Experts say the leak could cut different ways for campaigns. But close watchers of L.A. politics generally agree that anti-establishment candidates are more likely to benefit.
Audio of Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo speaking with labor leader Ron Herrera quickly became a new and incendiary issue in the Nov. 8 election.
Manuel Pastor, director of the USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute, said he believes the more progressive council candidates will benefit not just from an anti-establishment mood but also from actual rising progressive sentiment in the city. The City Hall veteran said the leaks could be a galvanizing force for insurgent candidates. But he cautioned that the scandal could also depress turnout, causing some to “throw their hands up in total apathy and say, ‘This is why I never vote.’”
O’Farrell automatically became the acting council president when Martinez stepped down from her post. He became the public face of the council at a time when public confidence in that body was collapsing, presiding over chaotic meetings disrupted by protesters. Unite Here Local 11, the hotel and restaurant union where Soto-Martinez served as a longtime organizer, quickly began sending campaign mailers highlighting the fact that O’Farrell served as the No. 2 to Martinez in the council’s leadership. Soto-Martinez said the audio shows the city needs someone new who can fight “corruption and backroom dealings.”
If the leak provides momentum for outsider candidates, then that would seemingly benefit Kenneth Mejia, a 31-year-old certified public accountant and community activist running for city controller.