De León, Raman pull ahead; other L.A. City Council incumbents take big leads

A man in a dark suit and striped tie holds a mic as he speaks at a lectern, with other people standing behind him

Dakota Smith, Angie Orellana Hernandez, Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Liam Dillon

Published March 5, 2024 Updated March 6, 2024 9:26 PM PT

Two years ago, voters made clear they were exasperated with Los Angeles City Hall, unseating two incumbent council members and rejecting attempts by several others to win higher office.

This time around, things are not yet so cut and dried.

On Wednesday, with the first major tranche of ballots tabulated in this year’s primary election, council members emerged in first place in six out of six contests. But three of those six may end up fighting for reelection for eight more months.

Councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Imelda Padilla easily defeated poorly funded opponents in South L.A. and the San Fernando Valley, respectively. Councilmember John Lee, embroiled in an ethics case involving a trip he took to Las Vegas, led his opponent by a substantial double-digit margin in his northwest Valley district.

On Wednesday night, Lee proclaimed victory.

Two other incumbents, Councilmembers Kevin de León and Nithya Raman, were leading their challengers, though falling short of the majority needed to avoid a November runoff. And Councilmember Heather Hutt, appointed to the post in 2022 at the urging of now disgraced former council President Nury Martinez, was ahead of her four opponents and probably headed for a runoff.

Meanwhile, in the lone race without an incumbent, the leader was former Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, a onetime aide to council President Paul Krekorian.

Some of the candidates, and their supporters, cautioned that much could change in the coming days, as workers with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk continue to count mail-in ballots. The candidates pointed out that the outcome of other city contests changed between election night and the final tally two years ago.

On election night in June 2022, then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo was leading his opponent, Eunisses Hernandez, only to lose the race later that month. In November 2022, mayoral candidate Rick Caruso was in first place on election night, only to be defeated by then-Rep. Karen Bass in the days that followed.

Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado, who was third behind De León and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago on Wednesday morning, said she still expects to make the runoff once the remaining ballots are counted. Voters in her Eastside district want “radical, transformative change,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”

Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said he was surprised to see as many as three incumbents — Hutt, Raman and De León — on the verge of runoff contests. While all three council members are leading in their respective races, none was winning outright, according to partial returns.

“It’s unusual to have any incumbent forced into a runoff, maybe one,” Guerra said. “But to have three incumbents forced into a runoff is very unique.”

Thirty-one candidates were competing in seven contests that dealt with the city’s fight against homelessness, its approach to policing and public safety, and its ongoing efforts to make housing more affordable, particularly for L.A.’s renters.

Any council candidate who receives more than 50% of the final vote will avoid a runoff in November.

On the Eastside, De León was running ahead of Santiago in an eight-way contest, but still well below a majority, according to partial returns. Jurado was in third place, while Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo was in fourth.

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 City Hall colleagues that featured racist and derogatory remarks. He has repeatedly apologized for his role in that conversation, which took place in October 2021.

In an interview Wednesday, De León said he had addressed the scandal head-on during the campaign, sending a “brutally honest” and “heartfelt” letter apologizing to voters.

“We’re proud that our work was reflected” in the results so far, he said. “We came in first place, and we’re going to continue to grind away.”

Still, more than two-thirds of the ballots in the race favored De León’s opponents. Those numbers showed that voters are eager for change, said Santiago campaign consultant Dave Jacobson.

“This is a devastating performance for the incumbent who has failed the people of Los Angeles,” he said.

In the northwest Valley, nonprofit leader Serena Oberstein had repeatedly assailed Lee over an ongoing Ethics Commission case that targets him. That case deals with allegations that Lee violated laws governing the reporting and acceptance of gifts. Lee has denied the allegations.

By Wednesday morning, Lee had secured nearly two-thirds of the vote, according to partial returns. In an interview, he said his opponent’s focus on the ethics case was simply “noise.”

“This community knows that I’m someone who truly cares about this community,” he said. “I think they know that I’m from it, that I have some of the same values as the people who live there.”

Oberstein said Tuesday night that she was waiting for the remaining votes to be counted.

“I didn’t take on an entrenched incumbent and his more than $1 million of special interest money because it would be easy,” she said.

Raman, running for reelection in a district that straddles the Hollywood Hills, was narrowly ahead of Deputy City Atty. Ethan Weaver, according to Wednesday’s partial returns. Appearing at her election night party in Silver Lake, she said she ran a strong campaign, with canvassers knocking on tens of thousands of doors, but was barraged by an “unprecedented” amount of outside money supporting her opponent.

Weaver received a huge boost from the firefighters union, the police officers union, commercial and residential landlords and other contributors, who spent a combined $1.35 million on “independent expenditures” supporting his campaign. Those donors repeatedly attacked Raman over such issues as homelessness and public safety.

“It’s been incredibly painful watching the flood of money that comes into this district,” Raman told her supporters. “A million and a half dollars trying to keep a vision of Los Angeles that helps people rather than harms people down. A million and a half dollars. What does that do to a district? What does that do to a city?”

Weaver, in an interview, said he had built a coalition that includes organized labor, business leaders and community members.

Voters across the district “don’t feel listened to,” he said.

“I’m running to give them a voice again on everything from public safety to homelessness to development,” Weaver said.

Software engineer Levon “Lev” Baronian was in third place behind Raman and Weaver, according to partial returns.

Hutt, who represents a portion of South Los Angeles, opened up a lead in her first council campaign. She was appointed to that seat in 2022 after federal corruption charges were filed against former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas. He was convicted last year and has filed an appeal in that case.

“This is, at least for me, about representing the community that I love,” Hutt said.

Grace Yoo, who was in second place, voiced optimism about her own campaign, saying she’d focused heavily on the issues of public safety and “honest government.”

“I’m glad our message resonated,” she said.

Pastor Eddie Anderson, a community organizer, was in third place; Aura Vásquez, a former city commissioner, was in fourth; and Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer was fifth.

In the East Valley, seven candidates were seeking to fill the seat being vacated this year by Krekorian, first elected in 2009. Nazarian, the former Krekorian aide, appears to have secured a spot in the November runoff, according to partial returns.

Sam Kbushyan, a small-business consultant, was in second and small-business owner Jillian Burgos was in third, while housing advocate Manny Gonez was in fourth.

Nazarian, who spent a decade in the state Assembly, said he heard frustration in the district about homelessness. Voters were also “fed up” with the corruption cases that have resulted in convictions of three former council members, he said.

“I think people are frustrated. They’re tired. And they want to see integrity restored to the council,” he said.

Kbushyan, watching the results at his campaign headquarters in Valley Glen, said the results show that district residents want a different approach to homelessness and public safety.

“I’m proud of the effort that my team put into this,” he said. “We worked hard. We left nothing on the table.”