Your guide to the L.A. City Council District 9 race: Ugarte vs. Mazariegos
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Set us as preferred For the first time since 1963, a politician who is not Black will represent a large swath of South Los Angeles on the City Council.Curren Price, who has held the District 9 seat for 13 years, is terming out.Jose Ugarte and Estuardo Mazariegos, who are vying to replace him in the November election, are Latino immigrants who arrived in the U.S.
undocumented as children.The 9th District, which stretches from the Convention Center in downtown to 95th Street in South L.A., has undergone a massive demographic shift over the decades.Once predominantly Black, it is now nearly 80% Latino.
Price is leaving with a criminal prosecution against him, alleging embezzlement and conflict of interest, still ongoing.He has endorsed Ugarte, his former deputy chief of staff, whose platform includes protecting city residents from federal immigration enforcement and the Trump administration.Mazariegos is backed by the L.A.
chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.He’s worked as a community organizer for decades and said he’s running to improve quality of life in the city, including by making housing more affordable and spending money on basic services other than policing.Both candidates said they are committed to representing all their constituents equally, including Black residents who have expressed concerns about the transition to a Latino council member.
California California’s general election takes place on Novemer 3.Learn about L.A.’s city and county races as well races for state office.Ugarte, 40, was born in Oaxaca and is Mazateco — an Indigenous group native to the Mexican state.
If elected, he would become the first Indigenous Oaxacan council member.The South Park resident was a community organizer for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, helping union members register to vote, before joining Price’s 2013 election campaign and later his council staff.Ugarte won the June pri...