With Los Angeles’ primary election just a week away, the candidates for the State Assembly’s 54th District aren’t slowing down. Miguel Santiago, the District’s incumbent, is running in the embattled City Council District 14 race, meaning his seat is up for grabs.
State Assembly District 54 encompasses neighborhoods Boyle Heights, part of downtown, Westlake, Koreatown, Pico-Union, and Chinatown. The District’s boundaries also include the cities of Vernon, Montebello, and Commerce.
The three candidates, Elaine Alaniz, John Yi, and Mark Gonzalez, are all vying to represent a dense, multicultural, and multilingual swath of Los Angeles. The two with the most votes in the March 5th primary will advance to the general election in November.
All three have ties to Los Angeles politics, but their political fingerprints and priorities set each apart. If elected, here’s how they plan to move through the state legislature through a Los Angeles-focused lens.
Elaine Alaniz
Originally from Houston, Texas, the 42-year-old healthcare recruiter says she’s running to change the status quo in state politics. She sees similarities in the mostly immigrant communities in Houston with those across the half-million people that make up District 54.
Alaniz ran as a write-in candidate for CD 1 and for the State Assembly seat against Miguel Santiago, both in 2022. She says she’s running again to address issues with public safety and displacement and to bolster the education system across the district.
Through her work as the President of the Westlake North Neighborhood Council, she’s seen the disparities people in her community experience on a daily basis.
“I hear the politicians that are in office saying, ‘Oh, we’re working to not displace them,’ and I’m seeing it happen,” Alaniz said, referencing street vendors and immigrant families across her neighborhood. “I know that I have to do something for them.”
According to Alaniz, she aligns with the Republican party through her dedication to faith, family values, and support of multi-generational immigrant households. Her endorsements include The Californian Republican Party and The Republican Party of LA County.
“It’s [about] meeting people where they’re at, aligning with their values, and fighting for those things. That’s how I think that we can win,” Alaniz said with confidence. “It’s having the thought of: What’s better for the community? Is it a political party, or is it the actions we’re taking to make it better for everyone?”
Her campaign focuses heavily on education reform, and Alaniz said she’s pushing for more trade-school workshops in high school that will better financially prepare young students for college later in their careers. Her website reads that her campaign is seeking to, “reinvigorate the community with frequent job fairs, workforce training, and self-enrichment classes.”
Alaniz recognizes the issues that disrupt the lives of Angelenos in Westlake and sees them reflected in those in Boyle Heights. She feels equipped to take on the challenges of homelessness, traffic congestion, and a massive lack of parking.
The Texas native also called out the lack of engagement she’s seen in her neighborhood from politicians, including the incumbent, Miguel Santiago.
“I have not seen one politician step here unless there’s an event to promote themselves. I’ve not ever seen them come and say, ‘Oh, we’re here to meet the community. What do you need?’ And I think as a person that is going to support and represent the community, they need to make themselves available and actually understand their needs,” Alaniz said.
Alaniz stressed the sacrifice she would make to commit to serving the district.
“I would be leaving everything behind,” Alaniz said. “I really would like the people to consider just trying something a little bit different to see if we could change the status quo in a community. This is something that is a calling for me.”
John Yi
John Yi, 38, confronts the issues of public health and weak public transit at the forefront of his campaign. Born in Koreatown, the Progressive says his policy and ethos come from what is important to himself, his family, and his diverse community.
Yi first became involved with LA politics through his work in the Korean American Democratic Committee but now serves as the Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks, a non-profit that advocates for safe and walkable communities. Yi understands the importance of cleaner transit in a car-dominated city and wants to bring his local connections and policies to the state level.
Some of the candidate’s endorsements include the Los Angeles City Controller and United States Senator, Dave Min.
Yi likens Koreatown’s identity to that of Boyle Heights: a dense neighborhood lacking enough affordable housing and public spaces, yet both being communities that are multigenerational and multilingual.
“The same story repeats itself over and over again; you have immigrant communities living in these neighborhoods, which they have built, and it just takes the decision of one developer who decides to sell his or her property that upends the lives of hundreds.”
He considers Assembly District 54 the urban center of the city of Los Angeles and believes the model of a healthy, dense core could be used to influence policy that affects infrastructure and housing practices city-wide.
Yi’s laid out his plans to alleviate the housing crisis across the district during his first run for political office. Long term, he wants people in a district with 80% renters to be able to graduate into buying homes and have more power within their city. In the short term, his vision to immediately lower the cost of living has a wide scope.
He advocates for utility subsidies and loan forgiveness for residences so, “that people are not spending all their money on housing. Instead, they have money to spend on other important things.”
“Surely there is a model which we can keep our communities here and grow at the same time, but I think city leaders and state leaders really haven’t figured that out. And at the behest of building as much housing as you can, we are being walked over in that process,” Yi said.
Yi said he is committed to being a navigator and a leader helping cities in his district apply for and secure funds to better things like infrastructure and transportation. He’s willing to wade through political bureaucracies for the region he has deep roots in.
“The state of affairs is not working, then we need a drastic change in leadership and a different kind of leadership. And I feel like Democrats, grassroots, young folks, and immigrants understand this and know this well. And I think through this race, if we do this right, we can show that there’s a different kind of Democrat that we can look for, and even challenge the party system on the way,” Yi said.
Mark Gonzalez
The final candidate for Assembly District 54 is the District Director to Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, Mark Gonzalez.
Born in Edinburg, Texas, the Democrat grew up in both East Los Angeles and Eagle Rock. His political activism began in the presidential election of 2004, followed by the Los Angeles mayoral race in 2005, and gubernatorial campaign in 2006.
The 39-year-old is the first and only Latino to be elected to Chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and has campaign endorsements from groups like the Carpenters Union, Planned Parenthood, the California Teachers Association, and the Mayor.
Gonzalez has been committed to Los Angeles politics for 20 years, the last 13 in 54. He supports raising wages for working families, tackling affordable housing and homelessness, and guaranteeing healthcare for all. He’s raised more than ten times the campaign contributions as his Democratic opponent.
“I have 13 years of working in this office, understanding this area, block by block, understanding the issues that are in this area. Folks want to run for office and get good at being a public servant, and I’ve been a lifelong public servant. But the hard part about this business, any business, is that you have to understand how the operations of an assembly office, in this case, work,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez has a track record of activity across politics on city, state, and national levels. He has focused resources in the Los Angeles region to public health, immigration, workers protections, and the economy, according to his website.
In addition to trying to alleviate parking issues stemming from the lack of parking in Boyle Heights, Gonzalez has focused his political support on the climate challenges of the Eastside community, including lead contamination from the Exide plant in Vernon.
“Nobody understands climate change more than poor people, especially in this area, surrounded by five freeways, with the toxins in the air. I think it’s about mitigating it,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez took a moment to acknowledge his relationship with the current Assemblyperson, Miguel Santiago.
“I jokingly say, he raised me, but in a good way, he’s the one who gave me this opportunity. And so I think for us, the challenge is, we’re both running at the same time. But at the end of the day, we both have the same goal. Let’s take care of our district,” Gonzalez said of the State Legislator.
Still, Gonzalez’s campaign has stirred up questions about nepotism regarding his relationship with the incumbent and as the 54th District’s current director. One of his opponents wants voters to consider Gonzalez’s track record rather than vote for the candidate with the most funding or endorsements.
Another sees what’s happening in Gonzalez’s campaign reflected in national Democratic politics, when politicians pass down their power to the next candidate in line, and believes it results in the same kind of policy across any sort of government.
In response, Gonzalez pointed to his political footprint in the region.
“I love what I do, and I jokingly say it’s a promotion. But the reality is that I’m much better prepared than anybody in this race. I have a history, and we know how to get stuff done,” Gonzalez said. “There’s nothing unethical about continuing in this role and going to the next step, if it’s for the betterment of the community.”
Los Angeles’ primary election is on March 5th. Registered voters can find local polling places here.
