Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León, who for nearly a year has fended off calls to resign for his role in a racist leaked audio scandal, announced Wednesday, Sept. 20, that he will seek reelection next year.
De León was elected in 2020 to represent Angelenos in Downtown and on L.A.’s Eastside. Council District 14 is a dichotomy that includes heavily Latino working-class communities, luxurious skyscrapers and Skid Row. It includes Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Downtown L.A., El Sereno and Northeast L.A.
“In just three years, we’ve made unprecedented strides in our district on the issues that matter the most to my constituents, like improving public safety and tackling homelessness head-on,” de León said in a press release from his campaign announcing his bid for reelection.
The councilmember cited other improvements in the district, including revitalizing parks and public spaces to create safer communities.
“My constituents deserve this high level of dedicated public service and I’m grateful for their ongoing trust and support,” de León said. “At the end of the day, the heart and soul of the work that we do as council members is about serving the people, especially those that are struggling. That’s what I care about and that’s why I’m running.”
As of Wednesday, 10 other people had pulled campaign finance papers with the city’s Ethics Commission, indicating they may run in next year’s Council District 14 race. They include state Assemblymembers Wendy Carillo and Miguel Santiago, and tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado.
Last October, an audio recording secretly taped in 2021 made national headlines after it was leaked online, revealing racist comments during a backroom meeting between de León, two other L.A. City Council members and a top labor leader.
The secretly taped remarks ended the political career of then-L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez. She resigned as did Ron Herrera, the powerful head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Gil Cedillo, the third councilmember in that meeting, left office when his term ended in December.
Appearing on CNN last December, de León denied making racist remarks, saying the most offensive comments on the audio came from Martinez, who called then-Councilmember Mike Bonin’s young Black son a “changuito” — Spanish for “little monkey.” De León said he apologized for failing to stop the offensive comments.
He also said during the CNN interview that a comment he made on the audio was twisted by media. During the conversation, de León appeared to compare Bonin’s handling of his son to carrying an accessory. “I shouldn’t have said what I said,” De León told CNN, saying he didn’t mean to hurt Bonin or his son but was commenting on Martinez’s “penchant for luxury handbags.”
Like Martinez and Cedillo, de León faced intense pressure to resign, including from some of his colleagues on the City Council and from U.S. President Joe Biden.
De León’s presence at City Council meetings initially fueled loud protests, and led to a scuffle in December between himself and an angry critic who confronted him at a holiday event in his district.
But the councilmember – who has also served in both houses of the state Legislature, including as the California State Senate president — has shown a tendency to not back down, surviving multiple attempts by his critics to recall him from the City Council over the past couple of years.
De León has maintained that the work he’s doing on behalf of his constituents is critical.
The announcement from his campaign said that during de León’s first three years as a councilmember, he and his staff have housed more people experiencing homelessness and gotten more homeless housing built in his council district than any other district. Skid Row, the epicenter of the region’s homelessness crisis, is in de León’s district.
In addition, the campaign announcement said de León has worked to clean up streets “at record levels” and has secured over $135 million for infrastructure improvements in his district.
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