MOVE LEFT LA
A Voter Guide To Better Politics in Los Angeles
March 5, 2024 Primary
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This guide was prepared by Kris Rehl, a writer, organizer with LA Street Care, and 2020 DNC delegate. If you’d like to show your support, consider buying Kris a coffee (Venmo: krisrehl) and subscribe to their newsletter.
This guide includes recommendations for the best (or often least worst) options on the ballot with explanations based on policy, track record, and news stories. The resource section at the end of this guide features links to election coverage, voting records, campaign finance tools, and more. Always be mindful of bias in corporate media and beware of candidates who claim to be “progressive” or “compassionate”–many are not. (Surprise! Politicians lie.)
The resource section also includes a list of local organizations that I hope you will consider joining because electoral politics will not save us. Even when the best candidates win, they’re largely limited to damage control within a system that is fundamentally designed to protect corporate interests instead of improving people’s lives. Submit information/corrections here.
Tips for voters:
* You can still register to vote at any LA County voting center through election day!
* If you vote by mail, track your ballot to make sure it’s counted.
* If you plan to vote in person but received a mail-in ballot, bring it with you.
* Have questions or concerns? Visit lavote.gov.
A note on paywalls: The LA Public Library provides free subscriptions to many publications with a library card. If you’re blocked from viewing a news source, Google “plain proxies.”
A note on endorsements from political organizations & non-profits: Almost every political organization bases endorsements on just one or two questionnaires/interviews, which are typically not shared publicly. Why? The endorsement process is a lot like the Golden Globes–it’s all about winning over a small group of people by any means necessary and has little to do with merit. Endorsements are often transactional and pre-existing relationships can have greater influence than a candidate’s policy or track record (e.g., Planned Parenthood endorsed alleged sexual assaulter David Ryu over Time’s Up alum Nithya Raman in 2020). Even with otherwise trustworthy groups, there’s almost never disclosure about conflicts of interest (e.g., voting members who also work on a candidate’s campaign) or examination of finances (e.g., candidates donating to the organization that’s voting on their endorsement). And according to those racist City Council tapes, many political orgs can be paid off by politicians—and for cheap. Always exercise skepticism when someone tells you who to vote for without showing their work.
A note on endorsements from news outlets: Most voter guides published by news outlets–even reputable ones–are researched and written by “editorial teams,” which do not include their regular staff of reporters (e.g., L.A. Times, Knock LA).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LA CITY COUNCIL
LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION
STATE ASSEMBLY
STATE SENATE
U.S. REPRESENTATIVES
LA CITY MEASURES
LA COUNTY SUPERVISOR
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
COUNTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE
STATE MEASURES
US SENATE
PRESIDENT
VOTER RESOURCES
GET INVOLVED
*Indicates a Democrat running solely against Republican opponent(s)
LA CITY COUNCIL
DISTRICT 2: Jillian Burgos - A few decent candidates are running in this district, but Burgos, an essential healthcare worker, SAG member, and small business owner, has the best policies. While serving on the NoHo Neighborhood Council, she created a tenant rights workshop and passed grants to provide food to unhoused neighbors. If elected, Burgos would become the second renter on LA City Council. She believes housing is a human right and opposes 41.18, an ordinance that criminalizes the existence of unhoused people with a draconian ban on sitting, lying, and sleeping in most places in the City. She will fight for effective solutions like housing with supportive services while addressing the root causes of homelessness. That means expanding rent control, right to counsel for renters facing eviction, support for youth aging out of the foster care system, and social housing–affordable, usually publicly-owned, housing designed for mixed-income tenants.
Burgos supports fare-free access to LA Metro, a policy everyone should support because 75% of fare revenue pays for…fare enforcement. And more riders means fewer drivers, which is why she’ll prioritize housing and infrastructure development near transit hubs. Burgos wants more protected bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes across the city along with better bus shelters. She will work to expand green spaces and parks, cap harmful oil wells, improve energy efficiency, and expand water capture programs.
Many candidates running this election have flattened the concept of public safety, but Burgos applies it to addressing broader harms. She will work to hold employers accountable for wage theft, establish overdose prevention centers, and build reintegration programs for formerly incarcerated Angelenos to break the cycle of recidivism. She wants to remove armed officers from schools and traffic stops and end all city cooperation with ICE. In addition to expanding unarmed mental health response teams, Burgos would prioritize intimate partner violence response. Which would be great, because Mayor Karen Bass decided not to increase funding for domestic violence programs in her budget this year despite a reported 54% increase in homelessness due to victims fleeing domestic violence–and every single domestic violence shelter in LA being constantly filled to capacity, leaving many survivors with nowhere to go. At least Karen got cops that $15k signing bonus they wanted though.
Burgos mobilized her campaign to support striking workers in 2023 and has some great policies to build on her community outreach and improve civic engagement. She will advocate to improve and expand translation services at all public meetings, starting with City Council. She will work to enfranchise noncitizen LA residents, so they can vote in city elections. And she would create youth programs to teach financial literacy, civic engagement, mentorship, and job training.
Her platform also emphasizes LGBTQIA+ justice, which is appreciated, especially after transphobic and homophobic bigots held a violent rally outside the district’s Saticoy Elementary in June. Those policies include establishing a City Council committee dedicated to queer issues, expanding access to gender-affirming and reproductive care, and enhancing supportive services.
Who else is running?
Currently representing this district is LA City Council President Paul Krekorian, who famously freaked out when someone coughed during a meeting and infamously delayed all public comment to the end of Council meetings, making people wait several hours to participate in civic engagement. He’s terming out and setting up his longtime former chief of staff turned Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian as his successor. Nazarian wants to increase the police force despite the LAPD’s own data showing crime is down across the City, earning him a daming endorsement from LA police. He also made the questionable decision to feature a photo of himself with former President Bill Clinton on his website. Clinton recently made news when he was repeatedly mentioned in unsealed court documents, linking him closely with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
District 4: Nithya Raman - In 2020, Raman ran an inspiring grassroots campaign and became the first LA City Council candidate to unseat an incumbent in 17 years. Amid multiple Councilmembers facing federal indictments, she pledged to co-govern and implement a robust set of progressive policies. While she’s delivered on some of those promises, Raman has abandoned others, alienating many of her progressive supporters. Before we get into her record, I want to disclose that I live in Raman’s district and was inspired to volunteer for her 2020 campaign. I chose not to do so for her re-election campaign because I staunchly oppose some of her actions since taking office. However, her only competitive challenger is a conservative reactionary, whose entire campaign is predicated on reversing the progress Raman has made in this district. His victory would have immensely negative consequences for anyone vulnerable or poor inside the borders of CD4.
Raman centered her 2020 campaign around the biggest issue facing Los Angeles: homelessness. As an MIT-trained urban planner and co-founder of local homeless services organization SELAH, Raman likely entered office with more knowledge about the City’s failures and challenges surrounding this issue than any of her veteran colleagues. In 2020, she made a campaign promise to “eliminate policies that criminalize people who are unhoused.” In her first year, Raman kept that promise, joining Mike Bonin as the lone dissenting votes against 41.18, an ordinance that criminalizes the existence of unhoused people with a draconian ban on sitting, lying, and sleeping in most places in the city. She has since repeatedly voted against the addition of 41.18 special enforcement zones and cast dissenting votes against legislation meant to criminalize unhoused people (e.g., for poss