Voters are choosing candidates for 7 of the 15 seats on the powerful Los Angeles City Council
In Los Angeles, voters will decide which candidates will face off in November for seven of its 15 city council seats. Arguably one of the most powerful city councils in the country, it's been riddled with scandal the past few years.
In 2022, leaked audio revealed then-City Council President Nury Martinez making racist comments in a meeting that included two other council members, which ultimately led to her resignation. One of the other members who was part of that conversation, Kevin de León, remains on the council after surviving months of protests, calls for his resignation (including from President Biden) and a recall attempt. Today he's running for a second four-year term against seven challengers, including two former political allies, state Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo. Santiago specifically has scooped up the endorsement of the key labor unions that once backed de León, as well as the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
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Overall, policing, affordable housing and homelessness are big issues in the city, the second largest in the nation, and how the council decides to handle those issues in the future could help set the tone for the rest of the country. Today's elections could help decide, in part, how progressive the council will be: In other races, business interests have been targeting progressive Councilmember Nithya Raman, and spending to bolster the council's only non-Democrat, independent John Lee, who faces an ethics probe and a more progressive challenger.
—Monica Potts, 538