Elections, power plays and unexpected twists made the city exciting, and entertaining, all year
The year 2024 started with one kind of bang, as a battalion of political candidates readied for the March primary. It ended with another kind, amid allegations that a high-ranking official had called in a bomb threat to City Hall. Between those bookends was a flurry of highlights and lowlights, a bevy of combative, intense and sometimes odd political stories and sagas. Here are 10 that stood out.
The reform-minded District Attorney had been having a tough time since he took office in 2020, dealing with (failed) recall attempts and complaints that he focused more on those charged with crimes than victims. As 2024 began, 11 people—including four of his deputy DA’s—were running against him. While the L.A. Times and many progressives backed Gascón, other former supporters jumped ship, and he earned a measly 25% in the March primary. That set up a runoff with ex-federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, and though Hochman’s status as a onetime Republican could have been an albatross, Gascón barely seemed to raise money or campaign. Hochman’s tougher-on-crime message resonated, while Gascón weirdly focused on the fate of the Menendez brothers. On Election Day Hochman won by nearly 20 points, nailing the coffin closed on the Gascón era.
In 2024 there was no bigger, more controversial or thornier issue than the enduring homelessness crisis. Karen Bass has made it the centerpiece of her mayoralty, and through Dec. 19 her Inside Safe initiative had targeted 75 tent encampments. She got a win in June when the Homeless Count revealed a 10% drop in street homelessness, and scored an even bigger victory in November when county voters approved Measure A, a half-cent sales tax that will generate $1 billion a year for housing, services, homelessness prevention and more.
And yet, encampments still proliferate across Los Angeles, with over 45,000 unhoused people in the city and 75,000 in the county. There are myriad challenges, from the astronomical price tag of building supportive housing, to a system where 15 council members can exert 15 different policies in their fiefdoms. Then there was a May Westside Current investigation that revealed that 1,200 homeless housing units in the city were sitting vacant. A follow-up November report found that 70% of the county’s Project Homekey rooms were empty. Yikes!
Public safety is (or should be) job one for any politician. Bass made it a priority this year. In January, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore abruptly announced his retirement, and in October Bass made the most consequential hire of her tenure, tapping Jim McDonnell to become the 59th chief of the LAPD. Some observers grumbled that she missed a chance to pick a woman or person of color, but Bass was clearly looking for the leader best prepared to deal with multiple levels of government as the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics approach. McDonnell spent decades in the LAPD, then became chief of the Long Beach Police Department, and later, Sheriff of L.A. County. In other words, the Boston native has deep experience and relationships. The LAPD faces copious challenges, including growing a force that has shrunk from more than 10,000 cops to under 8,800.
There was nothing like the Langer’s/MacArthur Park saga—it was bizarre, jaw-dropping and emblematic of L.A. in 2024. It broke in August when L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote about how an out-of-control fentanyl and homelessness crisis had Norm Langer threatening to close his landmark deli. More columns followed, as did a sense of outrage. The politicking was heated, and included Rick Caruso releasing a pair of videos (which felt like campaign ads) lamenting the situation. Bass lunched with Langer and pledged to dedicate resources to the crisis.
This issue will continue into 2025, and only one question matters: Can the city reclaim a lost jewel that now looks like a zombie wasteland?
Over the course of decades, voters eight times rejected proposals to expand the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. That changed in November, when a narrow 51.6% of Angelenos said yes to Measure G, which will boost the board from five to nine members, enact ethics reforms, and curiously, create a position for an elected county executive. Most people consider this a sort of county mayor, and speculation is high that Supe Lindsey Horvath, who drove Measure G, will seek the gig (her re-election is in 2026, which would mean a no-risk try in 2028). The road to a yes was not easy, as Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Holly Mitchell fiercely opposed the measure. Start prepping for 2032, when the districts will be diced up and five new high-paying gigs open.
Of the charged local elections this year, perhaps none drew more attention than the race for Council District 14. Incumbent Kevin de León faced seven challengers in the March primary, all smelling blood after the City Hall recording scandal. The thick field was winnowed to two, and for months de León dueled with Ysabel Jurado, an attorney who leans hard left. There were fierce debates, and Jurado drew heat for declaring “F— the police” at a campaign event. But the veteran de León could not survive two years of bad press, and on election night Jurado rolled with 57%.
An eight-year effort to build a 120-unit homeless and low-income housing project along the Venice canals looks to have finally died this year. The Venice Dell development was championed by former District 11 Council rep Mike Bonin, but his successor Traci Park has opposed it, and Bass and City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto never threw their support behind the effort. Venice Dell simmered all year, with supporters saying it would help relieve the homelessness crisis, and opponents maintaining it was wrong effort in the wrong place, and that homeless housing should rise on another city-owned lot nearby. The crescendo came in December, when the city’s Transportation Commission voted against transferring the land to the developer. This seems over, but in L.A., endless litigation is a thing.
The mayor is the face of L.A. politics. But the president of the City Council wields immense power, and on May 28 the council voted to make District 8 rep Marqueece Harris-Dawson its leader, replacing Paul Krekorian, who had become a sort of accidental president after the implosion of Nury Martinez.
No one was surprised—City Hall watchers knew MHD had long been eyeing the post—and on Sept. 20 he took the gavel. He’s the most progressive council president in L.A. history, but he also knows how to work with more centrist leaders, as well as the few in the city who lean conservative. He got through his first few months mostly unscathed, although there were testy moments around the horseshoe on votes related to a lease at Van Nuys Airport, and boosting the pay for tourism workers to $30 an hour. Expect his job to get more complex next year as the city budget tightens.
Krekorian was termed out in December. But he won’t be leaving City Hall. On Dec. 5 Bass announced that Krekorian would become executive director of the city Office of Major Events. It sounds like the most boring city office ever, but the hire ensures continuity and keeps a knowledgeable figure in charge as L.A. prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics and other gatherings.
On the afternoon of Dec. 18, the text chains of City Hall followers exploded when news broke that Brian Williams, the deputy mayor for Public Safety, had been placed on leave, after the FBI searched his home as part of an investigation into an alleged bomb threat he made to City Hall. Details remain thin, and there are more questions than answers, all starting with, why would a top Bass aide, her liaison to the LAPD and the Fire Department, do that? Whatever the ultimate answer, this is the biggest scandal Bass has faced since becoming mayor, and one she will have to scramble to control.
Let’s see where this goes in 2025.
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