L.A.’s audio scandal is taking down another Latino political leader

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 is on track to lose his seat, largely because of the scandal over the recording, which featured crude and racist remarks. His defeat, after a single four-year term, would leave Latinos occupying just four of the council’s 15 seats at a time when they make up half the city’s population.

Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado was leading De León by double digits on Wednesday, in a district stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock. If that trend holds, she will become the first Filipino American to serve on the council.

It would also mean that the 14th District, which takes in heavily Mexican American areas such as Boyle Heights and El Sereno, would not have a Latino representative for the first time since 1985, when Richard Alatorre won the seat.

De León argued during the campaign that a Jurado victory would come at the expense of “Latino voices.” Jurado said her victory would 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, in an interview on Wednesday, said she disagreed with De León’s emphasis on shoring up Latino power, which she said “sowed racial division.”

The daughter of undocumented immigrants, Jurado said her life story — she grew up in Highland Park, became a single mom at 18 and relied on food stamps — resonated throughout the district, which is 61% Latino, 16% white, 12% Asian and 6% Black, according to the 2020 U.S. census.

“We built a big tent — a multigenerational, multiracial, multiethnic coalition of people, which just reflected my upbringing,” she said.

Los Angeles City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado receives a hug from a supporter at her election night party.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, who campaigned for Jurado, said she talked about issues that Latinos care about, such as the need for “good union jobs.”

“Her immigrant story resonated with the Latino community,” he said.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will continue counting ballots for at least another week. Because late-arriving ballots tend to skew left politically in L.A. contests, Jurado could see the gap with her opponent widen in the coming days.

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.”

De León apologized in 2022, and while running for reelection, for what he said and what he didn’t say during the conversation. In legal filings, however, he was defiant, saying he “never made any comment that was even remotely offensive.”

“His critics continue to engage in guilt by association for comments that were not his,” De León’s attorney said in a lawsuit targeting two people whom De León suspected of making the recording.

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.

Virginia Miranda, who lives in Boyle Heights and voted for Jurado, said De León should have objected to the offensive remarks during the one-hour conversation.

“He was in the room when it happened, and he didn’t step up. He didn’t say anything, and then he hid for two months because [protesters] were outside of his house,” said Miranda, a semiretired sign language interpreter.

De León, through a campaign spokesperson, did not respond to inquiries from The Times. On election night, he told his supporters he felt it was important to remain in office and fight for his constituents.

“I owned it and I apologized. I didn’t quit on you,” De León told the crowd.

Bonin, in an interview, said he is happy with Tuesday’s results, saying he expects Jurado will expand the council’s bloc of ultra progressive council members. At the same time, he was also pleased on a personal level.

“I can tell my son that people face accountability for the things that they do, and that’s reassuring,” he said.

El Sereno resident Louis Ortiz, dropping off his ballot on Tuesday, shrugged off the audio scandal, saying De León’s remarks were taken out of context. Ortiz, 70, praised the council member’s work cleaning up neighborhood streets, particularly in Boyle Heights.

“I’ve seen a lot of improvements,” said Ortiz, who voted for De León.

Marc Krause, a campaign coordinator for the Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles, was among those celebrating Jurado’s double-digit lead on election night. Over the last year, DSA-LA sent more than 300 volunteers to knock on doors for Jurado.

Krause, who is 37 and grew up in East Los Angeles, said identity-based voting — the notion that Latinos should support other Latinos — has not brought better representation for the Eastside. That’s why younger voters are not especially interested in the idea, said Krause, who is Latino himself.

“When it comes to our elected representatives, at least my generation, it’s more about what you stand for,” Krause said at the DSA’s election night party, held at Audio Graph Beer Co. in downtown.

The audio leak scandal may have yet another chapter, one revolving around the issue of Latino voting rights. Two years ago, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta launched an investigation into the city’s redistricting process — a major topic of the secretly recorded conversation.

In recent months, Bonta’s legal team has questioned whether the city’s council district maps provide sufficient representation for Latinos and has prepared a draft legal document demanding that the city draft new maps.

Jurado, as a new council member, could end up deciding how the city should respond.

Times staff writer Gustavo Arellano contributed to this report.