Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto all but conceded that her reelection bid had failed Wednesday morning, as she lagged far behind her two well-funded challengers based on early returns. <\/p>\n
Her incumbent colleague, City Controller Kenneth Mejia, appeared to be faring better in his bid to stay in office, holding a double-digit lead over finance executive Zach Sokoloff.<\/p>\n
Progressive Marissa Roy led the field vying to serve as Los Angeles\u2019 top lawyer, with nearly double Feldstein Soto\u2019s vote total.<\/p>\n
L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney sat in second, while Feldstein Soto was left in distant third. The top two finishers will advance to November\u2019s general election. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe city attorney is extremely proud of her record in office, including making significant progress to halt human trafficking and to hold large special interests to account,\u201d an aide to Feldstein Soto\u2019s campaign said Wednesday. \u201cThe voters have spoken, however, which is what democracy is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
With only two candidates running, the controller\u2019s race will be decided this month and will not go to a runoff in November. <\/p>\n
The city attorney\u2019s race transformed suddenly this spring after the Los Angeles Police Department\u2019s largest union broke with Feldstein Soto and backed McKinney.<\/a> Independent expenditure campaigns have thrown $3 million behind McKinney in recent weeks, with much of that money coming from a political action committee controlled by Airbnb. <\/p>\n Feldstein Soto sued the rental giant for violating price gouging laws<\/a> in the wake of the Palisades fire last year and has openly questioned whether McKinney would shy from aggressive litigation against Airbnb if elected. <\/p>\n \u201cSpecial interests have gotten really accustomed to special treatment at City Hall. They get special treatment all the time,\u201d Feldstein Soto said in a recent interview, suggesting that both McKinney and Roy had been compromised by outside spending. Independent expenditure campaigns supporting Roy also received roughly $725,000.<\/p>\n McKinney told The Times that if elected, he would \u201cabsolutely\u201d sue Airbnb if necessary. After the results rolled in Wednesday, Feldstein Soto\u2019s campaign said she \u201chas every hope that her effort to limit outside [financial] influence will take root in her successor\u2019s administration.\u201d<\/p>\n The three leading candidates often sounded like they were campaigning for different jobs.<\/p>\n Roy said she would run the city attorney\u2019s office as L.A.\u2019s \u201clargest public interest law firm,\u201d focusing on tenants\u2019 rights, wage theft and other issues affecting working-class Angelenos. A deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice, she also vowed to sue the Trump administration, linking arms with the attorney general\u2019s office and other city attorneys in aggressive litigation to curb what many Californians see as targeted abuses of power. <\/p>\n \u201cAngelenos sent a clear message today that they\u2019re ready for a change and ready for a city attorney that fights for the people,\u201d Roy said after the early returns Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for the outpouring of support our campaign has received to deliver these results \u2014 and know that this coalition is ready for the work ahead to build the city attorney\u2019s office we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n McKinney talked more like he was running for city prosecutor, leaning heavily on his experience winning high-profile felony trials in the downtown courthouse. He said he would improve the way the city attorney prosecutes gun crimes and animal abusers. Despite his lack of experience as a civil litigator, McKinney also said he could bring down the city\u2019s litigation costs, which exploded under Feldstein Soto.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cWhile all votes have not yet been fully counted, we feel optimistic about qualifying for the General Election in November. People want political courage. They want leadership,\u201d McKinney said in a statement Tuesday night. \u201cWhat is already clear, is that this election has been shaped by the pressing and undeniable concerns of the people of Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n McKinney previously ran for L.A. County district attorney in 2024 but disappeared in a crowded primary field.<\/a> <\/p>\n While her term has been marked by financial strain, allegations of misconduct and mistreatment of employees<\/a> and recent questions about her handling of a data breach that led to the leak of a trove of LAPD records,<\/a> Feldstein Soto maintained that her opponents are far too inexperienced to serve as the city\u2019s top lawyer. <\/p>\n She said she improved public safety by repairing her office\u2019s relationship with the LAPD and filed more misdemeanors than her predecessor. Although legal costs surged, Feldstein Soto said she did her best to mitigate damage on a number of difficult cases she inherited when taking office in 2022. The rise of so-called \u201cnuclear verdicts\u201d<\/a> in civil claims reflects a nationwide trend rather than a fault of her leadership, she said.<\/p>\n Feldstein Soto was endorsed by Mayor Karen Bass and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Roy had the support of the L.A. County Democratic Party, the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In addition to the police union, McKinney was backed by his boss, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman. <\/p>\n The city controller\u2019s race, normally a fairly sleepy affair, has turned into the second-highest-spending race in the city. <\/p>\n Mejia, 35, known for his two corgis that he often features on billboards across Los Angeles, sought to retain his seat as the city\u2019s accountant and auditor. <\/p>\n His only challenger was Sokoloff, a senior vice president for asset management at Hackman Capital Partners. Sokoloff, 37, alleged Mejia did not properly utilize the controller\u2019s office to run audits on city departments and failed to keep up the auditing pace of his predecessor. <\/p>\n With the returns showing the incumbent poised for victory, Mejia posted a video of himself dancing on Instagram<\/a>, and told The Times late Tuesday that he \u201cfeels like nearly $10 million\u201d \u2014 about the total amount that was spent in the race against him.<\/p>\n Sokoloff\u2019s mother, Sheryl, has spent $7.5 million on independent expenditures in the race, mostly on attack ads and mailers against Mejia.<\/p>\n \u201cLos Angeles declared loud and clear that the seat of city controller is not for sale,\u201d Mejia said.<\/p>\n For the record:<\/p>\n 5:24 p.m. June 3, 2026An earlier version of this article referenced past allegations that Kenneth Mejia made inappropriate sexual comments to female staffers. The comments were allegedly made to a female campaign volunteer in front of others.<\/p>\n Voters told him they were fed up with the opposition\u2019s mudslinging and didn\u2019t believe the allegations made in 2023 that Mejia fostered a toxic workplace<\/a> and made inappropriate sexual remarks to a female campaign volunteer in front of others. <\/p>\n \u201cThe allegations weren\u2019t true over three years ago. They\u2019re not true today,\u201d Mejia said.<\/p>\n Rick Taylor, a political consultant for Sokoloff\u2019s campaign, told The Times late Tuesday night that voters should be ashamed of themselves for Mejia\u2019s early lead, repeating the 2023 accusations.<\/p>\n \u201cTonight\u2019s the worst mistake the city of L.A. has ever made politically,\u201d Taylor said, calling it \u201cincomprehensible\u201d that voters would again pick someone accused of harassment. <\/p>\n Asked whether the millions spent on attack ads was well-spent, Taylor said, \u201cYes, we spent a lot of money to make sure voters in this city understood what a bad human being he was.\u201d<\/p>\n A woman who identified herself as Sheryl Sokoloff hung up on a Times reporter last week when asked about the race expenditures. <\/p>\n Mejia said Sokoloff\u2019s mother \u2014 married to Jonathan Sokoloff, managing partner of private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners \u2014 was trying to bankroll the seat for her son. <\/p>\n Mejia has long run on accountability and transparency for the city\u2019s budget and made public-facing databases<\/a> across dozens of topics on the controller\u2019s website in his first term. <\/p>\n A licensed certified public accountant, Mejia is a member of the Green Party and does not accept endorsements from political parties or politicians. He was endorsed by the Los Angeles Daily News and multiple labor unions, including the United Teachers of Los Angeles and United Auto Workers.<\/p>\n Sokoloff, a Democrat, was endorsed by multiple former controllers, notable Democrats \u2014 including Schiff \u2014 and the L.A. County Democratic Party, along with other business advocacy groups. <\/p>\n