That program, backed by grass-roots organizing and sophisticated political leadership, has touched voters and made the left far more viable in local elections.<\/p>\n
The political muscle of Los Angeles\u2019 rising liberal faction is demonstrated not just in the number of candidates who identify with the Democratic Socialists, but more broadly in the way it helps shape the policies and priorities of the city generally.<\/p>\n
It was not long ago that support for increased LAPD spending was a unifying city objective. Conservatives favored the idea of stricter enforcement of the law, while liberals saw it as a way to pay for police reform and to empower its oversight. No more.<\/p>\n
Although \u201cdefund the police\u201d is a bygone slogan, the LAPD\u2019s critics are plentiful and are unwilling to acquiesce to once-routine budget requests to maintain or expand police ranks. The department today employs about 8,500 officers, well below peak staffing levels and far below the long-sought goal of 10,000. Nevertheless, Mayor Karen Bass\u2019s recent request for additional funding ran into opposition at the City Council.<\/p>\n
The council ultimately approved a cut-down version of the mayor\u2019s request, but the compromise will barely allow the LAPD to hold its own against retirements and other attrition. Four council members \u2013 Hernandez, Soto-Martinez, Raman and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado \u2013 opposed even that.<\/p>\n
Taxing the rich<\/h2>\n
Some of those same forces are at work in the debate over a \u201cmansion tax<\/a>,\u201d a favorite idea of the LA left. The tax, which voters approved in 2022, applies to multimillion dollar real estate transactions, adding a 4% levy to sales over $5.1 million and 5% to properties over $10.3 million (the thresholds are indexed, hence the unusual threshold numbers). The tax revenue goes for construction of affordable housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Taxing the rich is always good populist politics, but here it helped frame the city\u2019s changing politics. Bass, for instance, sought to exempt properties affected by the Palisades fire, as she worked to balance her support for affordable housing with her commitment to rebuilding from the fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n The result has been more confusion than clarity, a testament to the challenges of managing a shifting electorate \u2014 especially in an election year.<\/p>\n The fight over the tax goes on, but its very persistence says something about the city\u2019s leftward drift. It\u2019s inconceivable that Mayor Riordan, for instance, would have supported the mansion tax and hard to imagine voters 20 years ago approving it. Riordan lived in Brentwood in a home that would have qualified for the surcharge, and the emphasis of much of the city\u2019s politics in those days was on safety and job creation, rather than equity or government-backed affordable housing.<\/p>\n There are many reasons for the leftward shift, and not all of them are specific to Los Angeles. The nation\u2019s economic inequality continues to expand<\/a>, and the plight of those left out of economic growth grows increasingly dire and visible in big cities, where opulence and poverty live side by side.<\/p>\n That\u2019s inescapable in modern Los Angeles, with its grand homes, flashy boutiques and grinding homelessness.<\/p>\n The local left also has clearly thrived in the era of President Donald Trump. The president, who is fond of denigrating Los Angeles and California, is reviled in Los Angeles. His influence has radicalized liberals, making them willing to vote for new Congressional maps \u2014 Los Angeles County favored last year\u2019s Prop. 50<\/a> by a staggering 74% to 25% \u2014 and rise to the defense of undocumented migrants.<\/p>\n More purely political changes have contributed as well. Los Angeles in 2015 switched its election schedule from voting in odd-numbered years to coinciding with the gubernatorial and presidential election cycles.<\/p>\n That\u2019s been a change with mixed results, but one clear consequence has been to broaden the participants in city elections. An electorate once dominated by homeowners and wealthier interests now increasingly includes lower-income voters and renters, whose interests tend to pull the city toward programs such as rent control and away from priorities such as forceful police protection.<\/p>\n And so 2026 is a notable election year for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n One marker of the cycle spinning up came this week, as Mayor Bass held the first of two State of the City addresses to present her view of where the city stands at this moment.<\/p>\n The gathering was illustrative in many ways: Held near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in one of the city\u2019s most Black and Brown communities, it anchored Bass among some of her most loyal supporters. The location also highlighted Los Angeles\u2019 role as host of the World Cup and, in 2028, the Summer Olympics. In a gesture toward civic unity, Bass\u2019 presentation even featured performances by the marching bands of UCLA and USC.<\/p>\n The audience\u2019s response to Bass\u2019 remarks also said something. She was politely applauded when she highlighted the city\u2019s historic progress against crime<\/a>: Los Angeles had 230 homicides last year, the lowest number since the 1960s and a startling change from the 1990s, when it tallied more than 1,000 homicides several years in a row.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/012426-LA-ICE-Protest-TS-CM-01.jpeg\")
<\/a>Trump and the election year<\/h2>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/012126_ICE-WillowBrook_TS_CM_19-1024x682.jpg\")
The State of the City<\/h2>\n