Election 2026 · City of Los Angeles

LA City Council District 9

Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 1, 2026

Estuardo Mazariegos and Jose Ugarte are the candidates for LA City Council District 9 on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

The City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of Los Angeles. It has 15 members, and each one is elected by the voters of one district. The Council passes City laws, called ordinances, which the Mayor can approve or veto. It also approves or changes the budget the Mayor proposes each year.

Summary by CityHallPass, not the official text or legal advice. The official text controls: LA County's official election information.

Primary results, June 2, 2026

Six candidates. No one won a majority, so the top two, Jose Ugarte and Estuardo Mazariegos, advanced to November 3. Total votes: 20,417. The County Registrar's final results are dated June 26, 2026. Certified results

The candidates

The job

What a Councilmember does. The 15-member City Council passes City laws, adopts the budget the Mayor proposes, and approves or rejects the Mayor’s picks to run most departments and sit on commissions (LAist). Ordinances go to the Mayor, who can approve or veto them (Charter Sec. 240, as reproduced in Council File 26-0489). Under current Charter text the Council can change the Mayor’s budget by June 1, and a Mayor’s veto of those changes takes a two-thirds vote to override (Charter Sec. 313, as printed in the November 2026 Voter Information Pamphlet). The FY 2026-27 City budget is $14.85 billion (Mayor’s office).

Each member also runs a district office that works with more than 40 City departments on local services and plays “a vital role in shaping development” in the district (LAist). Council members can ask the Council to designate no-camping zones near schools and other sensitive places under LAMC 41.18 (LA Times). Each member represents about 260,000 people (LAist).

The district. Council District 9 is mostly in South Central LA. It includes Exposition Park, Vermont Square, Green Meadows and South Park, plus part of downtown with the Convention Center and L.A. Live (LAist; LA Times). USC’s main campus is in the district (Daily Trojan).

• The LA Times reports the district has the highest poverty rate in the City and is now nearly 80% Latino (LA Times). It has had a Black council member since 1963 (LA Times).
• La Opinión, in an editorial, put the share of families below the poverty line at 43% and the share of residents under 18 at about 28% (La Opinión).
• Residents’ concerns reported by the LA Times include illegal dumping, public safety, few grocery stores and “a sense of being neglected by City Hall” (LA Times).
• Mazariegos’s campaign says the district has the second-highest number of homeless residents in the City (campaign platform).

Facts that shape the job now. Councilmember Curren Price, who has held the seat since 2013, is termed out (LA Times, July 28, 2026). He pleaded not guilty to 12 felony counts on April 10, 2026 and is due back in court on Oct. 16, 2026 for a pretrial hearing and trial setting (District Attorney release, Aug. 10, 2026).

Records

Neither candidate is an incumbent, so neither has a Council voting record (City Clerk certified candidate list).

Estuardo Mazariegos

Organizing work. He is co-director of ACCE in Los Angeles (Daily News questionnaire). His campaign says he led the fight for the City’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance and Resident Protection Ordinance and helped pass Measure ULA (campaign site). In his questionnaire he said he organized for anti-displacement protections in the South LA community plan rules (CPIO), which were then “largely adopted” in the Resident Protection Ordinance (Daily News questionnaire). These are his own descriptions. LA Times coverage says he credits his tenant work and his advocacy to lower the rent cap for his primary finish (LA Times).

City Hall advocacy. In 2026 he appeared at City Hall to support Charter changes on police accountability, a larger Council and letting noncitizens vote in local elections. None made the November ballot (LA Times, July 28).

Ethics and court records. No City Ethics Commission enforcement order or FEC matter names him (City Ethics enforcement orders; FEC legal search). He is not a State Bar licensee (State Bar search). No federal case names him in CourtListener. Searched Sept. 30, 2026.

Jose Ugarte

City staff career. Ugarte became a council aide to Curren Price on July 2, 2013, left City service on November 1, 2019, and returned on May 20, 2021 (City Ethics Commission stipulation, Case No. 2022-028). He became Price’s deputy chief of staff and left the office in 2025, he told the Daily Trojan (Daily Trojan). His campaign says he helped start the LAPD Community Safety Partnership at South Park, Good Food Zones and the district’s first green alley network, and worked on the Coliseum renovation, the LAFC stadium and the Lucas Museum (campaign bio; Daily News questionnaire). These are his own descriptions of staff work.

Before the City. He worked for the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, on campaigns for Jerry Brown and Barack Obama, and as a special aide to Speaker Anthony Rendon (campaign bio). He founded the Ugarte Civic Youth Fellowship, which he says has mentored over 100 students (Daily News questionnaire).

Ethics Commission penalty.

• Ugarte admitted seven violations of City disclosure law. He filed his 2021 “assuming office” financial disclosure (Form 700) 285 days late. On that form and his annual forms for 2021, 2022 and 2023 he did not disclose his half-ownership of Ugarte and Associates, a lobbying and political consulting firm, and on two of them he did not list clients that paid it $10,000 or more (Ethics stipulation).
• Those clients included Jimmy Gomez for Congress ($128,050.27), an Equality California committee backing Mitch O’Farrell ($222,000), a County Federation of Labor committee backing Tim McOsker ($75,000) and a Laborers Local 300 committee backing Karen Bass ($40,000). The stipulation says his net income from them was $14,000 and the rest paid campaign field canvassers and related costs (Ethics stipulation).
• A proposed $17,500 settlement failed on a 2-2 Commission vote on Oct 22, 2025 (Ethics Commission minutes, Oct 22, 2025; settlement packet). A $25,000 settlement was approved 4-0 on Feb 18, 2026 (stipulation; Ethics Commission minutes, Feb 18, 2026). Staff said he would pay $5,500 up front and $1,625 a month for a year (staff report).
• Ugarte’s response: “This was an unintentional clerical reporting error on my part. As soon as I was made aware, I took full responsibility and corrected them” (LA Times via AOL, Oct 21, 2025).

Other searches. No FPPC case and no FEC matter names him (FPPC case search; FEC legal search). The City Ethics penalty above is the only City Ethics enforcement order naming him (City Ethics enforcement orders). He is not a State Bar licensee (State Bar search). He is not a party to any federal case in CourtListener. Searched Sept. 30, 2026.

Where they stand

Issues come from the candidates’ Daily News questionnaires, their Daily Trojan interviews, LA Times coverage and the concerns the LA Times reported from residents.

On the other ballot measures

Neither candidate holds City office (City Clerk certified candidate list), so neither voted to place any measure on the ballot. No stated position was found for either candidate on any measure on this ballot. We checked campaign websites, the Daily News questionnaires and news coverage through Sept 29, 2026. The LA Times reported that Mazariegos backed Charter changes that did not make the ballot (LA Times).

Endorsements

Lists come from each campaign’s website, checked Sept 29, 2026 (Mazariegos; Ugarte), unless another source is linked.

Estuardo Mazariegos

• Elected officials: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez; Assemblymember Sade Elhawary; LAUSD Board Members Karla Griego and Rocío Rivas; former Councilmember Mike Bonin (campaign list).
• Party: None. The County Democratic Party endorsed Ugarte. Democratic Socialists of America-LA endorsed Mazariegos (LA Times).
• Unions: United Teachers Los Angeles; NUHW; SEIU 1000, SEIU-USWW and CIR/SEIU; Engineers and Architects Association; AFT 1521; LA County Public Defenders Union Local 148; United Steelworkers Local 675; UPTE-CWA (campaign list).
• Organizations: ACCE Action (Mazariegos is co-director of ACCE, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), California Working Families Party, LA League of Conservation Voters, LA Forward, Sunrise Movement LA, Initiate Justice Action, Run for Something, One Fair Wage, Stonewall Young Democrats, CAIR Action, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Jane Fonda Climate PAC and others. Moms Demand Action gave him a “Gun Sense Candidate” distinction (campaign list).
• Newspapers: None found.

Jose Ugarte

• Elected officials:
  • Councilmember Curren Price, whose seat is open (LA Times); Councilmembers Heather Hutt, Monica Rodriguez, Tim McOsker and Adrin Nazarian (campaign list).
  • City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, Sheriff Robert Luna, Supervisor Hilda Solis and Assessor Jeff Prang (campaign list).
  • Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove; state Sens. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Maria Elena Durazo; Assemblymembers José Luis Solache, Mike Gipson, Mark González, Michelle Rodriguez, Mike Fong, Jessica Caloza, Rick Chavez Zbur and others (campaign list).
  • Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Speaker Anthony Rendon and former Rep. Diane Watson (campaign list).
  • Jorge Hernandez Rosas, who finished sixth in the primary (campaign list).
• Party: Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LA Times; campaign list).
• Unions: United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (IAFF Local 112); UNAC/UHCP; SEIU Local 721; LA/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council; IBEW Locals 11, 18 and 40; Teamsters Joint Council 42 and more than 20 Teamsters locals; UFCW locals including 770; Western States Regional Council of Carpenters; Laborers locals including 300; ILWU locals; AFSCME DC 36; United Farm Workers (campaign list).
• Business groups: L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce’s L.A. Jobs PAC and the Central City Association (campaign list).
• Organizations: CHIRLA Action Fund, Dolores Huerta Action Fund, Latino Victory Fund, Abundant Housing LA, YIMBY Los Angeles, Housing Action Coalition, California Black Women’s Collective and Democratic clubs. Moms Demand Action gave him a “Gun Sense Candidate” distinction (campaign list). Pastors R.A. Williams Jr. of McCoy Memorial Baptist and Shep Crawford of Experience Christian Ministries endorsed him (LA Times).
• Newspapers: La Opinión editorial board, in the primary (La Opinión, Apr 27). His campaign also lists the Los Angeles Sentinel (campaign list).

Polls

No public polls of this race were found.

Money

Source: City Ethics Commission, 2026 election totals (independent spending as of Sept 29, 2026); loans from Mazariegos’s committee filings and Ugarte’s committee filings. “Raised” follows the Ethics definition and excludes matching funds; Mazariegos’s loans are on his primary committee’s filings and are not counted in “raised.”

The limit is $1,000 per person per election, and the Council matching-fund maximum is $189,000 in the primary and $236,000 in the general (Ethics 2024 CPI table). The general-election spending limit was lifted on Sept 18, 2026 because of independent spending (City Ethics).

Data check: contributions in the City’s donor-level data (City campaign contribution data) add up to the Ethics “raised” figure to the cent for both candidates, and matching-fund receipts match Ethics for both.

Who is giving

Method: itemized contributions to both committees of each candidate through Sep 19, 2026, from City campaign contribution data. A donor is a normalized name plus ZIP code. Refunds are netted. Unitemized gifts under $100 ($61,904 for Mazariegos, $10,247 for Ugarte) are left out of donor counts. A ZIP code counts as inside the district, or inside the City, if at least half its area is inside (City council district map; County ZIP code map; City list of ZIP codes). Only four ZIP codes are at least half inside Council District 9, so the “inside the district” share is a floor.

Source: our count of City campaign contribution data through Sept 19, 2026.

Source: our count of City campaign contribution data, placed with the City council district map and County ZIP code map.

Counting every ZIP code that touches the district, 3.9% of Mazariegos’s itemized dollars and 12.2% of Ugarte’s come from the district area (City campaign contribution data).

Estuardo Mazariegos

Mazariegos has 886 itemized donors, and 63.2% of them gave under $250 in total (City campaign contribution data). Gifts at the maximum were 31.8% of his itemized dollars. About 70.6% of his itemized money came from City ZIP codes. Adding unitemized gifts, contributions under $250 make up about 39% of what he raised.

Top employers, as donors reported them (City campaign contribution data): City of Los Angeles (41 donors, $13,311); LAUSD (28, $5,618); UCLA (14, $5,801); County of Los Angeles (11); ACCE (10, $2,887); LAANE (7); UTLA (10 across two spellings). Industries: entertainment and media 12.2% (99 donors); education 8.8%; nonprofit and advocacy 8.4%; labor unions and union staff 7.6% (51 donors, $21,832); government 6.6%; law 6.3%; not employed or retired 14.1%; real estate and development 0.9% (16 donors, $2,629). 16.0% could not be assigned an industry.

Organizations that gave directly (City campaign contribution data): the LA College Guild and Roofers Local 36 PAC ($2,000 each); NUHW’s committee, the SEIU Committee of Interns and Residents, the Engineers and Architects Association, UPTE PAC, the Public Defenders Union Local 148 and LA Forward Action Fund ($1,000 each); Jane Fonda Climate PAC ($900); DSA-LA ($800); UTLA’s PAC ($700). Eighteen donors gave $1,800 or more in total.

Same-employer timing (five or more donors from one employer within three days): none. Registered City lobbyists: 2 donors match a registered lobbyist by both name and firm (City lobbyist registry), $1,150 in total. City contractors: 31 donors ($5,955, 2.1%) work for City vendors, mostly nonprofits such as Inclusive Action and SAJE (City Ethics contract data). No vendor gave directly.

Jose Ugarte

Ugarte has 970 itemized donors (City campaign contribution data). Nearly three quarters of his itemized dollars (71.8%) came in maximum-size gifts. About 52.8% came from City ZIP codes and 32.6% from elsewhere in LA County.

Top employers, as donors reported them (City campaign contribution data): City of Los Angeles (62 donors, $33,145), including several council aides; LAUSD (10, $6,679); UCLA (6); USC (5); Kaiser Permanente (5). Industries: not employed or retired 17.6%; employer not reported or self-employed 10.5%; government 7.4% (91 donors, $49,305); real estate and development 5.7% (52 donors, $37,786); education 5.0%; labor unions 4.4% (34 donors, $29,075); finance 4.3%; construction 1.7%. 23.5% could not be assigned an industry.

Organizations that gave directly (City campaign contribution data) include L.A. Taxi Cooperative (Yellow Cab), United Checker, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce PAC, the LA/Orange Counties Building Trades PAC and LCCC PAC ($2,000 each), and ILWU Local 13 PAC, Marine Clerks ILWU Local 63 PAC, UA Local 250 PAC, the Southern California Pipe Trades and Laborers Local 300 ($1,000 each). Assembly campaign committees of Mike Fong and Miguel Santiago gave $2,000 each.

Same-employer timing (five or more donors from one employer within three days): none (City campaign contribution data). Registered City lobbyists: 3 donors match a registered lobbyist by both name and firm (City lobbyist registry), $2,000 in total. City contractors: 29 donors ($15,393, 2.3%) work for City vendors (City Ethics contract data). Three vendors gave directly: Olivarez Madruga Law Organization ($1,000; CAO contracts), NASA Services ($250; Sanitation) and Uno Productions ($200; Recreation and Parks).

Industry rule: each donor gets the first category whose keywords match the employer name, then the occupation.

Outside spending

Reports filed with the City Ethics Commission through Sept 29, 2026.

Source: City Ethics independent expenditure reports supporting Ugarte, supporting Mazariegos and opposing Mazariegos.

Member communications: UTLA spent $1,356 supporting Mazariegos (City Ethics). The LA County Democratic Party spent $1,270.65 supporting Ugarte (City Ethics).

Who funds the outside committees. Contributions received from Jan 1, 2025 through the latest filing, from City campaign contribution data, the committees’ independent expenditure reports (linked above) and Cal-Access (linked for each committee).

Committee to Expand the Middle Class: its only reported contribution since Jan 1, 2025 is $15,000,000 from Airbnb, Inc. (Cal-Access).

California Apartment Association Housing Solutions Committee ($905,313 received through June 30): CAA Independent Expenditure Committee $580,313; CAA PAC $325,000 (Cal-Access). The CAA IE committee’s largest donors are Essex Property Trust ($2,998,028), Equity Residential ($2,168,220) and AvalonBay Communities ($1,961,410) (Cal-Access).

Working Californians (IBEW Local 18): its reports for this race list the Airbnb committee ($600,000), IBEW Local 18’s Water and Power Defense League ($250,000), Uber Innovation PAC ($200,000), Southern California Pipe Trades PAC ($50,000) and McCourt Partners Real Estate ($50,000) (City Ethics; Cal-Access).

Fix Los Angeles PAC ($441,550 received; it also backed Traci Park and Maria Lou Calanche): California Hotel PAC $101,000; Pebblebrook Hotel Trust $100,500; Lightstone DTLA $100,050; Omni Hotels $50,000; Fix Los Angeles $45,000; American Hotel and Lodging Association PAC $25,000 (Cal-Access).

Labor and Community in Support of Jose Ugarte ($187,000 received): IBEW Local 11 PAC $75,000; UFCW Local 770 PAC $50,000; Teamsters Local 396 PAC $25,000; LAPPL Independent Expenditure Committee $22,000; SMART Local 105 $15,000 (City campaign contribution data). IBEW 11’s and UFCW 770’s PACs report their 2025-26 receipts as unitemized member contributions under $100 (City campaign contribution data; Cal-Access, UFCW 770 PAC).

Thrive LA PAC ($299,750 received): Jason Larian $241,785; one other individual $25,000; Sempra $10,000 (Cal-Access).

Teachers and Communities United ($427,924 received; it also backs Marissa Roy for City Attorney): Political Action Council of Educators (UTLA’s PAC) $311,500; Communities United for Change (the pro-Roy committee) $50,000; Engineers and Architects Association $25,000; NUHW’s committee $20,000; California Working Families Party $15,000; CIR/SEIU PAC $5,000 (Cal-Access).

• UTLA’s PAC ($2.35 million received): unitemized member contributions under $100, $1,955,034; California Teachers Association ABC PAC $345,300 (Cal-Access).

LAPPL Independent Expenditure Committee ($4,356,350 received; it spends in other races too): Los Angeles Police Protective League $3,500,000; Douglas Emmett Properties $525,000; Jerry Greenberg $150,000; Kilroy Realty $100,000 (Cal-Access).

Building a Stronger California (Carpenters), Greater Cities Partnership and California’s Best: funders not traced.

The LA Times reported in July that Airbnb had spent $302,000 and the apartment association $230,000 for Ugarte, and that the UTLA and ACCE committees had spent about $118,000 for Mazariegos (LA Times).

Behested payments

Neither candidate holds City office, so neither files City behested payment reports. A search of City behested payment reports for both names found none.

Key moments

Debates and forums

No general-election debate between the two was found as of Sept 29, 2026.

Events

• First non-Black council member since 1963 (2026).

  • What happened: whoever wins will be the district’s first council member since 1963 who is not Black. The LA Times and LAist both reported the change (LA Times; LAist). The LA Times reported that some Black residents have expressed concerns about the change (LA Times).
  • Ugarte’s response: “I want to be called the most pro-Black Latino council member that the city really has” (LA Times).
  • Mazariegos’s response: “It’s fighting for, honoring the Black legacy and fighting for a Black future, and you do that by building together” (LA Times).

• Outside money for Ugarte (April to September 2026).

  • What happened: Airbnb, the California Apartment Association, hotel interests, the police union and several unions spent more than $1.1 million for Ugarte, and the police union spent against Mazariegos (City Ethics, for Ugarte; City Ethics, against Mazariegos; LA Times, July 28). The spending limit was lifted on Sept 18 (City Ethics).
  • Mazariegos’s response: he says he refuses money from corporate PACs, developers and police associations (campaign site).
  • Ugarte’s response: none found on the outside spending.