her in 2020.
In South Los Angeles, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson was heavily favored to win his bid for a third and final four-year term. His rivals in the race are real estate broker Jahan Epps and union leader Cliff Smith.
Meanwhile, in the San Fernando Valley, Councilmember Imelda Padilla was the heavy favorite in her race against real estate broker Ely De La Cruz Ayao and Carmenlina Minasova, a respiratory care practitioner who is also running for state Assembly. Padilla won a special election last summer, replacing former Council President Nury Martinez, and has been seeking her first full four-year term.
Councilmember Heather Hutt, who has been in office since 2022, was running for her first full four-year term in a Koreatown-to-Crenshaw district.
Four candidates — state Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, attorney Grace Yoo, former city commissioner Aura Vasquez and Pastor Eddie Anderson, a community organizer — were looking to unseat Hutt, who was first appointed to the seat several months after former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was charged in a federal corruption case.
The only contest without an incumbent was taking place in the East San Fernando Valley, where seven candidates were seeking to fill the seat being vacated this year by Council President Paul Krekorian, first elected in 2009.
Former state Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, a former Krekorian aide, was competing against housing advocate Manny Gonez, small business owner Jillian Burgos, commissioner Sam Kbushyan and several others.
