Race-baiting LA CM Kevin DeLeon finally gets the boot
Image above: rock band Queen performing their hit "Another One Bites the Dust."
Kevin DeLeon gutted out a City Council censure, calls for resignations, and a recall petition. But Angelenos finally voted him out. DeLeon had a wealth of connections with many Labor/left Santa Clara County politicians (take a guess with whom). LA Times reports.
In the secretly recorded conversation that upended his political career, Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León kept returning to a familiar theme: preserving and expanding Latino political power.
De León was captured on the recording saying he wanted to make sure his Eastside district “remains Latino” even after he’s gone. He bemoaned the lack of political clout wielded by Latinos in L.A., especially when compared with the Black community.
Now, De León has lost his seat, largely because of the scandal over the recording, which featured crude and racist remarks.
Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado declared victory over De León on Thursday, after the latest vote count showed her widening her double-digit lead in a district stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock. She will be the first Filipino American to serve on the City Council.
In a blistering victory announcement, Jurado accused De León of using campaign tactics “adopted directly from the Trump playbook.”
“Like Trump, he relied upon fearmongering, redbaiting, misogyny, and racial dog-whistling in an effort to divide us,” she said.
Jurado’s victory means that the 14th District, which takes in heavily Mexican American areas such as Boyle Heights and El Sereno, will not have a Latino representative for the first time since 1985, when Richard Alatorre won the seat. During the campaign, De León had argued that a win for Jurado would come at the expense of “Latino voices.”
Jurado, in turn, said her victory will allow the city to “finally close this chapter in L.A. history and move past the tapes.”
Throughout the campaign, Jurado hammered De León over his participation in the secretly recorded conversation, which took place in 2021 and became public in 2022. On the recording, then-Council President Nury Martinez can be heard making disparaging remarks about Dist. Atty. George Gascón, saying “F— that guy ... he’s with the Blacks.”
Jurado said she disagreed with De León’s emphasis on shoring up Latino power, which she said “sowed racial division.”
When De León launched his reelection campaign last year, the audio scandal had already ended the political careers of two other high-profile Latino leaders. Martinez, the former council president, and Ron Herrera, who headed the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, both resigned from their positions.
(Councilmember Gil Cedillo, the fourth participant in the secretly recorded conversation, had lost his reelection by the time the audio became public.)
On the recording, De León said that Latinos in L.A. fail to make their voices heard politically. By comparison, 25 Black people sound like they are 250, he said.
“When there’s 100 of us ... it sounds like it’s 10 of us,” he said.
The audio also featured an ugly exchange regarding the Black son of then-Councilmember Mike Bonin, who is white and gay. Martinez said Bonin carried his son “like an accessory.” De León, in response, said it was just like when Martinez “brings her Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.”
In the immediate aftermath of the scandal, a wide array of politicians and community leaders called for De León to resign. Protesters camped outside his house. De León disappeared for about two months before returning to council meetings.
Read the whole thing here.
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