| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Members fitted | 56 |
| Qualifying roll calls | 2,986 |
| Recorded yea/nay votes | 37,348 |
| Recovered historical roll calls | 1,037 |
| Recent published roll calls | 1,949 |
| First qualifying vote | 2001-01-10 |
| Last qualifying vote | 2026-10-06 |
Los Angeles City Council: local ideal points, 2001–2026
Pooled voting history across thirteen council compositions
Los Angeles’s council voting history covers 2001–2026. The expanded analysis places 56 members on one voting spectrum, connecting earlier councils to today’s through their overlapping membership. It shows both the range of positions within a largely Democratic council and the emergence of a distinct socialist-endorsed group. Council-by-council views show how the membership changed across elections.
56 members
Pooled across 2001–2026
13 council windows
Membership across elections
2,986 roll calls
Contested council decisions
37,348 votes
Recorded yeas and nays
Dataset and construction
The analysis combines published recent roll-call votes, 2001–2003 electronic voting slips preserved in council files, and votes recovered directly from the City Clerk’s historical council journals. The earlier journals identify dissenters and absentees; the remaining members are counted as yeas only when that reconstruction agrees with the printed tally. Repeated references to the same numbered roll call are treated as one vote, even when it disposed of several agenda items.
A vote qualifies when at least one member votes on each side and at least ten members cast yea or nay. Members need at least seven qualifying votes. This keeps lone-dissenter votes, which are informative in a fifteen-member council, while excluding near-empty records. Absence is not opposition, and a missing record is not a recorded vote.
Historical coverage is substantial but not exhaustive. The early voting slips identify individual responses; duplicate copies filed under different council matters count as one event. Clearly supported handwritten unanimous votes can be reconstructed and flagged, while unclear records remain missing. Tim McOsker is included, giving the latest council view all fifteen members. The technical appendix documents construction, coverage checks and estimation. The earlier 2021–2026 report remains available separately.
The pooled council spectrum
Colors distinguish researched party affiliations. Symbols distinguish documented DSA and Abundant Housing LA endorsements, kept as separate indicators. An unmarked member has no endorsement documented here—not necessarily no endorsement historically. Each member has one pooled estimate; the intervals show uncertainty around that estimate.
| End of spectrum | Voting position | Qualifying votes |
|---|---|---|
| Eunisses Hernandez | -5.25 | 1,025 |
| Mitchell Englander | 1.11 | 292 |
Presidential voting by council district
Members from more Republican-voting districts generally sit further right on the council spectrum, although the relationship is far from uniform (Pearson correlation 0.41). John Lee’s district has the highest Trump share; Hernandez and Soto-Martínez sit well to the left of colleagues from similarly Democratic districts. Party alone does not capture these differences within the council.
The comparison uses the members serving on Election Day, November 5, 2024—including Krekorian and de León, not their December successors. All fifteen districts have fitted members, including McOsker. Presidential returns are aggregated from published 2024 precinct results using the 2021 council map. Boundary-crossing precincts require approximate allocation; the appendix describes the checks and assumptions.
Policy context
The recent council’s disagreements cover policing, homelessness and labor policy. Hernandez, Raman and Soto-Martínez opposed the 2023 police-pay agreement over budget priorities; it passed 12–3. CBS/City News Service
Buscaino advocated tougher encampment restrictions, while Bonin and Raman opposed the 2021 anti-camping ordinance. Los Angeles Times
Three reported votes illustrate Monica Rodriguez’s emphasis on public safety and her opposition to some recent council initiatives:
- Police hiring and the budget, May 22, 2025: Rodriguez, Lee and Park opposed the revised budget, which advanced 12–3. They objected to inadequate public-safety funding and a reduction in planned LAPD recruitment from 480 to 240 officers. City News Service/Spectrum
- Tourism-worker wages, May 14, 2025: the same three opposed the preliminary plan for a $30 minimum wage by 2028 for hotel and airport workers. Rodriguez and Park also sought different treatment for contracted, variable-hour workers. City News Service
- Encampment restrictions, August 2026: Rodriguez, Park and Padilla opposed repealing twelve camping bans; the repeal passed 10–3. Los Angeles Times
These examples supply policy context, not a claim that every disagreement is about the same issue.
Councils across elections
The tabs share a common horizontal axis and the same pooled estimates. Windows follow the turnover of staggered elected council seats, including replacements within a council. The 2015 and 2017 terms were extended as LA shifted to even-year elections, so there is no invented 2019 turnover. City Charter, section 205
The first window covers January–June 2001, the observed end of the council elected in 1999. Subsequent windows follow election turnovers. These are changes in council composition, not estimates of individual members moving over time. Historical organizational endorsement coverage is incomplete; later endorsements are not projected backward onto earlier councils.
Voting distributions and polarization
The curves summarize members’ estimated positions, not the number of votes they cast. The earlier/current overlay uses the same smoothing for both groups. Curves taper to zero at the outermost members rather than extending beyond them. Each distribution counts a member once, including replacements who served during that window. The median-and-spread chart above summarizes changes across council windows.
| Council window | Members | Democratic-affiliated | Republican-affiliated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 (Jan–Jun) | 14 | 9 | 2 |
| 2001–2003 | 17 | 12 | 1 |
| 2003–2005 | 15 | 13 | 1 |
| 2005–2007 | 16 | 14 | 1 |
| 2007–2009 | 15 | 13 | 1 |
| 2009–2011 | 15 | 13 | 1 |
| 2011–2013 | 16 | 14 | 1 |
| 2013–2015 | 15 | 14 | 1 |
| 2015–2017 | 15 | 14 | 1 |
| 2017–2020 | 18 | 15 | 3 |
| 2020–2022 | 17 | 16 | 1 |
| 2022–2024 | 15 | 14 | 1 |
| 2024–2026 | 15 | 14 | 1 |
The top panel tracks the two party medians; the middle panel is their signed difference, Republican minus Democratic. The bottom panel measures the council’s overall spread, including differences within the Democratic majority: the middle half of members and the distance between the 10th and 90th percentiles. Republican groups are small, so their medians can represent a single member rather than a broad party bloc. Zine’s changing affiliation is excluded from the static party comparison but included in council-wide spread.
These comparisons describe changing membership on the pooled scale, not individual movement.
Party affiliation and organizational endorsements
Party affiliation
| Affiliation evidence | Members |
|---|---|
| Democratic | 47 |
| Republican | 5 |
| Republican / Independent | 1 |
| Republican / later unaffiliated | 1 |
| Unknown | 2 |
The historical affiliation ledger includes nine Democratic affiliation/alignment claims supported by separate research. Evidence ranges from official party records to dated journalism and institutional biographies; exact affiliation boundaries remain unknown where the sources do not give them. Zine is kept separate because he changed from Republican to no-party registration during his service. Wachs also has documented Republican and Independent history and is kept outside the static two-party comparison. Galanter and Pacheco retain unknown labels in the researched ledger. Greuel’s earlier Republican history ended before this vote window; Park’s Democratic switch also preceded her council votes. Lee’s Republican claim is dated 2019 rather than verified current registration. Party alone does not capture differences among Democratic-affiliated members.
DSA endorsements
DSA-LA named Raman, Hernandez and Soto-Martínez as endorsed councilmembers in November 2023. California DSA documented Jurado’s endorsement and the four-member group after the 2024 election. Socialists in Office coordinates these officeholders; it is not treated as a second independent endorsement group or an invented formal council caucus.
| Council | Comparison | Endorsed | Others | Endorsed median | Others median | Median difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022–2024 | All fitted members | 3 | 12 | -2.66 | 0.27 | -2.93 |
| 2022–2024 | Within Democratic-affiliated members | 3 | 11 | -2.66 | 0.25 | -2.90 |
| 2024–2026 | All fitted members | 4 | 11 | -2.02 | 0.29 | -2.31 |
| 2024–2026 | Within Democratic-affiliated members | 4 | 10 | -2.02 | 0.29 | -2.31 |
In 2022–2024, every endorsed member’s point estimate lies left of every other fitted member. In 2024–2026, every endorsed member’s point estimate lies left of every other fitted member. This describes point estimates, not guaranteed separation of their uncertainty intervals.
Abundant Housing LA
AHLA’s housing-abundance endorsements are distinct from DSA’s. Its 2022 update documents support for Yaroslavsky and Soto-Martínez. Its 2024 annual list includes Raman, Harris-Dawson, Hutt and Nazarian. The latter combines election stages, so it should not be read as one simultaneous slate.
| Member | Documented election year | Pooled voting position |
|---|---|---|
| Katy Young-Yaroslavsky | 2022 | -0.07 |
| Hugo Soto-Martinez | 2022 | -2.66 |
| Adrin Nazarian | 2024 | 0.47 |
| Nithya Raman | 2024 | -0.43 |
| Marqueece Harris-Dawson | 2024 | -0.24 |
| Heather Hutt | 2024 | 0.10 |
The six-member list above covers endorsements documented in 2022 and 2024. The comparison below is narrower: only incoming members in the covered 2024 races, four listed and two not listed. It excludes holdovers and District 6. The within-Democrat row compares those four listed Democrats with Jurado alone.
| Comparison | Endorsed | Others | Endorsed median | Others median | Median difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All fitted members | 4 | 2 | -0.07 | -0.38 | 0.31 |
| Within Democratic-affiliated members | 4 | 1 | -0.07 | -1.38 | 1.31 |
The 2024 comparison includes incoming members only in covered races. “Others” means Lee and Jurado were not listed in that reviewed annual source; it is not proof they never received an endorsement. Holdovers and District 6 are not treated as unendorsed controls. Among Democratic-affiliated members, the outside group is Jurado alone, making that comparison descriptive rather than a broad test of AHLA’s politics.
Interpretation and limits
The pooled scale reveals substantial differences within a largely Democratic council and a distinct DSA-endorsed group. Historical coverage and affiliation evidence remain incomplete; positions summarize each member’s observed voting history rather than change within a career. Detailed construction and estimation limits are in the technical appendix.