assembly member

The party’s loss to a candidate they often liken to a fascist dictator “says something is broken with the vanguard of Democratic policies and Democratic messaging that starts in places like California,” said Mike Gatto, a former Democratic state Assembly member.

“At some point in time, somebody didn’t have water and that’s not good in a fire situation for all the obvious reasons — from safety on to saving a house,” Steve Bennett, a state Assembly member representing Ventura, said.

Political newcomer Jurado is in first place in the primary over De León and a well-funded Assembly member, Miguel Santiago, with only a few votes left to be counted.

Nazarian, a former state Assembly member and former aide to Krekorian, said in a phone call Tuesday that he was “tired” but in “great spirits.”

It propelled the child of Guatemalan immigrants from an impoverished upbringing in San Diego to community activism in L.A. to stints in Sacramento as an assembly member and state senator before he landed at City Hall in 2020.