Nearly 15 months ago, the Los Angeles City Council chambers were a chaotic place for business operations, a byproduct of a scandal centered around Councilman Kevin de Leon.

Demonstrators regularly disrupt City Council meetings and demand de Leon's resignation due to his participation in secretly recorded conversations that included racist remarks. They went to his house and spent several days camping nearby.

But something strange happened in the run-up to the March 5 election. Mr. de Leon is running for a second four-year term, and the tight race to represent the East Side district has become mostly civil.

Over the past three months, candidates have been vocal about their positions on issues such as homelessness, police pay raises and public transportation. Much of the campaign email was positive, and interactions on candidate forums were generally friendly.

At a recent Eagle Rock youth forum, seven of the eight candidates asked questions about issues such as bus lanes, the 2028 Olympics and the band they would like for their election night victory party.

Rep. Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) said she would have liked to see Aerosmith, or at least an Aerosmith cover band. Isabel Jurado, a lawyer specializing in tenant rights, said: Linda Lindas. De Leon listed names like Bad Bunny, Arcade Fire, and Grupo Farm.

Michael Trujillo, Carrillo's campaign strategist, said he was not surprised there were so few fireworks. He said in an eight-way race, a negative turn in the campaign risks alienating voters and pushing them into the arms of their rivals.

“If you attack in a multi-candidate primary, there's no guarantee those voters will go to you,” he said.

Jurado's campaign manager, Naomi Villagomez Ruchnik, made a similar point, saying her candidate is focused on presenting a positive vision for the district rather than “ripping people apart.” Ta.

“We don't want to be the candidate who says, 'At least we're better than Kevin,'” she said. “We want Isabel to win because she is the best candidate in the district.”

De Leon, an Eagle Rock resident, has spent the past 15 months trying to make a comeback in the 14th Ward, which includes Boyle Heights, El Sereno and much of downtown, including Little Tokyo, the Arts District and the Skid. line.

During the campaign, he has emphasized his efforts to build transitional housing facilities for the district's homeless population, including tiny home villages in Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock and Highland Park. He said his district was one of the few to report a decrease in homelessness last year compared to 2022.

“With CD 14, a lot of encampments disappeared in our neighborhoods, and that's what I'm most proud of because that was the number one issue when I was campaigning. ” De Leon said in an interview four years ago. “I said I would do it, and I did it.”

De Leon has also issued multiple apologies, one of which was made in a letter Communicate directly to voters in your districtover his participation in conversations with former Council President Nuri Martinez, former Council Member Gil Cedillo, and senior Labor Party officials that featured racist and derogatory remarks about Black people, Oaxacans, and others.

The scandal prompted President Biden to step down in 2022. Mr de Leon said in his letter that he was working to atone for his “hurtful words”.

Those efforts have only brought him this far.

Many of the unions that rallied around de León in previous campaigns are now backing one of his opponents, congressman Miguel Santiago. Santiago has garnered support from construction workers, school officials, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and many other union organizations.

By Monday, labor organizations american beverage assembly.The others had spent a combined $629,000. mailer Other efforts were made to elect Mr. Santiago, a former ally of Mr. de León who regularly appeared with him at political events before the audio scandal broke.

In recent days, Santiago has delivered some of the sharpest elbow strikes of the race. mailer Voters were sent an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times editorial that said de Leon should be voted out of office.

City Councilman and City Council candidate Miguel Santiago will speak at the Boyle Heights Toys Giveaway in December. In recent days, he has stepped up his criticism of de Leon.

(Michael Blacksher/Los Angeles Times)

“We need elected officials with integrity and experience to move our district forward.” He is a leader who will promote transparency and stand up against corruption and racism,” Santiago's campaign said in the mailer.

(The Times Editorial Board, which advocates, operates separately from the newsroom.)

Despite this one-sided view, the three elected officials in the race, De Leon, Santiago and Carrillo, agree on many local issues. All three support Mayor Karen Bass' efforts to increase staffing for the Los Angeles Police Department and recent measures to increase police pay.

The cities of De Leon, Santiago and Carrillo also support the use of City Ordinance 41.18, which allows city councilors to create no-encampment zones in libraries, senior centers and other “sensitive” locations.

“I don't have any children or family, abuelitaNo one should feel safe walking through a campground to go to school, to the grocery store, to the bus stop,” Carrillo said during the Eagle Rock event.

Councilwoman Wendy Carrillo is currently running for City Council. Last year at my parents' home in Boyle Heights.

(Allen J. Scherben/Los Angeles Times)

Carrillo, a resident of El Sereno, criticizes de Leon. and Santiago for missing several of the contest's candidate forums. At the same time, she has also been controversial recently, with her arrest in November for drunk driving after she crashed into two parked cars in the middle of the night.

Carrillo pleaded no contest last month and agreed to participate in a three-month driving under the influence program.

Jurado, a tenant rights lawyer, has advocated positions contrary to many of those espoused by the three politicians during the election campaign. She said she would have voted against the LAPD's proposed busing budget, which would have expanded the LAPD, and the mayor's recent plan to raise police pay. She opposes 41.18 because it criminalizes homelessness.

Jurado, a Highland Park resident, is counting on support from the Los Angeles Police Department. american democratic socialistand several civic leaders as well. left end of spectrum LA Politics: City Commissioner Kenneth Mejia, City Councilman Eunice Hernandez, and Gina Viola lost in the 2022 mayoral race.

Jurado has billed himself as the strongest and most effective renter advocate in the race. She criticized Mr. de León for voting in favor of increasing rents for rent-stabilized apartments (apartments built before October 1978 and with two or more units).

“The current City Council members voted for rent increases even though they knew there would be a tsunami of evictions,” she says.

Eduardo “Lalo” Vargas, a school teacher and tenant advocate, sided with Jurado on police hiring, police pay raises, and 41.18. The Lincoln Heights resident continues to appeal to his voters to embrace his policies. socialist platformsaid the city should be able to foreclose on vacant homes and turn them into affordable housing.

Among his first targets are vacant, graffiti-covered high-rise buildings near the downtown convention center.

“Each election cycle, businesses and developers choose candidates who represent their interests,” he said. “The time has come for the working class to nominate its own candidates who will fight for their interests.”

De Leon defended his record on tenant issues, saying he voted to expand tenant relocation costs and delay payments on tenancy debts due to COVID-19. He pushed for new planning rules to prevent tenant displacement by new developments in downtown and Boyle Heights.

Asked about rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments, de Leon's aides said city council members last year reduced the size of the originally proposed rent increases, increasing rents by 4% and requiring landlords to pay the rent. He said he had resolved to limit the number of cases to 6% in some locations. utility. The previous plan had set it at 7-9%.

Attorney Isabel Jurado, who is running to oust Mr. de León, speaks with volunteers at a fundraising event in January.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Also appearing in the race is Nadine Diaz, a social worker who lives in Boyle Heights and is campaigning for the seat for the second time. Mr. Díaz has promised to fight corruption and oppose expensive real estate development, but he has limited resources to spread those messages. So far, she has raised just $7,500, according to her most recent filing.

Also participating are nonprofit consultant Jenny Guerrero and attorney Teresa Y. Hillary. Guerrero, who lives in El Sereno, has advocated for the Los Angeles Police Department to strengthen foot patrols and has been active in volunteering.

Both Guerrero and Hillary support the mayor's efforts to expand the Los Angeles Police Department. Hilary, who lives downtown, wants to move traffic enforcement out of the police department and direct the money to other programs.

Like several of her rivals, Hillary is seeking to expand mental health services for the city's unhoused residents. After volunteering on Skid Row for several years, she said she understands the complexity of the issue.

“I have been serving the needs of the unhoused since before I ran for office. It is my destiny, my purpose, my calling,” she said.