Elections for LA's Ninth District

Listen to the full audio story

Download the MP3

On March 5th, voters from the Ninth District will take to the polls in order to fill Councilwoman Jan Perry's seat. 

I spoke with local residents this morning in the South Central area - or tried to. Out of over twenty people, only five spoke English. In my first successful English interview, I asked a resident if he knew who Jan Perry was. 

He immediately responded with all of the confidence in the world.

“Oh yeah! That guy cracks me up,” he said.

Nope. Wrong. First of all, Jan is a woman. Second of all, maybe she has a good sense of humor but that’s not something she’s typically known for.

Clearly this resident doesn’t know who Jan Perry is, but many others do. Perry has represented the Ninth District for 12 years and she's now running for mayor.

She is the third African American to hold this seat. 50 years ago, Gilbert Lindsay was the first. Since then, the demographics have changed and the Ninth District is almost 80 percent Latino.

Many residents in the district do not speak English and many do not vote.

Jose Lara, a member of the South Central Neighborhood Council, explains what the impact of this has been.

“Unfortunately in South LA we have very low voter turnout and we want to change that. Because of the way our electoral system is many people are disenfranchised, many people don’t know when to vote, how to vote, where to vote,” Lara said.

In speaking with residents, a few of them conveyed to me that their main issue with elected officials is how out of touch they really are.

“When they come in, they ask for your vote, you vote for them and then what happens? No, you need to come in and try to look around and see what needs to be done. Because if you don’t look around how are you going to know?” one female resident said.

Another resident felt the same way. “Where are the necessities for the poor? Out of sight, out of mind, out of money, out of time. I’m not asking for a whole lot, just help me with the necessities,” another resident said.

Lara and his organization are working hard to raise awareness about some of the main issues in the Ninth District.

“We’re hoping that whoever represents us next will focus back on the community, will focus back on cleaning up our streets. Getting rid of the graffiti, fighting against crimes in the community. Making sure youth have correct opportunities and making sure schools are fully supported,” Lara said.

Race and ethnic diversity are huge factors in this election. The candidates are Mexican, Central American, Asian and African American in a district that is predominantly Latino.

"Whoever represents the Ninth District has to represent those interests as well," Lara said.

But at the end of the day, even though the Latino community’s interests need to be represented, Ramiro, the manager at Family Farms Market on Central Avenue, helped me see the big picture.

“It doesn’t really matter the ethnicity or the race. As long as they are looking out for the community. Yes I know things have changed but still people are people and that’s what matters. That they look out for the people,” Ramiro said.

Main District Nine candidates listed below. 

Ana Cubas, Former chief of staff for City Council member Jose Huizar

Ron Gochez, Schoolteacher

Terry Hara, LAPD Deputy Chief

Curren Price, State Senator, 26th District

Mike Davis, State Assembly member, 48th district

David Roberts, Former redistricting commissioner

Manny Aldana, Neighborhood Council member