Photo: S. Greg Panosian / E+ / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - With only two candidates on the ballot for the District 12 seat on the City Council, Tuesday's primary election duel between incumbent John Lee and challenger Serena Oberstein is tantamount to a general election as well.
For voters in the northwestern San Fernando Valley district, this will be one-stop shopping, without the need for a November runoff between the two top vote-getters.
Amid allegations of ethics violations -- which he vehemently denies -- Lee will be seeking a second term, competing against Oberstein, a non- profit leader and former member of the city's Ethics Commission.
District 12 covers the areas of Chatsworth, Granada Hills, North Hills, Northridge, Porter Ranch, Sherwood Forest and West Hills.
Lee, a onetime Republican who now is registered as "no party preference," was first elected in 2019. He chairs the council's Public Works Committee and sits on the Public Safety and Homelessness committees.
On his campaign website, he touts that he has secured 202 more shelter beds in the district, and has a goal of obtaining more than 480 interim and supportive housing beds for unsheltered Angelenos by the end of his first term.
On the council, he has spearheaded expansion of the city's anti- camping laws to include areas such as schools and daycare, and has supported funding for the Los Angeles Police and Fire departments to fill out their ranks.
Lee has also described himself as a "steadfast advocate" for small- business owners and a champion of mom-and-pop landlords and property owners.
Oberstein, meanwhile, has made reforming City Hall one of her priorities, including empowering the Ethics Department to ensure transparency.
Throughout the campaign, she has highlighted the ongoing ethics probe into Lee, who is accused of violating governmental ethics laws for allegedly accepting and failing to report excessive gifts, including some received during a trip to Las Vegas in 2017 that he took with former Councilman Mitch Englander. The latter pleaded guilty in 2020 to lying to federal investigators looking into his alleged receipt of excessive cash and gifts.
Lee was Englander's chief of staff prior to being elected to the City Council.
The incumbent has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and even sued the City Ethics Commission for what he had said were attempts to impact his re- election campaign.
Lee has called the commission's accusation against him "misguided and based on conjecture instead of actual evidence."
"... Commission investigators have wasted critical taxpayer resources to investigate a dinner in 2016 that I do not recall attending, have drastically inflated the amount of food and beverages I consumed during a June 2017 trip in Las Vegas during my final 11 days as a City Council staff member, and lodged accusations that are completely false," Lee said.
On the other hand, Lee and his supporters have sent out mailers highlighting that Oberstein was barred from running for office in 2019 after a judge removed her from the ballot.
She was president of the Ethics Commission from 2014-2018, and city law prohibits commissioners, for at least two years after leaving office, from running for any city office in which their commission made a decision during their term. During her time on the Ethics Commission, she voted to impose fines on two people who ran unsuccessfully in past election races for the 12th District.
Lindsay Bubar, Oberstein's campaign consultant, told the Los Angeles Times that "Lee's campaign tactics are an attempt to distract voters from the serious allegations he's facing."
On top of City Charter and ethics reforms, Oberstein said she would address the housing and homelessness crisis by supporting Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe initiative -- but wants to do more to bring online permanent housing, as well as job training and placement.
She also wants to implement a "Safe Parking Los Angeles Program" to find sites to provide those who are newly unhoused with a safe place to sleep at night while the city helps find them temporary or permanent housing.
In regard to public safety, she agrees that the LAPD needs to increase its rank-and-file, according to her website. She wants to establish a community safety partnership bureau and expand the number of unarmed crisis responders for calls related to mental and behavioral health crises.
Lee has raised $432,308 in campaign contributions, and outside, non- campaign-affiliated groups have poured $1,114,516 in independent expenditures into supporting his campaign.
Independent expenditures are payments in connection with a communication such as a flyer, advertisement or text message that advocates for or against the nomination, election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate. These cannot be conducted in coordination with the affected candidate, committee or agent.
According to the Ethics Commission website, Airbnb has spent $50,000 in support of Lee's campaign. Other groups such as BizFed PAC, a project of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, and the California Apartment Association has spent $75,000; the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce PAC spent $200,000; and the LA Jobs PAC and L.A. Police Protective League, the union representing the rank-and-file of LAPD officers, spent $215,000 to support Lee's re-election efforts.
Oberstein has raised $150,091 in campaign contributions, but has attracted $45,410 in outside spending against her campaign, mainly from the LAPPL.
Vote centers will open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The nearest official drop box or vote center can be found at locator.lavote.gov.