Los Angeles City Councilman In Center Of Racial Scandal Running For Reelection
A Latino Los Angeles councilman who refused to resign over his involvement in a racism scandal announced his reelection bid on Wednesday (Sept. 20), the Associated Press reports.
In 2022, a secretly recorded tape surfaced in which Democrat Kevin de León said that a White colleague displayed his Black son like a high-end handbag and failed to condemn other Latino political figures who disparaged Black people in the conversation.
De León has apologized but declined calls from high-ranking Democrats, including President Joe Biden, and protesters to step down.
Although he’s a political pariah, the disgraced lawmaker depends on strong support from voters in his East Los Angeles district to win reelection.
“When a lot of people that I called my friends and allies turned away from me, my constituents had my back,” de León told Politico. “I understood in a deeper way the relationship that I had with my community and how that motivates and drives me. That’s why I’m still here. And that’s why I’m running.”
Shortly after the scandal broke, the then-council president Nury Martinez resigned, but council member Gil Cedillo stayed in office until his term ended in December. They were on the leaked recording with de León.
The council lacked legal authority to remove de León from office. However, they suspended him from council committees, but he has continued to collect his annual salary of about $229,000.
“Enough is enough. While he has been consumed with scandal, he has failed his district. ... The people want change,” state Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, who says he is running against De León, said in a statement, according to the AP.
The Los Angeles Times reported the private conversation in which the Latino Democrats discussed ways to expand their political power at the expense of Black voters on the leaked tape.
Martinez said that fellow Democratic Councilman Mike Bonin was using his Black son as an "accessory" and described him in Spanish as "ese changito," which translates to "that little monkey."
Martinez also referenced the child “bouncing around on a float” in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade: “They’re raising him like a little white kid… I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”
The Los Angeles primary election is scheduled for March 5, 2024.
