L.A. County's 2nd District supervisor race election voter guide

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An educator and two nonprofit executives are challenging Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell for her position on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the 2nd District, a seat held by Black leaders for the past three decades.

The supervisorial seats are nonpartisan. If no one wins more than 50% of votes on March 5, the top two candidates will compete in a November runoff.

The Times surveyed each candidate and their answers are below, summarized or edited for length.

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Who are the candidates?

Holly J. Mitchell

Mitchell, 59 was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2020 after serving as a state senator in the 30th District, including as chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. Before holding public office, Mitchell directed Crystal Stairs, a large nonprofit that administers subsidized child-care services for families in L.A. County. Mitchell is endorsed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, labor unions, including SEIU 721, Planned Parenthood Action Fund LA County and the Sierra Club.

Daphne D. Bradford

Bradford, 57, is an education consultant whose company Queen James Entertainment has a contract with Los Angeles Police Department to reestablish trust between youth and law enforcement officers. Bradford wrote a petition against tearing down the 90 Freeway that went viral.

Clint D. Carlton

Carlton, 42, , is the founder of Safe Squad, a company that offers training and other supports aimed at protecting children and seniors online; Carlton, the only white candidate in the race, moved to L.A. in 2002 to serve as director of the L.A. Dream Center, a religious nonprofit homeless services provider, a position he held for 20 years

Katrina Williams

Williams, 50, is the chief executive of nonprofit housing provider Changing the Faces of Homelessness; Williams has worked in the homeless services field, including as a case manager, for more than 20 years

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Where is the 2nd District?

Three of the five supervisorial seats are on the ballot. Supervisors are limited to three four-year terms. (If Mitchell wins, it will be her second term.)

The 2nd District represents 2 million people living in 13 L.A. neighborhoods, including Koreatown and Watts; 11 other cities, including Inglewood, Carson and Culver City; and about 20 unincorporated neighborhoods, including Marina Del Rey and Willowbrook.

In 2021, an independent redistricting committee moved predominantly white communities, including Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, from Supervisor Janice Hahn’s 4th District into the 2nd. This raised concerns about whether a Black leader could continue to win the seat.

Former Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who was white, represented the 2nd District for 40 years, from 1952 until he retired in 1992. Since then, the district has been represented by Black politicians: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Mitchell.

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Why are you running for this office?

Bradford: “To bring public safety back to our communities. ... I will use my experience to improve the quality of life of constituents beyond District 2 cities and communities. Over the years, I have demonstrated and proven my ability to create community-based relationships with police, constituents, schools and businesses. These established partnerships have evolved into successful working relationships with various law enforcement agencies.”

Carlton: “Homelessness is at an all-time high, and my compassion and sense of urgency to fix our crisis will be at the forefront when elected. I want our young children to grow up in a Los Angeles that we have all grown to love. People feel unsafe in our county, crime is at an all-time high, I will provide new leadership for a brighter future.”

Mitchell: “I was elected by the community to make a positive impact that could be seen and felt in the lives of Angelenos, and that is exactly what my team and I have been focused on these past four years ... such as declaring poverty alleviation a countywide priority and creating a countywide program for getting unhoused residents in encampments off the streets and on a path to permanent housing, phasing out urban oil drilling, and getting grants directly into the hands of small businesses to keep their doors open, launching the largest guaranteed income program in the nation and expanding access to more mental health beds.”

Williams: “To implement permanent structural housing programs for the homeless population with developing a funding program to help small businesses grow and expand economically and implement youth programs to help our youth develop skills to become the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

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Homelessness

Mitchell said she has focused on “urgently scaling proven tools like redirecting funding for necessary mental health services while introducing income programs to help stabilize working families and small businesses.”

Mitchell said she launched a countywide RV encampment pilot program to get unhoused residents out of RVs and into housing, and to help prevent homelessness, co-authored a motion to allow small landlords to recoup unpaid rent.

“Affordable housing preservation and production need to be a top issue for every policymaker if we are to reduce homelessness, and we need everyone to help us increase the stock of affordable housing in the county,” Mitchell said.

Williams said L.A. County must open more permanent supportive housing programs with comprehensive social services. The county must also address housing affordability by developing housing subsidy programs to help low-income families afford their rents, Williams said.

“By implementing structural housing programs with supportive services for the homeless and low-income families, we can reduce the revolving door to homelessness by 60%,” Williams said.

Carlton said that to address the needs of an estimated 22,655 unhoused people in the county with substance use disorders, he would push the county to contract with nonprofit organizations to retrofit former hospitals, hotels, or department stores into 24/7 substance use disorder treatment centers for unhoused residents.

These facilities would offer detox, treatment, job training, and other supports “aimed at helping them reintegrate into society,” Carlton said.

Bradford said she would push to reverse a motion by Mitchell and Supervisor Hilda L. Solis proclaiming L.A. County a “housing first county” and directing county lobbyists to fight any legislation in Sacramento that wasn’t housing first. Bradford said she’d also push county lobbyists to fight to amend Senate Bill 1380, a law Mitchell authored in 2016, another housing first effort.

The law “offers services as needed and requested on a voluntary basis and doesn’t not make participation in services mandatory in order to receive housing. Program services should be mandatory,” Bradford said, adding that partnering with law enforcement was another important aspect to the county’s homeless crisis response.

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Mental health system

Williams said she would push L.A. County to develop urgent care psychiatric centers and implement a mental health court-ordered treatment program.

Mitchell said the county’s health departments have added or are adding thousands of mental health beds, including beds for people with serious mental illness treated at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in the 2nd District. The county must also hire more quickly and provide living wages to mental health workers, she said.

“We need to go upstream and invest in our young [people] before they experience severe mental health problems,” Mitchell said. “Our young generation is stressed and experiences higher levels of anxiety than ever before.”

Carlton said the county cannot solve the homelessness crisis without making mental-health care more accessible, which includes building a comprehensive mental health facility available to all, “including executives, law enforcement, children, and families.”

“It will be a model of excellence, innovation, and compassion in the field of mental health care,” Carlton said.

Bradford took aim at a recent vote by the supervisors, arguing L.A. County should implement Senate Bill 43, which adds substance use disorder as a means by which someone can be labeled “gravely disabled” and detained against their will. The supervisors voted 4 to 1 in December to delay its implementation until 2026.

“We need to protect residents and ‘gravely disabled’ people,” Bradford said. “Too many unhoused individuals are attacking and/or killing Metro riders, Metro employees, citizens walking their dogs and others. Allowing conservatorship of individuals with severe mental illness will provide the necessary treatment needed and keep constituents protected.”

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Public safety

Despite having mostly opposing viewpoints, Mitchell and Bradford both shared the importance of addressing illegal street takeovers and recruiting officers who are a good fit for the 2nd District.

Bradford said public safety is the most pressing issue facing L.A. County.

“From home invasions, street takeovers, smash and grabs to protecting residents from homeless individuals with severe mental illness and/or drug addiction, public safety is the No. 1 issue residents are extremely concerned about,” Bradford said. “A large majority of residents in District 2 want more police in their communities.”

Bradford said she would work with her communities “to create the desired law enforcement partnerships they want to see in their cities and neighborhoods.” Bradford said she would also work with Sheriff Robert Luna to recruit officers who understand the culture and ethnic communities of the 2nd District.

Mitchell said to address illegal street takeovers, she pushed for tougher ordinances, the development of the County Transportation Commission and $21 million in federal money to be used for traffic safety in Florence-Firestone and other unincorporated areas.

Mitchell said she has called for the Sheriff’s Department funding to be tied to a “thoughtful plan to address deputy gangs” and extra training classes for the Sheriff’s Department to help with recruiting “people who want to serve with integrity.” Mitchell also said the county must reform its beleaguered juvenile detention facilities, investing more money toward solutions like diversion and youth development.

Carlton said he sees law enforcement’s role as maintaining law and order in L.A. County, which ensures safety and stimulates growth and prosperity. “Sheriff Luna and the LASD have my full support to make this happen,” Carlton said.

Williams did not mention law enforcement and instead said her first priority would be to address the hundreds of RVs in the 2nd District where unhoused residents live. She would implement an RV housing program that removes dilapidated RVs from the streets, provides their residents with new or used RVs to live in a mobile park, and provides supportive services for those in the RV program.

“Many constituents who are homeowners and business are concerned about the safety of surrounding and neighborhoods due to the drug activity from some of the RV’s parked on the streets,” Williams said. “It’s important to know that housing programs are needed. However, we must provide mental health, substance abuse counseling and medical programs with housing.”

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What the candidates are most proud of

Carlton: “My proudest accomplishments are those individuals and families that would come through our programs at the Dream Center. When they would choose to come off the streets, we would surround them with the correct resources for them to succeed. I think having compassion and always seeing the best in someone will continue to direct us during our homeless crisis.”

Bradford: Being named a White House Champion of Change ‘Connected’ Educator in 2013 “is my biggest accomplishment to date. Recognized for innovative leadership in education and technology as a nontraditional ‘classroom teacher,’ I proved to [then-President] Obama and national leaders that an outsider on the inside can collaborate with people in various professional industries to bring the kind of change they want to see in their communities.”

Mitchell: “A few of the accomplishments I am most proud of, include launching a countywide plan for homelessness encampments that is a central part of the County’s Pathway Home initiative, creating the rental relief fund to help mom and pop landlords and tenants with back payments on their mortgage and rent, expanding access to mental-health beds within the 2nd District, passing an ordinance to end urban oil drilling, stewarding an equitable recovery from the pandemic by calling for an equity dashboard to ensure funding reached the hardest hit communities.”

Williams did not provide a response that answered the question.

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