California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday that he would investigate Los Angeles over its new City Council districts after a leaked recording suggested some officials wanted to maximize Latino representation and dilute the power of black voters.
As Breitbart News and others have reported, leaked audio of a conversation among three Democrats on the council — Nury Martinez (who has since resigned), Kevin de Léon, and Gil Cardillo — together with labor leader Rob Herrera included racist, bigoted rhetoric.
The context of the conversation was the redrawing of City Council districts. As the New York Times notes, the four were discussing “strategies for ensuring that council districts would be redrawn so that Latino leaders would have within their districts key blocs of voters, as well as ‘assets’ like airports that can enhance an officeholder’s political influence and fund-raising ability.” In doing so, they also “considered ways to carve up districts historically represented by Black council members,” diluting black political power.
That suggests a violation of federal civil rights laws, as well as state voting rights laws and state laws on open public meetings. Bonta said in a statement:
As a father and human being, I am deeply appalled by the remarks made by some of Los Angeles’ highest-ranking officials. Their comments were unacceptable, offensive, and deeply painful. There is no place for anti-Black, antisemitic, anti-Indigenous, anti-LGBTQ, or any kind of discriminatory rhetoric in our state, especially in relation to the duties of a public official. As Attorney General, I am committed to doing my part to ensure the rights of the people of California are protected. The decennial redistricting process is foundational for our democracy and for the ability of our communities to make their voices heard — and it must be above reproach. The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes for Los Angeles. Given these unique circumstances, my office will investigate to gather the facts, work to determine the truth, and take action, as necessary, to ensure the fair application of our laws. We will endeavor to bring the truth to light as part of the sorely-needed work to restore confidence in the redistricting process for the people of our state.”
Democrats have run their nationwide 2022 midterm election campaign on the claim that Republicans are attacking “democracy,” and that ballot integrity laws and redistricting maps passed by Republican-led state legislatures violate the civil rights of black voters.
De Léon has previously complained about the lack of Latino representation on the state’s congressional redistricting commission, suggesting that it would lead to a disadvantage for Latino voters in the apportionment of congressional seats for the next ten years.
The state uses an independent commission; however, at the municipal level, the recommendations of an independent commission are not binding, and the district maps are determined by the members of the city council themselves, creating potential political fights.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.