Leaked recordings of LA council contain a warning to Democrats
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe backlash has been swift. Ron Herrera has already resigned as president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labour, which wields immense political power. Southern California’s political elite want more heads to roll. Alex Padilla, the state’s junior senator, Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles and even President Joe Biden have called for the resignations of the three council members.
The conversation between the four Democratic Latino leaders was taped in October of last year, as the city’s redistricting commission was proposing new maps for the 15-member council. Their crude discussion of the lengths they would go to hold and expand power recalls the history of fraught racial politics, and racial gerrymandering, in Los Angeles. The tape also reveals how the city is changing. Nearly half of Angelenos are now Hispanic.
The recording may shock those who view Los Angeles as a bastion of progressivism. But it is telling that the tape may spell the end of the political careers of those involved. Republican politicians, on the other hand, have different taboos on racist speech. At a recent rally Tommy Tuberville, a Republican senator for Alabama, suggested that the descendants of slaves are all criminals. He was applauded.