Meet The Candidates For Nury Martinez’s LA City Council Seat

(Note: LAist has published a full voter guide on the City Council District 6 election, with more details on the candidates' stances on various issues. Find the voter guide here.)

Seven candidates have qualified for the ballot in the special election to replace former Los Angeles City Councilmember Nury Martinez, according to the City Clerk. An eighth candidate is running a write-in campaign.

Martinez resigned in October amid outrage over her racist, homophobic and anti-Indigenous remarks during a secretly recorded conversation.

About the district

Council District 6 sits in the San Fernando Valley, stretching from Sun Valley west past the 405 Freeway to Lake Balboa. One of 15 council districts, it includes Arleta, North Hollywood, North Hills, Panorama City, Van Nuys, and Sun Valley.

District 6

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Courtesy City of L.A.

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Key dates

Mail-in ballots go out March 6. Election Day is April 4. If no candidate obtains a majority of votes, there will be a runoff between the top two finishers on June 27.

The scandal that prompted Martinez to resign has rocked city politics, prompting the resignation of L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and calls for the resignation of Council member Kevin De León, who has refused to step down. Both were part of the conversation, as was former Council member Gil Cedillo. He was voted out of office before the tape was leaked.

The four were discussing how to redraw city council district lines in their favor and the anonymous release of the recording has sparked calls for the creation of an independent redistricting commission.

Here's a first look at the candidates who qualified for the ballot, listed in alphabetical order:

Marisa Alcaraz

Marisa Alcaraz is environmental policy director and deputy chief of staff to City Council member Curren Price.

Marisa Alcaraz.

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Courtesy Alcaraz campaign

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According to her LinkedIn bio, she has been in Price’s office since 2013. Prior to joining Price, Alcaraz developed policy on business, economic development, art/culture, health, and poverty for Richard Alarcón when he served on the city council from 2009-13. According to her campaign website, Alcaraz spearheaded L.A.’s guaranteed basic income program, brought a homelessness prevention program to the city, secured millions of dollars in funding to repair and upgrade parks, and worked on initiatives to raise the minimum wage, create the city’s first green alley network and provide more healthy food options to neighborhoods.

Rose Grigoryan

Rose Grigoryan says on her campaign website that she immigrated to the U.S. in 2012.

Rose Grigoryan.

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Courtesy Rose Grigoryan

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She worked at US Armenia, a local TV station, and then for more than seven years at ARTN-Shant, a national Armenian TV network. “Meanwhile I established a marketing company that began to thrive,” she said. “Being able to support myself, I started to spend at least half of my day on educating my community on important issues,” including about assistance programs available during the pandemic.

Isaac Kim

Issac Kim runs an online men’s grooming and skin care business.

Isaac Kim.

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Courtesy Isaac Kim

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In the wake of the leaked audio scandal, he said in an interview he wants to “regain the trust of the community through transparency, accountability and accessibility.” Kim supports Mayor Bass’ initiative to address homelessness. On his campaign website, he calls for expanding rent control, "pushing oil drilling out of CD-6," and "stricter regulations on Van Nuys Airport." Kim says the airport is handling more plane traffic than was planned for, and is “spraying so much pollution and noise over Lake Balboa and Van Nuys.”

Imelda Padilla

On her website, Imelda Padilla says her work as a community organizer has included a stint with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

Imelda Padilla.

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Courtesy Imelda Padilla

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She was a community outreach and engagement consultant for L.A. County’s Women and Girls Initiative. In 2016, Padilla unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the L.A. Unified board. She is president of the LA Valley College Foundation board. Along with calling for more action to house the unsheltered, Padilla said she would “address the unintended consequences of municipal code 85.02 [which regulates where people can live in their vehicles], which pushed RV’s into our industrial corridors causing a lack of parking for business owners, customers and workers.” On policing, she calls for “a preventative model rather than a reactive model that sends too many to prison,” and promises to work with police “to identify innovative community-centric models of policing.”

Marco Santana

Marco Santana is director of engagement at LA Family Housing, a nonprofit that provides housing and supportive services to unhoused people.

Marco Santana.

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Courtesy of the Santana campaign

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He has been vice president of the San Fernando Valley Young Democrats and Controller for the San Fernando Valley Democratic Party, and served as a local staffer for U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas and State Sen. Bob Hertzberg. “In recent years it feels as if [the people in the SFV] have been forgotten at City Hall — I’m running to change that,” he says on his campaign website. “It's the next generation’s time to step up,” he told NBC4 on Nov. 28. “And I am the next generation.”

Antoinette Scully

On her campaign website, Antoinette Scully says she is “a Queer Black feminist, activist, writer [and] community organizer.”

Antoinette Scully.

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Courtesy Antoinette Scully

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She is a national organizer for the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation. She is the founder of the Black & Bookish literary collective and the Valley Justice Collective, and is co-founder of More Than Sex-Ed, a sexual health education nonprofit for tweens, teens, and families. On homelessness, she calls for an increase in “outreach and access, while decriminalizing poverty [and] decreasing harmful enforcement.” She says the district “has long been used as a sacrifice zone (a part of town ignored because of who lives there) for pollution.” She calls for the closure of the Sun Valley Generating Station, as well as ways to decrease and cap the Sun Valley Landfill.

Douglas Sierra

Douglas Sierra.

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Courtesy Douglas Sierra

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Douglas Sierra said in an interview that in recent years he was a consultant at Deloitte Consulting, a business analyst at the nonprofit Child Care Resource Center, and educational services coordinator/facilities coordinator for the nonprofit A Place Called Home.

On his campaign website, he says in the wake of the leaked audio recording, CD-6 is “left without representation — voiceless in City Hall. I believe it’s time for new leadership, new ideas, and new beginnings.”

Rev. Dr. James Thomas

Thomas did not submit enough valid signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot, but he announced on Jan. 18 that he will run a write-in campaign.

Rev. Dr. James Thomas.

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Courtesy Rev. Dr. James Thomas

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Thomas is the pastor of Living Word Community Church in Chatsworth, and president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the NAACP. He is a co-founder of Clergy for Black Lives, and teaches Pan African Studies at Cal State LA. In an Oct. 19, 2022 ABC7 story on the political fallout following the leaked audio scandal, Thomas said, “thank God for Black Lives Matter and those who organize for justice, who have been committed to making sure that all of the solidarity built, all the unity built over the past couple of years will not be destroyed as a result of elected officials." In an April 2019 op-ed in the Los Angeles Sentinel, he criticized the FBI's efforts to build relationships in the Black community, arguing that partnering with the agency would not empower people or make them safer. He does not yet have a campaign website.