Christopher Russell (Strategic Communications, Yimby LA)
In June, we wrote about how YIMBY-endorsed candidates were positioned to shape LA's next power structure. Nithya Raman (mayor), Marissa Roy (city attorney) and Jose Ugarte (LA City Council, District 9) are back on the November ballot, joined by a wider slate that includes Helen Krieger, a TV writer and renter running for West Hollywood City Council in her first campaign; Caroline Torosis, the Santa Monica mayor who came to the council from the city's Rent Control Board; and Doug Trussler, a Santa Monica council candidate whose background is in the private sector. It's fair to ask what kind of organization endorses all three.
We grade on housing built
We grade candidates on housing built rather than housing promised, which means we look for people who have moved homes past obstacles before or who bring a concrete, aggressive plan to do it. Sara Hernandez, running for State Senate in District 26, helped deliver more than 300 homes for formerly unhoused Angelenos, which is why we note that "she not only supports housing, she gets it built." John Erickson, running in Senate District 24, cut permitting delays on the West Hollywood City Council and "knows what it takes to move housing from idea to approval to built." Our endorsement of Caroline Torosis states the test most plainly, asking whether her continued service "will lead to more housing built than many of her competitors" and answering "a clear yes." Where no candidate cleared our minimum pro-housing threshold, we didn't endorse.
Apply that test and the slate stops lining up along the usual political lines. We describe Torosis as "a productive and materially progressive synthesis" of supply-side solutions and long-term coalition building with tenants. She supported a 2025 emergency upzoning ordinance despite substantial opposition, and she worked with colleagues to implement SB 79, the state law allowing apartments near major transit stops, through a plan focused on upzoning single-family parcels. Doug Trussler, meanwhile, brings a private-sector read on incentives and "an analytical, no frills, no spin approach," and Ugarte pairs reform of Measure ULA, the city's tax on high-value property sales, with "a pragmatic approach to tenant protections." A tenant advocate who votes for upzoning moves more housing than an ally who can't deliver the vote, so the lines we care about cut across the ones voters might usually sort by. Support for SB 79 shows the same pattern, with Raman, Torosis, Helen Krieger and Barri Worth Girvan (running for LA City Council in District 3) arriving at the same law from different places.
Where housing gets decided
Many of the offices that decide housing don't have housing in their name, and the City Attorney is one of them. Venice Dell, a 140-unit affordable and supportive housing project the City Council approved in 2022, is still unbuilt, and a 2024 lawsuit alleges the current City Attorney (Hydee Feldstein Soto) used her office to keep city departments from signing off on it. Marissa Roy understands the advice that the office "can and should give" the City Council when it approves housing developments and land use ordinances, and has committed to "building firewalls and precedents to prevent future abuse of this office when it comes to land use decisions." Thomas Small, running for Culver City Council, led the city's Transit Oriented District Visioning process as a councilmember and has since chaired the LA Metro Sustainability Council. When the region's planning agency added planned K-Line stations in West Hollywood to its map, Krieger told us she would consider a Transit Oriented Development Alternative Plan (TODAP), a city-drawn substitute for SB 79's zoning, only if it "matches or exceeds SB 79's housing capacity." Where a city builds and how its residents get around are one decision, and these offices are where it gets made.
Each endorsement also records commitments we'll measure after November. Trussler wants Santa Monica to approve and build "thousands of units of new housing" downtown, and Krieger insists that no neighborhood be exempt from upzoning, "including single-family bastions like West Hollywood West." Girvan has committed to "moving projects forward, even in the face of opposition," and Mike Van Gorder, running for Burbank City Council, wants "missing middle" density along Burbank's main commercial corridors. SB 79 will be one of their first tests. Our Q1 Report Card found that LA's Option C1 path pushes full compliance out to 2030, and the next council will decide whether that date holds.
We keep score after Election Day
Endorsements can also be taken back. John Harabedian lost ours in Assembly District 41 after co-authoring SB 1090, a bill now on the Governor's desk that would make it harder for Altadena fire survivors to rebuild. We find it cruel to punish people who have endured so much loss. Pushback on these exemptions is already working: YIMBY Law's lawsuit over the post-fire executive orders that suspended SB 9 ended in settlements reinstating it in Pasadena and Malibu.
Our quarterly housing report cards are how we'll keep score, tracking what gets permitted long after the election. This slate came together through candidate questionnaires, interviews where needed, and a YIMBY LA member vote.
- See the full slate and why we endorsed each candidate: our voter guide. Keep it open in a tab until your ballot is filled out.
- Get the results and Report Card updates after November 3: subscribe to our list.
- Have a say in the next slate: become a member. Members vote on the endorsements we make.