Get ready to vote

• What’s at stake in this race
• What do City Council members do?
• Fast facts about the L.A. City Council 
• The candidates
• Campaign finance

City Council District 9 in South L.A. has been represented by a Black council member since 1963. That will change after the Nov. 3 election; the two candidates in this runoff are both Latino and both immigrants. They are Estuardo Mazariegos, who is endorsed by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Jose Ugarte, who is endorsed by Curren Price, the termed-out incumbent.

Los Angeles' 9th Council District is where Black exclusion from L.A. city politics met its end in 1963, when Gilbert Lindsay, a former City Hall janitor, was appointed to fill a City Council vacancy. When Lindsay was elected later that year, it became one of three districts that have sent Black candidates to the council every election — until now.

The district follows the 110 Freeway from the south end of downtown Los Angeles through Historic South Central, South Park, Florence, University Park, Exposition Park and Vermont-Slauson. It includes revenue-generating tourist attractions and sports venues such as the Coliseum, Galen Center, Crypto.com Arena, L.A. Live and Exposition Park. Yet it remains the city’s poorest council district and suffers from widespread illegal dumping and neglect.

What’s at stake in this race

Voters in Council District 9 will choose who will be their chief steward of city services for the next four years and will determine the ideological makeup and effectiveness of the 15-member City Council.

This election is a runoff between the two candidates who got the most votes in the June primary. No candidate got the more than 50% needed to win outright.

Citywide challenges include federal immigration enforcement, homelessness, the city’s readiness for the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Summer Olympics, and continuing city budget shortfalls.

What do City Council members do?

Council members have three distinct roles:

1. Each member curates their district by identifying local problems and opportunities and working with more than 40 city departments to steer needed services to residents and businesses. They may work to bring in non-city resources in the form of county, state, federal or philanthropic grants. They serve as intermediaries between their constituents and City Hall. Members play a vital role in shaping development in their districts.
2. As part of the full-time, 15-member council, they set citywide policy, adopt ordinances, commission studies and provide a counterweight and oversight to the mayor and city departments and bureaus. They adopt an annual city budget ($14 billion in 2025-26) based on a proposal provided by the mayor, divvying up money among the Los Angeles Police Department, homeless services, libraries, parks, sidewalk repair and tree-trimming, among other services. They approve or reject the mayor’s appointments to city commissions and to lead most city departments. They focus on areas such as policing and public safety by leading or serving as members of council committees.
3. Council members often work outside their formal roles through appointment to other governmental boards such as Metro and the Metropolitan Water District and by providing leadership in their communities through assisting charities, schools and civic institutions.

Fast facts about the L.A. City Council 

• Each City Council member represents about 260,000 Angelenos.
• Annual salary is $244,727.
• A term lasts four years. Members may serve a maximum of three terms.
• City elections are non-partisan.

The candidates

Estuardo Mazariegos, community organization director

In a race between two Democrats, as is typical in most Los Angeles City Council races, Estuardo Mazariegos leans further to the left than his more establishment opponent. He is backed by the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and if elected would be the fifth DSA-backed member on the 15-person council (unless Nithya Raman is elected mayor).

In a race in which Airbnb has poured in tens of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures to support candidates, Mazariegos has the distinction of having the homestay company put in money not just in favor of his opponent, but against him. He is doing his best to use that fact to his advantage, calling on voters to not allow the controversial company to sway their decision.

He has independent support from teacher unions.

Mazariegos came to the U.S. from Guatemala with his family at age 3. His family lived in several parts of the city, including East Hollywood and West Adams, and for a few years in Inglewood. He attended several schools and ultimately earned degrees from Cal State Dominguez Hills in labor studies and Cal State L.A. in public administration. His family members worked at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in union jobs, which made an impression on Mazariegos.

“The quality of life for immigrants is tied to how well they organize at the workplace,” he said.

Mazariegos is co-director of the Los Angeles office of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which promotes social, economic and racial justice in California for communities of color.

On housing, Mazariegos said his district has done its share in creating density and now it is up to other parts of the city to make room for more housing, although he does support construction of mixed-income social housing in the district.

He does not support increasing the size of the LAPD. Instead, he said, police should be relieved of some of their duties, such as responding to mental health calls and family disputes. He has called for greater investments in unarmed crisis response programs.

“Safety for me means access to safe streets,” he said. “It means good services, like the lights come on. Folks in this district don’t feel served by the LAPD.”

He proposes a surcharge on tickets to sporting and entertainment events in the district to pay for amenities in neglected nearby neighborhoods.

In 2009, Mazariegos was sentenced to probation and a day in jail after being arrested for gun possession. Mazariegos has said the gun was not his.

In the June primary, he came in second with 26% of the vote.

Website: Estuardo4LA.com

Notable endorsements: 

• U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont
• Eunisses Hernandez, L.A. City Council member, District 1
• Kenneth Mejia, L.A. city controller
• United Teachers Los Angeles
• Democratic Socialists of America, Los Angeles
• See full list here

Go deeper: 

• He was busted for gun possession. Now he's running for L.A. City Council (L.A. Times)
• Airtalk with Larry Mantle
• Los Angeles Times: Demographic shift in South L.A. is reflected in District 9 race

Jose Ugarte, community outreach director

Of the two liberal Democrats in the 9th District runoff, Ugarte is the establishment candidate, facing an opponent backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. In the June primary, he had more than $1 million in independent support — not controlled by him or his campaign — from Airbnb and the California Apartment Association Housing Solutions Committee.

So much independent money has been pumped into the race that the expenditure limit for candidates who are accepting matching funds has been lifted.

Ugarte came in first in the primary with just under 40% of the vote.

His family came to the U.S. from Oaxaca when he was 4 and settled in South Los Angeles. The labor movement was his path into politics. As a community organizer, he registered voters, then organized for Gov. Jerry Brown on immigration reform and labor and health issues. He also worked on theunsuccessful recall of Scott Walker in Wisconsin and campaigned for Democrats in Orange County.

He got his “first real job” working for Assemblymember Anthony Rendon in his South Gate field office. He claims credit for his role in passing Rendon’s legislation to clean up polluted drinking water in his district.

Ugarte then worked for Curren Price, who was in the Assembly at the time. When Price (a former Inglewood City Council member) was elected to the Los Angeles City Council, Ugarte joined his staff and eventually became his chief deputy.

Ugarte left in 2019 and ran a lobbying business with his sister. After he returned to Price’s office in 2021, he failed to report his outside lobbying income andfaced charges from the City Ethics Commission. He admitted to what he called a clerical error and agreed to pay a $25,000 fine.

Ugarte enjoys the endorsements of a host of labor organizations and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Given Ugarte’s positions in Price’s office, candidates in the primary often spoke of him as virtually the incumbent.

Ugarte wants the city to have its own public health department for the first time since the early 1960s, when it outsourced that work to the county.

“We need to take drastic measures on mental health and homelessness,” he said. “Instead of putting all the money in housing, we need to allocate a lot more to mental health. Homelessness is a mental health, drug abuse and alcohol abuse problem.”

He advocates mandatory treatment and job training for unhoused people. He wants to keep rents in his district relatively affordable by encouraging construction of lower-priced housing and discouraging luxury housing. He supports hiring more police officers while requiring a certain percentage — he hasn’t yet landed on a number — to live in the city. Ugarte also wants to hire an athletic director for the district to fight what he said is the city’s highest obesity problem.

Website: UgarteForLA.com

Endorsements: 

• L.A. City Council members Heather Hutt, Monica Rodriguez, Tim McOsker, Adrin Nazarian and Curren Price
• Dolores Huerta, co-founder, United Farm Workers
• L.A. County Democratic Party
• Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper
• La Opinión newspaper
• YIMBY Los Angeles
• See full list here.

Go deeper: 

• Curren Price Breaks Political Tradition Naming Latino Successor in CD9 (LA Focus)
• Ethics panel rejects $17,500 fine for L.A. City Council candidate; 2 members say it's not enough (L.A. Times)
• AirTalk interview with Larry Mantle (LAist)
  

Campaign finance