Some degree of undue self-importance must come with the urge to enter electoral politics in the first place. It’s not unusual in any ambitious person — but the best of us mask that well and create a career that does some good for others as well as for themselves.
And then there’s a politician like Kevin de León, in whom self-importance rose to hubris, for which he paid the price in last week’s Los Angeles City Council election, in which, happily for his constituents and for the city, he was booted from office.
De León was the last of the L.A. gang of electeds and a labor leader still in that office after their racist conversation about gerrymandering council districts to keep themselves in power was secretly recorded and released to the public. Everyone else caught on tape could see they needed to be gone, and they disappeared from public life.
But the councilman from the sprawling Downtown-to-Eagle Rock district soldiered on, in the worst sense of the term. In his vanity, he refused to see how stepping down would help heal the ethnic divisions exposed by the conversation among L.A.’s Gang of Four, which included insults to Black people, Oaxacans, Jews, Armenians and others.
The lame-duck councilman and former California Senate leader was defeated by tenants’-rights attorney and single mom Ysabel Jurado, a political newcomer who it must be said ran an extraordinary campaign to get to the November race, having prevailed over Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo and Miguel Santiago in the primary to get to the general election. Congratulations to her for the victory.
But Jurado also adds a new vote to the council’s growing progressive ranks, joining Eunisses Hernandez, Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto Martinez. She was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. She made some naive mistakes on the campaign trail, vulgarly insulting the police most Angeleno voters back in their bid to be safe in their homes and in their property. And her policy preferences are a laundry list of things to absolutely never implement unless you want to totally destroy a city.
Alas, at least she wasn’t engaging in racist scheming.
Good riddance to the arrogance of Kevin de León, and may Jurado learn to work wisely for Los Angeles.