{"id":36,"date":"2026-05-06T19:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:31:20","slug":"big-money-pours-into-l-a-elections-from-unions-businesses-and-sokoloffs-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"Big money pours into L.A. elections from unions, businesses \u2014 and Sokoloff\u2019s mom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record \u2014 our City Hall newsletter. It\u2019s David Zahniser, giving you the latest on city and county government.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Not too early, not too late. Here\u2019s the sweet spot for voting in California<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got a month left before the June 2 primary election, with mail-in ballots already heading to voters\u2019 mailboxes.<\/p>\n

As if on cue, the big campaign money is pouring in from an array of well-funded interests: business groups, labor unions, hotels, taxicab companies and even one candidate\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

To get around the city\u2019s strict fundraising limits, those donors are putting much larger sums into \u201cindependent expenditure\u201d campaigns that operate separately from their favored candidates.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of the outsized spending to emerge in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Police union targets Raman<\/h3>\n

Things had been pretty sleepy in the L.A. mayor\u2019s race, even with Mayor Karen Bass<\/b> facing challenges from Councilmember Nithya Raman, <\/b>reality TV personality Spencer Pratt <\/b>and 11 other opponents.<\/p>\n

That all changed after the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file officers, dropped more than $400,000 on ads targeting Raman, who was elected to the council twice with support from Democratic Socialists of America, which isn\u2019t endorsing in the mayoral primary.<\/i><\/p>\n

Bass has been aligned with the union on a number of issues, supporting the hiring of more cops, signing off on higher police salaries and vetoing a ballot proposal to let Police Chief Jim McDonnell<\/b> fire officers.<\/p>\n

Raman, on the other hand, has been campaigning on her opposition to a package of police pay increases, saying the decision by Bass and the council to approve them was \u201cpolitically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bass and others said the increases were needed to keep police from leaving a department that has lost 14% of its officers since 2020.<\/p>\n

The league tried and failed to unseat Raman two years ago. This time around, the union is texting voters a campaign video highlighting her opposition to a city law barring homeless people from setting up encampments within 500 feet of a school.<\/p>\n

The ad, which appears on YouTube, Hulu and other platforms, cites Raman\u2019s recent vote against a new \u201cno-camping\u201d zone in Venice, in an area plagued by assaults and other crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaman has voted over 75 times to allow homeless camps next to schools, daycares, parks and other sensitive locations, undermining public safety,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator says.<\/p>\n

Raman responded with her own campaign video saying Bass gave the union \u201cmore money than the city could even afford,\u201d forcing city leaders to cut other services \u201cto the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what happens when a city governs for powerful interests rather than working people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The league is planning to spend more than $1 million opposing Raman, and it\u2019s already gotten some help. For example, office building owner Kilroy Realty Group has given $100,000 to the anti-Raman campaign.<\/p>\n

A mother of a campaign<\/h3>\n

Real estate executive Zach Sokoloff<\/b> has a not-so-secret weapon as he seeks to unseat City Controller Kenneth Mejia: <\/b>his mom.<\/p>\n

Sheryl Sokoloff <\/b>is the spouse of Jonathan Sokoloff<\/b>, managing partner of the Los Angeles-based private equity investment firm Leonard Green & Partners. She recently dropped $2.5 million into a committee promoting her son, which has produced digital ads accusing Mejia of performing too few audits.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach Sokoloff will actually do the job as controller,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator says in one 30-second spot.<\/p>\n

Mejia, in an email, called the attacks \u201cbaseless\u201d and accused Sokoloff\u2019s family of \u201cusing their extraordinary wealth to try to buy the Controller\u2019s position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike my opponent, I do not have any millionaire family members who can bankroll my campaign,\u201d he said. \u201cJust like last time we ran, we\u2019re relying on small dollar donations from LA residents who are inspired by our record of providing unprecedented transparency and accountability on their tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spending surge in the 11th<\/h3>\n

We already knew the race for the 11th District, which covers L.A.\u2019s coastal neighborhoods, had gotten outrageously expensive.<\/p>\n

Last week, Councilmember Traci Park<\/b> reported raising nearly $1.3 million. Human rights attorney Faizah Malik<\/b>, Park\u2019s lone challenger, took in her own impressive haul of $454,000.<\/p>\n

Turns out the independent expenditure campaigns in the race are nearly as costly.<\/p>\n

Read more Taxes, program cuts and Newsom\u2019s legacy on the line in budget negotiations<\/a><\/p>\n

Two city employee unions \u2014 the Police Protective League and United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 \u2014 have spent nearly $900,000 on efforts to get Park reelected. And they\u2019re getting help.<\/p>\n

The firefighters, a Park ally since her 2022 campaign, collected $150,000 for their pro-Park effort from Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, a construction trade union. The police union picked up $150,000 from restaurateur Jerry Greenberg<\/b> and $200,000 from real estate company Douglas Emmett Properties, which gained notoriety for its push to evict tenants from West L.A.\u2019s Barrington Plaza.<\/p>\n

Malik, backed by Democratic Socialists of America, accused Park of doing the bidding of her donors at the expense of \u201ceveryday working Angelenos,\u201d by supporting police raises and fighting stronger renter protections.<\/p>\n

Hotel workers take aim at Park<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a different union is doing its own sizable spend.<\/p>\n

Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers, has put nearly $340,000 so far on efforts to promote Malik and tear down Park. The union\u2019s leadership has been furious with Park, who voted against a hike in the minimum wage for tourism workers to $30 per hour.<\/p>\n

Park said the wage hike would harm the city\u2019s hospitality industry, costing hotel workers their jobs.<\/p>\n

Like the police and the firefighters, Unite Here is not going it alone. The union picked up $50,000 from United Teachers Los Angeles and another $50,000 from Smart Justice California, a group focused on less punitive public safety strategies.<\/p>\n

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For the record:<\/p>\n

10:35 a.m. May 2, 2026<\/span>An earlier version of this newsletter reported that Councilmember Traci Park voted against L.A.\u2019s sanctuary ordinance. Park was absent from the vote but later criticized the decision.
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Unite Here has attempted to portray Park, a Democrat, as a Trump sympathizer, highlighting remarks she made to the president when he visited Pacific Palisades in the wake of the Palisades fire. The union also said she opposed the council\u2019s decision to make L.A. a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

Park was absent for the 2024 sanctuary city vote but later criticized the decision. Park told news radio station KNX in 2024 that the state already has a sanctuary law, and that she considered the ordinance to be an act of \u201csymbolic resistance\u201d \u2014 one that would jeopardize federal funding. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Park accused Unite Here of using a picture of her with personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers to falsely imply that she was standing alongside ICE. The Army Corps removed debris from thousands of burned-out properties in the Palisades.<\/p>\n

Park, in a statement, called the mail pieces \u201cdishonest and disgusting.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unite Here didn\u2019t directly address Park\u2019s allegation, but told The Times that \u201cLocal 11 believes that our local elected officials should not collaborate with the Trump administration in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of the hotel wage<\/b><\/p>\n

Unite Here isn\u2019t the only player in the hotel wage fight to leap into this year\u2019s council races.<\/p>\n

Two L.A.-based hotels, working with the California Hotel and Lodging Assn., have put a combined $300,000 into a political action committee supporting Maria Lou Calanche<\/b>, who is seeking to unseat Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez<\/b>; political aide Jose Ugarte<\/b>, who is running to replace Councilmember Curren Price<\/b>; and Park in the 11th.<\/p>\n

The group, which goes by the name Fix Los Angles PAC, doesn\u2019t seem to be sweating all the details. Its phone script to voters, which was filed recently with the Ethics Commission, got Calanche\u2019s name wrong, referring to her as Mary instead of Maria.<\/p>\n

State of play<\/h2>\n

\u2014 EXPANDING THE VOTE: <\/b>L.A. voters could be asked in November to take the first step toward giving noncitizens the right to vote in city and school board elections. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez,<\/b> now running for reelection, wants voters to give the council the authority to let noncitizens vote in elections for mayor, council and other city offices, as well as the school board.<\/p>\n

\u2014 HOME SHARING HOLDOUTS: <\/b>Bass is looking to relax the city\u2019s rules on home-sharing, by letting residents rent their second homes on a short-term basis through Airbnb and other platforms. Some council members were cool to the idea, saying this week that they fear such a move would shrink the city\u2019s housing supply.<\/p>\n

\u2014 EYE IN THE SKY: <\/b>The LAPD deployed drones more than 3,000 times last year, using them mostly for emergency calls or officers\u2019 requests for help, according to a submitted to the Police Commission. The 3-foot-wide surveillance devices are being used by a department already known for its sizable fleet of helicopters. <\/p>\n

\u2014 SEIZING CONTROL: <\/b>Bass and Councilmembers Tim McOsker<\/b> and Ysabel Jurado<\/b> want the city of L.A. to obtain majority control over the embattled Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency that delivers services to the region\u2019s unhoused population. That proposal comes a year after the county\u2019s Board of Supervisors voted to pull more than $300 million out of LAHSA.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A GLOOMY OUTLOOK:<\/b> L.A. voters lack confidence in the ability of city, county and state officials to make housing more affordable, according to a survey conducted by the Los Angeles Business Council.<\/p>\n

\u2014 READY FOR OUR CLOSE-UP:<\/b> L.A. plans to install 125 speed cameras by the end of July, in the hope of catching misbehaving drivers. But there are already some takeaways from San Francisco, where the technology is being credited with getting drivers to slow down.<\/p>\n

QUICK HITS<\/h2>\n