Kevin de León is taking part in a half-million-dollar shell recreation with three completely different marketing campaign accounts as he fights for his political life.
Late final month, de León moved $550,000 from a conflict chest created to again a 2026 run for lieutenant governor to a newly shaped Kevin de León Believing in a Higher California Poll Measure Committee. It’s all possible designed to assist him win a tricky race for one more time period on the Los Angeles Metropolis Council.
The poll measure committee, based on filings, is devoted to passing propositions 3, 32 and 33 — to affirm marriage equality, elevate the minimal wage, and permit cities to enact lease management, respectively.
In contrast to together with his marketing campaign account, which reported $290,000 available as of July 31, de León can elevate and spend from his poll measure committee with few constraints. He’ll possible start blanketing District 14, which encompasses downtown and East Los Angeles, with junk mail and different promoting that ties the previous Senate president professional tem to progressive priorities that may seem on the identical November poll.
“It’s fully authorized,” mentioned Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo. “So long as he is not utilizing any of the poll measure cash to ask folks to vote for him for reelection, he shall be tremendous.”
It’s a timeworn tactic in Los Angeles, which has among the nation’s hardest marketing campaign finance guidelines. As he ran for reelection in 2009, then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa grew to become the face of a well-liked photo voltaic initiative that will increase town’s use of renewable power. On tv, an commercial that includes Villaraigosa evangelizing on the advantages of the photo voltaic initiative would typically be adopted minutes later by one other pitching his reelection marketing campaign.
“He received in no small half due to that poll measure and campaigning for it,” Trujillo mentioned.
Though de Léon’s marketing campaign declined an interview, a consultant launched a press release saying his marketing campaign was “poised to assist champion transformative state initiatives.”
“Californians are going through an unsure political local weather with the looming risk of regressive insurance policies beneath one other doable Trump presidency,” the assertion reads. “Now we have to do all the things we will to safe a future the place financial justice and equal rights aren’t simply aspirational, however a actuality for all Californians.”
After leaked recordings of racist remarks surfaced in 2022, there have been requires de Léon to resign from the very best echelons of presidency, together with from President Joe Biden himself. However de Léon didn’t step down, and the tape controversy finally didn’t dissuade him from operating for reelection in 2024 in a bid to salvage his profession.
He completed second within the March major, coming in behind tenants’ rights legal professional Ysabel Jurado and forward of two well-known native elected officers. He now faces Jurado within the November runoff.
The cash arriving within the Believing in a Higher California account might be used to lease a brick-and-mortar house housing his reelection and poll measure operations. De Léon might rent a manufacturing crew to movie spots selling elevating the minimal wage after which tag on a reelection spot beneath the identical day fee. He received’t be beneath any obligation to file his spending for statewide poll measures on Los Angeles County’s ethics web page.
Maybe most significantly, he’ll be capable to outline an ideological profile for himself alongside a progressive challenger who has by no means earlier than held elected workplace.
“This has been happening for many years in L.A., it is regular, and it really works,” Trujillo mentioned. “Any marketing campaign that complains concerning the different marketing campaign doing that’s simply jealous.”
Like this content material? Think about signing up for POLITICO’s California Playbook e-newsletter.
