Former Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian and small-business owner Sam Kbushyan were the leaders in early returns Tuesday evening in the race to succeed termed-out Paul Krekorian for the District 2 seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
If the results hold up, the two candidates would face off in a Nov. 5 runoff to represent the district that encompasses North Hollywood, Studio City, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys.
In early returns, Nazarian was in front with 39.97% of the vote, compared to Kbushyan’s 21.62%.
Rounding out the field of seven candidates were small-business owner Jillian Burgos at 14.47%; housing advocate and environmentalist Manuel Gonez at 10.46%; mental-health professional Jon-Paul Bird at 6.75%; laborer and artist Rudy Melendez at 3.62%; and lawyer Marin Ghandilyan at 3.1%.
The early-voting results comprise of vote-by-mail ballots that arrived before election day, as well as ballots cast at vote centers before Tuesday.
After Tuesday night, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will release daily updates for the next two weeks. The election results are set to be certified at the end of the month, March 29.
The district has been represented by Krekorian since 2009, and he exits as City Council President, having taken over the leadership role following the 2022 resignation of Nury Martinez in the wake of the City Hall racism scandal.
Nazarian — a former chief of staff to Krekorian — led the pack in terms of campaign contributions with more than $664,000, according to the L.A. City Ethics Commission website, which oversees campaign finances.
The former Assemblyman also benefited from more than $276,000 from independent expenditures from non-campaign-affiliated groups such as Central City PAC Association, Outfront Media, the L.A. County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO on Political Education and Lamar Advertising.
Kbushyan raised about $399,000 in campaign contributions, followed by Gonez (about $195,000) and Burgos (just over $74,000). Bird raised about $51,000.
Gonez, policy director for the nonprofit TreePeople, said he understands the struggles of families, parents and workers in the city, as he grew up in a low-income household and was raised by his single mother.
Burgos noted that she has two jobs, as a small business owner of a theater company and as a health care worker, and said that most residents need more than one job to survive in L.A. She described herself as a longtime renter and a member of the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council.
According to their respective campaign websites, the candidates shared the opinion that the homelessness crisis must be addressed by building more affordable housing and expanding interim housing for unhoused residents.
Among the candidates there was a shared interest in bolstering tenant protection.
Bird and Burgos are supportive of land trusts, and working hand-in-hand with community organizations on housing. Burgos had stated that she intends to repeal the city’s anti-camping law, while other candidates back the law, with plans to expand the law to cover more areas around schools and day cares.
The candidates also share a commitment to reforming the City Charter, and to ethics reform.
On public safety, Ghandilyan, Gonez, Nazarian and Kbushyan have stated they would support efforts to hire more police officers. Ghandilyan noted she’d like to incorporate more drone technology in public safety efforts, according to her website.
Bird has called for a Los Angeles Street Safety ambassador program, with trained professionals who can patrol communities, offer resources, assist store owners and triage situations for the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and Unarmed Crisis Support, such as the CIRCLE program or therapeutic vans.
Burgos wants to see the city expand and prioritize intimate partner violence, as well as unarmed civilian mental health mobile response teams citywide and establish overdose prevention centers with full time addiction treatment professionals. Additionally, she’d remove armed police officers from schools and traffic stops.
Other priorities for the candidates include supporting local business owners, improving transportation services, green infrastructure and climate justice.