Municipal regulation lawyer Traci Park claimed victory Thursday within the bitterly contested election to signify the Westside on the Los Angeles City Council, saying her greater than 5,000-vote lead was too massive for civil rights and legal protection lawyer Erin Darling to shut, eight days after the top of voting.
Her assertion was adopted minutes later by a concession statement from Darling, who trailed by practically 6 share factors, solely a marginal narrowing of a big lead that Park had held since election day.
Park’s win will put six girls on the City Council that will likely be sworn in Dec. 12, probably the most in L.A.’s historical past and a continuation of a pattern. Karen Bass will develop into town’s first feminine mayor, becoming a member of incoming City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto, additionally the primary girl in that submit. Women additionally maintain all 5 seats on the as soon as male-dominated county Board of Supervisors.
Park’s election in Council District 11 ends a string of victories within the fall election for progressive candidates in L.A. — together with Kenneth Mejia as controller and Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez for City Council. The metropolis’s political left had hoped that together with present Councilmember Nithya Raman and the others, Darling could be a fourth vote to spend much less cash on police and extra on different imperatives, particularly serving to homeless individuals.
“We feel confident our lead will stand and declare victory,” Park stated in a press release. “It is gratifying that we received more votes, thus far, than any other L.A. City Council candidate in the 2022 general election.
“I am humbled and honored that the constituents of CD11 have placed their trust and confidence in me to usher in a new era,” Park stated. “Voters spoke convincingly that they want a different kind of leader and CD11 has sent a message that the Westside is done with ‘business as usual’ at City Hall.”
Moments after Park’s assertion, Darling tweeted a concession late Thursday afternoon, conceding that he and his advisors not noticed a “path to victory.” He stated he had been “heartened” by the assist for his marketing campaign, which he known as “a last-minute, totally grassroots, at times shoestring-budget affair.”
He wished Park “the very best” within the arduous work of therapeutic “the rancor and divisiveness of the last two years,” including that the “the Westside and L.A. in general are in deep need of healing and leadership that transcends race and economic status.”
Park, 46, will succeed retiring Councilmember Mike Bonin within the district composed of communities from Pacific Palisades to Los Angeles International Airport. She has promised to advertise extra average insurance policies than Bonin, who developed into one of the left-leaning voices on the 15-member council.
Bonin had confronted a recall problem supported by Park. But when that problem failed to realize sufficient signatures, Bonin stunned many in his district by declining to run for a 3rd time period, citing considerations about his psychological well being.
That didn’t cease Park from successfully working in opposition to the incumbent. She painted the progressive Darling as a Bonin clone, blaming their purportedly permissive views for increasing the widespread homeless encampments that dot a lot of district, significantly Venice.
Park promised to vigorously invoke town’s anti-camping ordinance to clear homeless encampments from areas round parks, libraries and different public amenities. Darling agreed with Bonin’s stance opposing the anti-camping regulation — Section 41.18 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code — saying that L.A. first wanted to do extra to assemble momentary and everlasting housing.
The two attorneys additionally disagreed sharply on metropolis funds priorities. Park stated the Police Department wanted to be expanded to assist curtail an uptick in crime, whereas the 41-year-old Darling stated he would shift some cash away from the LAPD to different priorities, significantly hiring psychological well being staff, to assist unhoused individuals in disaster.
Each candidate lashed out at their opponent’s authorized profession. The Park marketing campaign beat Darling up for representing an alleged rapist and different defendants, saying he favored criminals over victims. The Darling marketing campaign slammed her for representing administration, “corporate” pursuits and, in a single case, town of Anaheim, when it was accused by an worker of racism.
Darling struggled to undertaking his message as broadly as Park, whose $751,000 in spending within the runoff was greater than 2½ instances Darling’s. The progressive candidate took a fair greater hit from an unbiased expenditure marketing campaign, funded largely by landlords, actual property pursuits and town’s police union — with complete exterior {dollars} for Park of $1.4 million some 5 instances greater than unbiased expenditures for Darling.
Darling used his opponent’s big-money backers to attempt to paint her as a software of the wealthy and highly effective. She, in flip, steered he could be managed by probably the most excessive segments of the left, together with the Democratic Socialists of America and individuals who have noisily shut down City Council conferences.
Darling had the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America — which labored actively to elect Raman in 2020, Hernandez within the June major and now Soto-Martinez. But Darling, who was born and raised in Venice, relied extra closely on a community of volunteers, who had helped him win the June major by greater than 6 share factors.
Park was as soon as a Republican, however a broad array of endorsements, together with from elected officers resembling Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, helped bolster her credentials as a mainstream Democrat. She had a various record of different backers, together with enterprise organizations and unions, particularly these representing police and firefighters.
Raised in Downey and Apple Valley by a single mom who labored as a faculty secretary, Park usually got here to Los Angeles to go to with grandparents who lived in what would later develop into L.A.’s eleventh Council District. Park labored her method by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
She has spent most of her authorized profession representing cities and different authorities companies, most just lately as a companion at Burke, Williams & Sorensen, a large within the area. Park has suggested and skilled purchasers on points resembling gender parity and has defended cities in opposition to litigation.
