CommentsDEEGAN ON LA-While several challengers did not upset incumbent candidates in the March 3 primary election -- resulting in a continuation of the same politicos for most of the council district seats up for election --
a couple of them are giving heavyweight politicos a run for their money in what could be a runoff for the general election in November. Final vote tallies have not been officially announced, pending counting of vote by mail ballots.
One of the close calls is Councilmember David Ryu (CD4) who, at press time had received 45% of the votes, with his closest competitor, Nithya Raman, taking 40%. If the numbers hold and result in a run-off, Ryu and Raman will probably challenge each other on how much each has done, or can do, for the homeless which was a featured plank of both campaigns.
Another possible run-off is in CD 10, where termed-out County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas sits at 46% of the votes versus Grace Yoo, with 24%. The seat was made vacant by termed-out Herb Wesson (32%) who is in his own run off with Holly Mitchell (26%) for MRT’s Supervisor District 2 seat.
Mitchell is a member of the California State Senate, representing District 30. She previously served in the California State Assembly.
If this were a William Faulkner novel instead of an election, the Wesson-MRT seat-swapping could possibly be viewed as incestuous inbreeding. Or, musically, as rock legends “The Who” famously sang – “Meet the new boss. . .Same as the old boss.” (What preceded that iconic phrase was the lyric, “I'll get on my knees and pray we don't get fooled again.”)
Raman and Yoo are the outsiders here, with Raman being the pure play newcomer (as her opponent Ryu was in 2015). Yoo has run once before, against Wesson in CD10 in 2015. Raman has never run for elected office in Los Angeles.
Ryu, going for his second term, is a solid, known quantity with a record of success, particularly in dealing with the homeless crisis, yet the primary results were very close with only about five points separating him from Raman.
Wesson and Mark Ridley-Thomas are deeply entrenched, revolving door serial officeholders. Wesson was a councilmember and City Council president. And before becoming a councilmember, he represented the 47th Assembly District in the California State Assembly. During his tenure, he served as the Speaker of the California State Assembly.
Mark Ridley-Thomas, currently a County Supervisor, served as a California State Senator, representing the 26th district, and was a California State Assemblyman representing the 48th district. He was Chairman of the Assembly Democratic Caucus. Before his six years in the Legislature, he was on the Los Angeles City Council.
At the other end of the arc, the candidate with no elective office history is Nithya Raman who would like to represent Council District 4. An urban planner and community advocate, Raman’s platform emphasizes the need for housing the homeless; it highlights her service to the homeless through her grassroots, hands-on experience with the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition. It’s an organization that she and a group of neighbors started in what they call “a neighborhood-level movement responding to homelessness in a proactive, compassionate, and effective way” with outreach programs that include bringing regular hot meals and showers to a region of the city severely lacking in such resources.
Helping the homeless is a citywide concern that needs both elements: the types of services provided by Ramen, and the now occupied several homeless housing projects initiated by Ryu.
A Ryu spokesperson told CityWatch on March 5 that “Councilmember Ryu is proud of winning the most votes so far and of building a powerful coalition of community members, organized labor, and Democratic Party activists. At the moment, it is still too early to call the final results of the election, with vote by mail ballots still arriving to the County Registrar's Office. Our campaign will continue to review the Registrar’s regular updates, and we are optimistic that Councilmember Ryu will continue to serve the Fourth Council District in his second term."
As for the underdog in the CD4 race, Nitya Raman told CityWatch that “No matter the final outcome of this election, I am so proud of the incredible movement we built in these past few months. Against an incumbent who was backed by every sitting politician and spent over a million dollars on this race, we created a coalition of people who refuse to accept LA’s broken status quo.”
(Tim Deegan is a civic activist whose DEEGAN ON LA weekly column about city planning, new urbanism, the environment, and the homeless appears in CityWatch. Tim can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
