Ysabel Jurado and Kevin de León fight for the Eastside in contentious Boyle Heights debate 

For weeks leading up to the election, Kevin de León and Ysabel Jurado have traded insults and thrown jabs at each other online and at numerous debates. At a forum Wednesday night in Boyle Heights, it was no different. 

The two are in a heated race for a City Council seat to represent L.A.’s District 14, which includes Boyle Heights, El Sereno, downtown L.A. and several Northeast L.A. neighborhoods. 

Residents lined up for at least an hour before the candidates were set to make their appearance, hoping to find a seat in one of the pews inside Dolores Mission Catholic Church. Others settled for a livestream shown on the church’s patio, where rows of plastic chairs had been set up for the overflow crowds.

Among the more than 300 people in attendance was Camile Lewis, a downtown L.A. resident who came to the forum to hear about housing affordability, an issue affecting the neighborhood she calls home. 

“I am a street sweeper and I make $1,100 a month and 75% of my income goes to rent. I cannot sustain this,” Lewis said. 

Another attendee, David Giron, who was born in Boyle Heights and lives in Highland Park, said being civically engaged is the only way residents can make their voices heard. 

“I want [a CD 14 representative] who’s active, who listens, who is present in the community and puts legislation forward to better the neighborhood,” he said. “I’m voting because when we don’t vote, other people make decisions on our behalf.”

The 75-minute forum, hosted by Boyle Heights Beat in collaboration with community nonprofit Proyecto Pastoral, was originally set for Oct. 5, but was rescheduled after Jurado tested positive last week for COVID-19. 

Early in the forum, De León called out Jurado over the validity of her COVID diagnosis, claiming that community members had spotted her maskless at the Glendale Galleria shopping mall last Friday.

“That was a slap in the face to the whole community of Boyle Heights because we postponed this debate from Saturday,” De León said, sparking cheers from the crowd. 

Jurado refuted those claims, assuring she indeed had COVID, and accused the councilmember’s campaign of following her daughter at the mall. 

That set the tone for a fiery and bitter debate. At times, Father Brendan P. Bussee, a Dolores Mission pastoral team member and the event’s MC, had to remind candidates to stick to the questions and avoid taking aim at each other.

Boyle Heights Beat youth reporter David Garcia, a senior at Mendez High School, and Proyecto board member Lilia Acosta questioned candidates about topics including housing, crime and safety, and government accountability. 

Questions asked during the forum were based on nearly 500 responses collected from the Election Beat, a survey asking residents in CD 14 what issues they want candidates to address. Attendees also submitted questions in person, several of which were asked by moderators at the event. 

Among those questions was one submitted by a Northeast L.A. resident who asked De León how he plans to build trust in a community that has been plagued by scandal, including a leaked conversation between the councilman and other city leaders that included racist and derogatory remarks. Jurado had earlier pointed to the day’s significance, noting it was the second anniversary of the audio leak.

“I’ve acknowledged my error. I’ve been apologizing for two years,” De León said, adding that he has chosen to move forward. 

For 38-year-old Di Barbadillo, who lives in Little Tokyo, De León’s apology came too late. 

“I get that he made a mistake and that’s one of the gravest mistakes you can make, but he’s never really been apologetic until he’s had his back against the wall,” she said. “We’re the people who put him in office and we need to be the people who don’t let him back into office.”

That recording, and De León’s subsequent refusal to step down, is why members of Black Lives Matter were outside of Dolores Mission following the forum to protest, shouting “KDL has got to go!” The dozen demonstrators didn’t directly interact with the councilman during the debate or disrupt the forum. 

When asked about her plans to address crime and safety, Jurado pointed to collaborations to promote student jobs but failed to give a clear answer. 

“When you’re arming a kid with a job with benefits, collaboration and community, you’re arming them with something that can serve their community and make them safe,” Jurado said.

Upon further questioning about her alignment with the Democratic Socialists of America, and support of defunding the police, Jurado denied saying it. 

“I want to be clear that I’ve never said that,” she said. “A quarter of the city budget is spent on police but people don’t feel safe. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

Jurado’s answer left El Sereno resident Cody Brewster wanting more of an explanation.

“She didn’t give a straight answer on an important subject that I think everybody should be worried about, the safety of your family,” Brewster said. 

During most of the debate, De León defended his record, pointing to the work he’s done to get “tiny homes” and other interim housing in the district, getting people in RVs housed, and providing free food for seniors. 

“We have housed the unhoused. We’ve reduced numbers in the district for two years consecutively. My opponent will leave them unhoused,” De León said.

Jurado, on her part, used the opportunity to highlight her experience working to support renters as an attorney and touted endorsements from groups such as the L.A. County Democratic Party and the county’s Federation of Labor.

Jurado also slammed De León’s “absence of leadership,” citing the nearly two months he missed in City Hall following the audio leak scandal. She pointed to issues that needed to be addressed such as the need for “something better than tiny homes” and fixing failing city lights.

“We can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results,” said Jurado. We need long term solutions. We need to make sure lights stay on and have creative solutions.”

De León mocked Jurado, saying she lacked knowledge of copper wire theft, responsible for lights going dark in the district. He repeatedly called Jurado a liar and painted his opponent as a socialist with “empty rhetoric and ideology.”

María Guadalupe Carrillo, a 55-year-old resident of Boyle Heights, said she was happy with De León’s performance throughout the debate. “[His answers] seemed very accurate to me,” she said in Spanish. “I think the vast majority of the community is satisfied with the work that has been done here.”

For Lewis though, the debate asserted her vote for Jurado. She also shared she was upset that candidates didn’t focus as much on housing as she would’ve liked, but was glad that Jurado brought up the issue of street lighting affecting CD 14. 

“In half of downtown, our street lights don’t work. I get up at 3 a.m. to work at 5 and there are no lights on… there are rats everywhere because there are no lights,” Lewis said.

Kathy Pterini, a retired teacher from Highland Park, says engaging in forums like this and voting in elections is part of the democratic process. 

“For me, I vote for those who don’t have a voice, because I have a voice. I’m hoping this election gives people without a voice some place [to belong].” 

Boyle Heights Beat youth reporters Andrea Curiel, Edwin Perez and Victor Sauceda contributed to this story.

Want to read more on the race for CD 14? Stay tuned for an analysis of our candidate forum and sign up for The Election Beat newsletter here.

Watch the debate livestream below: