Ysabel Jurado made a huge splash on Los Angeles’ Eastside last spring, coming in first in the five-way primary election for a City Council seat representing neighborhoods stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock.
The 34-year-old tenant rights attorney, a first-time candidate, pulled ahead of Kevin de León, the politically wounded incumbent who once served as president of the state Senate.
But De León, 57, is making clear he intends to fight for every vote, by taking part in at least four head-to-head candidate debates in the final months before the Nov. 5 election.
Residents got a taste of just how bitter that competition is likely to be when De León and Jurado traded insults and verbal jabs throughout a 90-minute forum Wednesday co-hosted by the Lincoln Heights Chamber of Commerce.
Jurado, who lives in Highland Park, blasted De León over his participation in a secretly recorded conversation that featured racist and derogatory remarks. She argued that, in the wake of that scandal, he has governed in isolation and failed to effectively represent the district.
De León should have stepped down in 2022 after an array of political leaders, including President Biden, called on him to do so, Jurado told the audience.
“You’ve got to put your ego aside to be in service to the community. That’s what I was taught in my Jesuit education,” she said. “When people tell you to move aside, you do it.”
De León, in turn, portrayed Jurado as politically extreme, saying she has aligned herself with activists seeking to “defund” or abolish the Los Angeles Police Department. He defended his record, showcasing his work on public safety, transportation and efforts to move homeless residents indoors.
Since 2020, the year De León took office, the city has opened “tiny-home villages” for unhoused residents in Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Boyle Heights. In De León’s district, shelters or other interim housing facilities have gone up in downtown, El Sereno and elsewhere.
“We had 50 RVs on Valley Boulevard right across the street from Lincoln Park. What did we do? We found housing for those individuals, and we got all the RVs off” the street, he told the crowd at Sacred Heart Auditorium. “That’s real work. That’s real results.”
The Nov. 5 election features three council contests, with one in the San Fernando Valley and another in South Los Angeles. The De León-Jurado race is easily the most contentious of the three.
Appearing before a crowd of about 300 people, Jurado pounded on De León for missing about two months of council meetings in 2022 — the period immediately after the audio leak scandal erupted. De León countered that his safety was at serious risk, with protesters shutting down council meetings, demonstrating outside his Eagle Rock home and confronting him at community events.
Council President Nury Martinez, another politician caught on the leaked audio, resigned from office that year. De León, by contrast, methodically worked his way back into the public sphere, returning to meetings, winning back his committee assignments and securing support from colleagues for his policy proposals.
Jurado has taken aim at De León’s attempt at a comeback, saying too many renters in his district have been evicted, too many streetlights have gone dark and too many businesses are struggling. She disparaged his work on homelessness, referring to the district’s tiny homes as “sheds.”
She touted her support from heavy hitters such as the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and the county’s Federation of Labor. She pointed to endorsements from Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez and Eunisses Hernandez, who occupy the left end of the political spectrum on the council.
Jurado used her endorsement list to argue that De León no longer has meaningful allies.
“They can’t work with you,” she said. “That’s why your partners in council, in the county, even your former [colleagues] in the state Senate have not endorsed you.”
De León disputed those assertions, saying he has been working successfully with his colleagues, both locally and in Sacramento. He also pointed to his list of supporters.
Unions representing construction trades have lined up behind De León’s campaign. So has the Avance Democratic Club, which recently praised him for his “unwavering commitment to improving the quality of life for everyone.”
“Kevin de León has consistently championed the issues important to the Latino community — from affordable housing to economic opportunity to environmental justice — more than any other representative in the past two decades,” said Nilza Serrano, the club’s president, who attended Wednesday’s debate.
De León, for his part, took aim at Jurado’s remarks about tiny homes, calling them “insulting.” He said those structures have provided homeless residents air conditioning in the summer, heat during the winter and access to bathrooms throughout the year.
Tiny homes also have locks, De León said, so homeless women have a level of protection against rape or assault that they would not have in a tent.
“So they’re not just sheds,” he said. “They’re a lifeline for those individuals who’ve been suffering.”
Jurado said she intends to build facilities that provide “dignity” to unhoused Angelenos, citing the 232-bed Hilda L. Solis Care First Village, which is made of used shipping containers. She also trumpeted her endorsement from L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, the Eastside politician who initiated the project.
De León responded by attacking Solis’ record, arguing that the county Department of Mental Health has “failed miserably” at serving mentally ill Angelenos, some of whom can be seen “running down the street naked” or “screaming at the top of their lungs” on L.A. sidewalks.
“They are dying on our streets every single day … whether it be crystal meth addiction or fentanyl,” he said. “Yes, there is a clash, there is a conflict with the county. Because I believe strongly that the county has not been doing what they should be doing.”
De León did speak favorably about the Solis shipping container project, noting that the city puts money into services at that facility. This year alone, the city has allocated $5.2 million for those services, said City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, a high-level budget analyst.
A day after the debate, Solis shot back with her own criticism of De León, posting on Instagram that her office has been working to help homeless residents in Skid Row and other parts of his district “without support from the councilmember.”
“Councilmember Kevin de León has once again demonstrated his inability to take responsibility for his own incompetence and failed policies,” she said.