Morning Digest: How a massive racism scandal could lead to independent redistricting in L.A.

A secretly recorded conversation is still rocking city politics

Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin De Leon (credit: Kevin De Leon Instagram page)

Leading Off

Los Angeles, CA Ballot

Voters in Los Angeles will decide on a ballot measure this fall that would create a new independent commission to redraw boundaries for the City Council, a question that comes two years after a major scandal involving redistricting.

In 2022, an unknown person leaked audio of a 2021 conversation in which City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and labor leader Ron Herrera made racist comments about other councilmembers and Los Angeles residents. Among many other things, the quartet discussed how to use the coming round of redistricting to strengthen Latino representation and weaken their opponents.

One of their intended targets was City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, a high-profile progressive whom Cedillo branded as "not our ally." Specifically, the group debated what to do with the neighborhood of Koreatown, an area that, despite its name, is home to more Latino residents than Asian Americans.

Under the prior map, Koreatown was split between four districts and represented an important part of Raman's base. Many in the city wanted to unite the neighborhood in a single district, but the foursome didn't want it to wind up under Raman's purview.

"It serves us to not give her all of K-Town," Martinez said. "Because if you do, that solidifies her renters' district and that is not a good thing for any of us. You have to keep her on the fence." The conversation then shifted to whether an area with a large number of Indigenous immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca was actually part of Koreatown, during which Martinez made racist remarks about the Oaxacan community.

A new redistricting commission created under a 2016 law produced a map for the Council, but it was only advisory in nature and members made major changes to its proposal.

The final product dramatically revamped Raman's seat by removing the portion of Koreatown she represented and placing the entire neighborhood in another district. A detailed New York Times analysis from 2023 found that 40% of Raman's revamped district was new to her, which was by far the most dramatic shift of any of the Council's 15 seats.

The Times, which devoted more than 3,000 words to its report, also concluded that the advisory commission's recommendations were largely ignored by the City Council—something that did not sit well with the panel's chief.

"Thousands of people got vested in the process of designing their city only to have their work and efforts pissed on by the council," Frank Cardenas, the commission's executive director, told the paper. "Here we have elected officials literally playing games with them while inviting them to be part of a democratic process—only to become authoritarian on them at the end. It was a breathtaking bait and switch."

The reason the New York Times took such an intense interest in a local matter that had previously attracted little outside attention is the firestorm that followed the release of the conversation between Martinez and her allies—one that ultimately reached all the way to the White House.

President Joe Biden joined other top Democrats in calling for the participants to resign their posts. Both Martinez and Herrera ultimately stepped down, while Cedillo, who had lost reelection months before, ended up staying until his term ended that December. Only De Leon resisted; he's seeking reelection in November.

Raman had unsuccessfully tried to create an independent redistricting commission in 2021, but the scandal led to a renewed push to take mapmaking out of the hands of the City Council. Last year, the body voted unanimously to place a plan, which will be identified as Charter Amendment DD, on the ballot. This proposal would replace the current advisory commission with a panel that has the power to draw and approve its own maps—without any influence from the Council.

The current districts will still be in place for the rest of the decade, though. Raman overcame a hostile map to beat her nearest opponent 51-39 in March's officially nonpartisan primary, which allowed her to win without a runoff. De Leon, though, trailed tenants' rights attorney Ysabel Jurado 25-23, so the two will face off again in November.

House

CA-47

A group called For Our Freedom PAC is airing a commercial in Mandarin Chinese attacking Republican Scott Baugh for voting against a bill to require the reporting of hate crimes, making this a rare American political ad in a language other than English or Spanish to air on TV.

The outfit, which is backed by organized labor, has so far spent about $250,000 to stop Baugh from flipping California's open 47th District in Orange County. Baugh faces Democrat Dave Min in November.

While such ads are uncommon, this isn't the first time that Golden State TV viewers have seen campaign ads in a third language. In 2018, Democrat John Chiang also ran a spot entirely in Mandarin in his unsuccessful bid for governor. Democrats, meanwhile, aired ads in Vietnamese against another Orange County congressional candidate, Michelle Steel, in both 2020 and 2022, though she prevailed in both contests.

Other less-commonly spoken languages have occasionally been featured in radio advertisements. In 2014, Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick recorded ads in which she spoke Navajo as part of her successful reelection bid to the House. Two years later, Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio ran an ad with a narrator speaking in Ukrainian during his victorious campaign for a second term.

NC-01

The NRCC announced on Friday that it would launch a hybrid ad buy with Republican Laurie Buckhout, saying it would spend $725,000 to help her in her race against Democratic Rep. Don Davis in North Carolina's 1st District. The news was first reported by the National Journal's James Downs.

Ordinarily, party committees like the NRCC have two options when they'd like to boost specific campaigns: They can either spend a small amount (currently capped at $61,800 for most House races) working in concert with a candidate, or they can spend unlimited sums as long as they don't coordinate with the campaign in question.

But third-party organizations that make independent expenditures must pay much higher ad rates than candidates themselves, who by law are entitled to the lowest rates that stations charge. Two decades, ago, however, George W. Bush's campaign pioneered a thrifty third approach, which came to be known as hybrid advertising.

With hybrid ads, party committees can spend as much as they like—as long as the campaign they're supporting pays for half—and they can obtain the lower rates that candidates get. The one requirement is that any advertisements must reference a party writ large, not just a specific candidate—the legal argument being that it's within a committee's ambit to run ads with a broader partisan message.

We don't yet know exactly what message the NRCC and Buckhout are deploying, but Bush and the RNC ran ads attacking "John Kerry and liberals in Congress." It's likely that the GOP will take a similar approach. The reverse is also possible, however: Earlier this year, the DCCC ran positive hybrid ads to help Janelle Bynum ahead of Oregon's Democratic primary that touted the work of congressional Democrats.

Puck's Abby Livingston flags several other hybrid ads that have popped up recently that take both approaches, including spots in Connecticut's 5th District, Oregon's 5th, and Wisconsin's 3rd. Many of these, she notes, underscore their hybrid nature by featuring out-of-state politicians, both familiar bogeymen and lesser-known names.

The DCCC doesn't appear to have run any such ads in North Carolina's 1st, but a new spot from the committee that hammers Buckhout on abortion does echo the ads Livingston noted in one way: It showcases a series of photos of the GOP's candidate alongside a fellow Republican from the same state who's now very well known for all the wrong reasons, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

Ballot Measures

CA Ballot & NV Ballot

California and Nevada are two of the 16 states that still allow prisons to force inmates to perform labor, but as Victoria Valenzuela writes in Bolts Magazine, a pair of ballot measures would end that practice.

California's Proposition 6 would, as its official summary says, change the state constitution to remove the "provision that allows jails and prisons to impose involuntary servitude to punish crime (i.e., forcing incarcerated persons to work)." Inmates could voluntarily accept tasks in return for "credit to reduce their sentences," but prison officials would be prohibited from punishing anyone for refusing.

Valenzuela explains that the current state of affairs exists because California's governing document, like the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, says that "[i]nvoluntary servitude is prohibited except to punish crime." Nevada's constitution also contains similar language, which criminal justice advocates call the "slavery loophole." 

But this type of provision, which was once more common in state constitutions, has in recent years been stripped by voters in several states, including in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont in 2022.

A recent poll for the Public Policy Institute of California found Golden State voters rejecting Proposition 6 by a small 50-46 margin. Advocates, though, are hoping their message will break through.

"It’s something that’s so long overdue," proponent Jared Villery tells Valenzuela, "having spent so long inside and seeing just the core coercive nature that officers have and the way in which job assignments are used as more punishment than like character development."

Nevada will also consider a similar amendment, known as Question 4. Because the plan was placed on the ballot by the state legislature, voters only need to approve it once for it to go into effect. (Voter-initiated amendments must win two during two consecutive general elections, a rule that's unique to Nevada.) We have seen no polls of this measure.

Mayors & County Leaders

San Diego, CA Mayor

A wealthy attorney named Steven Richter donated $1 million earlier this month to help independent Larry Turner unseat Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria in the officially nonpartisan race for mayor of San Diego, reports Voice of San Diego. Axios' Andrew Keatts subsequently confirmed that the recipient of the contribution, the conservative Lincoln Club, would spend "all or most" of Richter's largesse to aid Turner, though the group declined to confirm the report on the record.

Turner has been waging an underfunded campaign against Gloria that, until recently, appeared to be going nowhere. However, a recent SurveyUSA poll for local media organizations unexpectedly showed Gloria ahead only 37-33. Richter, though, made his donation several days before that poll was completed.

Polls

• AZ-Sen: Suffolk University for USA Today: Ruben Gallego (D): 47, Kari Lake (R): 41 (48-42 Trump)

• DE-Sen: University of Delaware: Lisa Blunt Rochester (D): 52, Eric Hansen (R): 32 (56-36 Harris)

• FL-Sen: Public Policy Polling (D) for Clean and Prosperous America: Rick Scott (R-inc): 47, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D): 44 (50-46 Trump) (Aug.: 46-43 Scott)

• MI-Sen: Siena College for the New York Times: Elissa Slotkin (D): 47, Mike Rogers (R): 42 (46-46 presidential tie) (Aug.: 46-43 Slotkin)

• OH-Sen: Siena: Sherrod Brown (D-inc): 47, Bernie Moreno (R): 43 (49-43 Trump)

• PA-Sen: Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) for Fox News: Bob Casey (D-inc): 53, Dave McCormick (R): 44 (48-47 Trump) (July: 55-42 Casey)

• TX-Sen: PPP (D): Ted Cruz (R-inc): 47, Colin Allred (D): 46 (51-46 Trump) (Aug.: 44-40 Cruz)

• WI-Sen: RMG Research for the Napolitan Institute: Tammy Baldwin (D-inc): 51, Eric Hovde (R): 45 (50-49 Harris)

• WI-Sen: Siena: Baldwin (D-inc): 50, Hovde (R): 43 (48-46 Harris) (Aug.: 51-44 Baldwin)

• DE-Gov: University of Delaware: Matt Meyer (D): 51, Mike Ramone (R): 32

• NC-Gov: Meredith College: Josh Stein (D): 50, Mark Robinson (R): 40 (48-48 presidential tie) (April: 45-36 Stein)

• NC-Gov: SSRS for CNN: Stein (D): 53, Robinson (R): 36 (48-48 presidential tie)

• NC-Gov: Beacon and Shaw: Stein (D): 56, Robinson (R): 41 (49-47 Trump) (Aug.: 54-43 Stein)

• DE-AL: University of Delaware: Sarah McBride (D): 52, John Whalen (R): 31

• NE-02: SSRS: Tony Vargas (D): 50, Don Bacon (R-inc): 44 (53-42 Harris)

• NE-02: Siena: Vargas (D): 49, Bacon (R-inc): 46 (51-42 Harris)

• AZ Ballot: Suffolk: Abortion amendment: Yes: 58, No: 32

• FL Ballot: PPP (D): Marijuana amendment: Yes: 58, No: 35 (Needs 60% to pass) (Aug.: 57-34 yes)

• FL Ballot: PPP (D): Abortion amendment: Yes: 58, No: 31 (Needs 60% to pass) (Aug.: 61-25 yes)

Ad Roundup

• AZ-Sen: Ruben Gallego (D) (in Spanish)

• MI-Sen: Senate Leadership Fund - anti-Elissa Slotkin (D)

• NE-Sen-A: Deb Fischer (R-inc) and the NRSC - anti-Dan Osborn (I) (here and here)

• NV-Sen: Sam Brown (R) and the NRSC: Jacky Rosen (D-inc)

• NC-Gov: Josh Stein (D) - anti-Mark Robinson (R)

• AL-02: Caroleene Dobson (R) (here and here)

• CA-41: Will Rollins (D)

• CA-45: Michelle Steel (R-inc) - anti-Derek Tran (D)

• CO-08: Congressional Leadership Fund - anti-Yadira Caraveo (D-inc)

• IA-03: Zach Nunn (R-inc) - anti-Lanon Baccam (D); DCCC - anti-Nunn

• IL-17: Fairshake - pro-Eric Sorensen (D-inc)

• MI-03: Hillary Scholten (D-inc)

• MN-02: Fairshake - pro-Angie Craig (D-inc)

• MT-01: Monica Tranel (D) - anti-Ryan Zinke (R-inc)

• NV-04: Fairshake - pro-Steven Horsford (D-inc)

• NY-04: Laura Gillen (D) - anti-Anthony D’Esposito (R-inc)

• NY-18: Fairshake - pro-Pat Ryan (D-inc); Alison Esposito (R)

• PA-08: DCCC - anti-Rob Bresnahan (R)

• VA-10: Suhas Subramanyam (D)

• FL Ballot: Yes on 4 - pro-abortion amendment (in English and Spanish)