Roy and McKinney are on top in the early city attorney returns — so the office nobody talks about is suddenly the one to watch. This is LA Politics and Urbanism Daily. We've been building to tonight all week — city attorney, school board, seven council seats — and the first numbers are in. I'm Hope. Matt. And for once the results are actually answering the questions we asked — not dancing around them. City attorney is leading the board tonight, then the council map, the LAUSD money picture, and a Metro app update that launched on election day. Which is certainly a decision. This one's from MyNewsLA.com:
Candidate Marissa Roy and police union-backed candidate John McKinney occupied the top two spots in the race for Los Angeles city attorney Tuesday evening, while incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto trailed in third place and appeared in danger of being shut out of a November runoff. Roy received 117,369 votes, or 36.85% of the early ballots counted by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. McKinney had 104,793 votes, or 32.90%.
MyNewsLA.com has the early read: Marissa Roy at 36.85%, John McKinney at 32.9%, and incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto in third at under 21% — which means the city's first female city attorney may miss November. We spent all week asking who the city attorney actually answers to, and now McKinney — the police union's pick — is in the top two. That office decides whether City Hall gets sued over homeless sweeps, ADU fights, street clearances. This is not a downballot footnote. The point we opened on June 1 — that who that person answers to changes what they'll defend — just got a number attached to it. Roy and McKinney. That's the race tonight. Feldstein Soto trailing two well-funded challengers after one term is also a verdict on something. Whatever that contract controversy was, it hurt her. Twenty percent with incumbency is a collapse, not a loss. The city attorney race doesn't get much airtime, but I keep hearing it's one of the most consequential offices on the ballot. So what can the city attorney actually do, and where do they hit a wall? It's genuinely one of the more powerful citywide offices most people couldn't name off the top of their head. At base, the city attorney handles all litigation involving Los Angeles — every lawsuit the city files, every lawsuit filed against it — and serves as in-house legal advisor to the mayor and the City Council, per LAist's voter guide to the race. That matters a lot: when the council is debating a homelessness enforcement policy or a permitting overhaul, the city attorney's office is the one telling them what's legally defensible and what will get them sued. The office also has prosecutorial power over misdemeanors, which is where homelessness-adjacent enforcement — things like illegal encampment citations — actually lands. And on corruption, the previous city attorney, Mike Feuer, had his office entangled in a scandal involving no-bid contracts, which is part of why his successor, Hydee Feldstein Soto, ran on a promise to crack down on that practice, according to an LA Times guide republished via AOL. What the city attorney can't do is run the police department, set the budget, or prosecute felonies — those belong to the mayor, the council, and the DA respectively. You mentioned legal payouts — is that a real accountability lever? Can the city attorney actually reduce how much the city bleeds on lawsuits? That's the fight playing out right now. Feldstein Soto's opponents are accusing her of presiding over growing legal payouts, which is one of the core knocks against her heading into the June primary, per that same AOL-hosted guide. So yes, how aggressively the city attorney settles versus litigates, and whether the office flags risky city policies before they turn into expensive lawsuits, is a real and measurable part of the job. Watch the total litigation payout numbers as this race develops — that's probably the sharpest accountability data point voters will actually see. Here's Los Angeles Times:
If the early returns hold as expected, the Los Angeles Board of Education will continue to lean against charter schools and would stand in general agreement on most policies — including assertive support for immigrants and a continued holding pattern on the future of Supt. Alberto Carvalho, who remains on administrative leave as a federal investigation proceeds.
The LA Times is calling these races "devoid of pro-charter money" — and that's a direct answer to what this show was watching after CCSA dropped that voter guide last week. Rivas, Gonez, and Melvoin are all tracking toward comfortable early leads. So the charter money read the map and sat out. Gonez literally ran unopposed — one write-in challenger. When the opposition won't field a funded candidate, incumbents win by default, not mandate. That's a fair distinction. The Times frames it as the major forces declining to fight each other — teachers union behind Rivas, a charter-friendly donor supporting Melvoin. The detente held, and the board stays leaning anti-charter. Which tells you the charter sector either gave up on the board or moved somewhere else. Neither answer is reassuring if you're actually trying to change how LAUSD runs. From Presstelegram:
Several Los Angeles City Council incumbents appeared on track to avoid November runoffs Tuesday, while competitive races for open seats remained unsettled. The election will determine representation for seven of the Los Angeles City Council’s 15 districts. The council is responsible for adopting the city budget, approving contracts, enacting local laws and representing residents on issues ranging from housing and homelessness to public safety and economic development.
Seven of fifteen council seats were on the ballot last night — and the early Press Telegram headline is that several incumbents are tracking toward outright wins, no November runoff needed. Eunisses Hernandez in CD1 is sitting above fifty-two percent as of 8:15, which ends the race on the spot if it holds. CalMatters spent a week arguing fifteen seats can't govern five hundred square miles — and tonight seven of those seats are getting their first real electoral stress test. At least one incumbent is just clearing the field outright. That's not a reform mandate, but it's not a rebuke either. The open-seat races are still unsettled, per Press Telegram, and that's where the real runoff math lives. Incumbents coasting is a different story from what happens in the districts where nobody gets to run on a brand. Govly writes:
LA Metro has launched a new official mobile application alongside a contactless credit and debit card fare payment system to improve transit rider convenience and operational efficiency across Los Angeles County. These enhancements enable seamless trip planning, faster boarding processes, and improved accessibility, particularly in anticipation of increased ridership during the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Metro's contactless fare app is live — and the Govly writeup frames the whole thing as a procurement opportunity for vendors. Fine. The detail that matters is whether you can pay for up to five riders on one tap, because that's the first functional test of whether this works for a family without a smartphone per person. We flagged this on June 2 — no credit card, no smartphone, no ride. That doesn't disappear just because the app is technically live. FIFA is the stated reason this launched, and FIFA riders have banked cards. The transit-dependent rider who doesn't is still holding a paper TAP card and a prayer. The equity gap isn't fixed by the launch. It's just more visible now that there's an actual product in the world instead of a board chair's press release. If you follow Los Angeles politics, you may also like California Governor's Race — daily 2026 coverage of candidates, polling, debates, fundraising, and policy for voters who want more than horse-race takes. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
We've put links to every story from today's briefing in the show notes, so if one caught your attention, you can follow it there and read further.
That's Los Angeles Politics and Urbanism Daily for this Wednesday. This is a Lantern Podcast.