To The Left, To The Left
Move Left LA voter guide, primary results, and another City Council scandal.
You can find election results here between 8:30-9pm on Election Night with updates posted each weekday between 4-5pm.
All LA Metro trains and buses are fare-free this Election Day. Please support candidates fighting to make Metro ridership permanently free! Fares fund just 1.7% of the transportation budget, and 75% of fare revenue collected by LA Metro pays for…collection and enforcement of fares. Abolish TAP cards, baby!
If you work in Hollywood and support true universal healthcare, please sign this petition asking union leaders to support CalCare.
“If it ain’t right, fucking fix it, whatever it takes.” -Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
People keep asking why I write voter guides. Here’s how it started: My stomach was in knots as I watched Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings and realized 1) It’s nearly impossible to remove judges from office and 2) Voters know absolutely nothing about the judicial candidates on their ballots. At the time, all available guidance said, “trust the system.” I didn’t. I went digging, uncovered some truly vile opinions in these judges’ rulings, and shared my discoveries with everyone I could.
The fascist fever dream we were living in drove me to research and write more comprehensive guides in 2020. That summer, I got to experience the undermining tactics of the Democratic Party directly at the DNC where I served as a delegate and voted against the unjust party platform. I also began organizing locally and quickly realized how much less helpless I felt when I focused my efforts at home.
But progressive victories brought progressive disappointments. I watched grassroots political groups fall quiet as the candidates they backed abandoned campaign promises months after taking office. These groups became conspicuously uncritical when their candidates cast some of the same bad votes as their establishment predecessors. This, in turn, provided cover for more conservative politicians. I learned in real time how our corrupt system demands compromise and complicity from our leaders. It wasn’t all bad though. Progressives won some inspiring victories that undoubtedly improved lives. But I don’t believe the good you achieve negates the harm you cause, and ignoring that harm just breeds tribalism. And so, I use this voter guide as a tool for accountability.
This election, every progressive elected leader in LA has stayed silent while Gavin Newsom tries to pass Prop 1, a catastrophic measure that will defund our mental health programs to pay for mass institutionalization and forced treatment. That really sucks, but it serves as an important reminder of the limits of electoral politics.
I recently heard someone say progress is just another word for incrementalism. That’s part of why I renamed my “progressive” voter guide “Move Left.” Incrementalism is killing us. Big ideas like abolition and single-payer healthcare will take time to implement, but we need leaders with the political courage to introduce these policies and figure out a roadmap to reach them. And by leaders, I don’t just mean elected officials—I mean regular people. When we organize, we can transform our communities and build a better Los Angeles. If you haven’t already, please check out the resource section at the bottom of my voter guide. Follow some local journalists and sign up with an org that’s tackling an issue you feel passionate about.
Mutual Aid Round-Up:
I organize with LA Street Care, an unhoused mutual aid group, and we’re onboarding new members. If you’re interested in joining, fill out this form.
We recently learned LA Street Care’s fiscal sponsor is dissolving, and we’re looking for a new one. If you have any leads, please let me know!
Last week, organizers flooded an LA City Council meeting, demanding the release of a long-delayed LA Homelessness Authority (LAHSA) report on 41.18, an ordinance that criminalizes unhoused people for existing in large swaths of the City. Days later, LAist’s Nick Gerda published a bombshell story, revealing City Council received the report in November but hid it from the public as well as some members of the Council, including its Housing and Homelessness Chair Nithya Raman. The report details just how ineffective 41.18 is and the ways it hinders caseworkers’ ability to connect the unhoused with housing and services—the obvious result of violent displacement. Two days after the report leaked, outgoing Council President Paul Krekorian released a statement, making baseless claims that LAHSA’s data was “deliberately misleading.” Notably, the data undermines Krekorian’s political agenda and the pro-criminalization platform of his political allies running for City Council, including his former staffer and protégé Adrin Nazarian. Rather than examining the impact of his harmful policy, Krekorian took swipes at journalists and advocates while claiming “the ordinance does not criminalize homelessness.” We know that’s a blatant lie because LA Controller Kenneth Mejia reported police made 1,912 arrests using 41.18 in 2023, a 124% increase over the previous year.
The Hits:
LAist did a write-up on my guide, and I made my podcast debut on People’s City Propaganda. We discussed Prop 1, LA County races…and talked a little shit.😇
If you want to learn more about the recent history of political corruption in Los Angeles, check out Smoke Screen: The Sellout. The podcast will introduce you to the disgraced LA Councilmember, who kicked off the series of FBI indictments in City Hall, Jose Huizar aka Sleazy Huizy.
Thank you so much for your incredibly thoughtful, thorough guide(s!). Wow, wow, good on you! And for the section on community care!!