De León, whose district takes in all or portions of downtown, Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Eagle Rock, said in an emailed campaign announcement that he had made “unprecedented strides” in the district on public safety and homelessness. He said his constituents “deserve this high level of dedicated public service.”
In an interview with Politico, which first reported his decision to run, De León acknowledged that friends and allies had “turned away from him” after he was heard in the recording with a labor leader and two other council members. He insisted his constituents continued to have his back.
“I understood in a deeper way the relationship that I had with my community,” he said.
Nearly a dozen other people have already expressed interest in running for the seat, including tenant advocate Ysabel Jurado and two Eastside-based state lawmakers — Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo and Miguel Santiago.
The primary election will be held in March. If no one receives a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in November.
De León, onetime leader of the state Senate, won his election in 2020 for an Eastside seat held by City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who was the target of a sweeping corruption scandal and is now awaiting sentencing on racketeering and tax evasion charges. At that time, he had significant support from neighborhood, labor and political leaders.
De León was not nearly as successful in his bid for mayor last year, finishing third in the June primary with just under 8% of the vote.
After the contents of the leaked recording were reported on in October 2022, De León faced immense pressure to resign, both from his council colleagues and from President Biden. He apologized for his part in the incendiary conversation, but repeatedly said that he would not step down, arguing that his constituents deserved representation.
Protesters opposed to De León were a mainstay in council chambers for months, though most of them eventually moved on. The politician also had supporters, some of whom spoke in his defense at meetings.
The conversation that shook Los Angeles politics last year was surreptitiously recorded during an October 2021 meeting at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor offices. In that room were De León, then-City Council President Nury Martinez, then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo, and Ron Herrera, the head of the labor federation.
The discussion focused on ways of redrawing the city’s 15 council district maps that would benefit either themselves or their allies — and how to retain and expand Latino political power.
At one point in the conversation, De León took part in an exchange where Martinez accused Mike Bonin, a white council member, of using his Black son as a prop, akin to a designer handbag. “Nury brings her Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag,” De León said in response.
De León later apologized for that “flippant” remark, saying the comment was actually directed toward Martinez and “her penchant for having luxury accessories and luxury goods.” The councilman told Noticiero Univision anchor León Krauze last year he was horrified at hearing hearing Martinez say the young boy “parece changuito” or looked “like a monkey,” and that he “felt horrible” and “failed to speak up.”
Martinez also mocked Oaxacans and said “F— that guy. … He’s with the Blacks” while speaking about Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
Over the past year, some on the City Council have taken steps to avoid working with De León, saying his participation in the audio scandal has disqualified him from continuing to hold public office.
“When you are ensnared in the probably largest city scandal in my generation, where the president of the United States asked you to resign, I think you should probably listen to that,” Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said earlier this week.