Los Angeles votes Tuesday: two new council members and a new city attorney on the ballot

Los Angeles voters go to the polls on Tuesday, November 3, to elect new council members in the Third and Ninth Districts, replacing termed-out longtime members Bob Blumenfield and Curren Price. Citywide, voters will also choose a new city attorney after incumbent Hydee Feldstein-Soto failed to garner enough votes in the June election to secure a second term.

District 3: a hard-fought West Valley race

The Third District covers West Valley neighbourhoods such as Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Reseda and Winnetka, and pits businessman Tim Gaspar against Barri Worth Girvan, a former government employee who worked for L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. Gaspar founded an insurance company that he later sold in 2021 and has campaigned on a pro-business perspective and championing small businesses; Worth Girvan has touted her government experience and her relationships across levels of government. The race turned intense in its final days: Worth Girvan's campaign ran an advertisement featuring a former employee of Gaspar who alleged a hostile work environment, and she filed an ethics complaint with the City Ethics Commission alleging Gaspar failed to report more than $150,000 in personal and business expenditures related to his campaign and violated rules of the city's matching-funds program. Gaspar has maintained he did nothing wrong and called the accusations lies, describing Worth Girvan as a career politician who will not bring about change.

District 9: first Latino council member since 1962

The Ninth District covers areas such as downtown L.A., Vermont Square, Central-Alameda and Green Meadows, and whoever wins will be its first Latino council member since Edward Roybal in 1962 — the district's demographics have shifted over the decades and it is now about 80% Latino. The two candidates differ on policing and homelessness: Estuardo Mazariegos, co-director of the L.A. chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, has called for more oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department and a reduction in its funding to support other services, supports bolstering the city's unarmed crisis-response programs, and has criticized the city's anti-camping law, known as 41.18. Jose Ugarte, a former deputy chief of staff to Price, supports Mayor Karen Bass's goal of restoring the LAPD's rank and file to 9,500 officers and supports enforcement of the anti-camping law. Mazariegos has been endorsed by the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, among others; Ugarte has the backing of the L.A. County Democratic Party and Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, among others, plus independent expenditures from Airbnb, Uber and the California Apartment Association. In 2025 the City Ethics Commission fined Ugarte $20,000 for failing to disclose outside income from lobbying and consulting work; he agreed to pay the fine.

City attorney: Roy leads McKinney by 17 points

The city attorney race pits California Deputy Attorney General Marissa Roy against L.A. County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney. A poll by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, released in the final week of October, put Roy 17 points ahead of McKinney. The two have different approaches to the office: McKinney has said he would prosecute chronically homeless individuals to place them in treatment, while Roy has said she would go after companies and individuals violating wage laws, as well as landlords who harass renters. The L.A. city attorney serves as legal adviser to the mayor, City Council, city departments, all city boards and city workers, oversees contracts, defends the city in civil lawsuits and serves as the city's chief prosecutor of misdemeanor cases. The next city attorney will oversee a staff of more than 1,000 attorneys and administrative staff, as well as a $200 million budget.