The city attorney may have been the first incumbent to lose a primary since 1933

The last time Angelenos voted for an incumbent city attorney in the primaries, nearly 30% of them were unemployed.

That was May 2, 1933, the leader of the Great Depression, when sprawling camps covered the city, King Kong ruled the movies and violent crime reached a fever pitch not seen in nearly half a century.

City Manager Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s close loss on Tuesday may not bear much resemblance to Erwin P. Werner’s primary loss 93 years ago, but the themes of Depression-era Los Angeles resonate in the contest.

Marissa Roy, the deputy attorney general of the California Department of Justice who is leading the race as votes are still counted, wooed voters through shoe leather and social media, promising to use the office to fight for wage workers and employers. But it was the city’s strong unions and its burgeoning Democratic movement that propelled him to the top, signaling the coalition that was nudging California’s left turn in the early 1930s.

Meanwhile, District Attorney John McKinney tapped into voters’ frustration with homelessness, a bad city and a general distrust of City Hall for a last-minute shot at second place. McKinney began campaigning in earnest five weeks ago, but has been able to win votes with a tough crime campaign — as some of the city’s crime rates have fallen to record lows.

As of Thursday morning, Roy has nearly doubled Feldstein Soto’s vote total. McKinney led the incumbent by 13 percent in the second run. The race has not yet been called, but Feldstein Soto released a statement accepting the race Wednesday morning. He acknowledged that “the voters have spoken” and referred to “his successor’s administration.”

His campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Feldstein Soto’s dismissal was almost unprecedented. Werner’s loss in 1933 was the only such loss since the city adopted its first ballot in 1917, according to the City Clerk’s office. No other current city council member or mayor has ever failed to make it out of the first round when facing two or more challengers.

“This is not something that has happened in the lifetime of many people who follow city government,” said Mike Bonin, a former City Council member and executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA.

McKinney’s sudden appearance in the race in May made him steal the support of law enforcement. His campaign received $3 million worth of private spending. An official with a group supporting McKinney – who did not want to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media – said an internal survey showed Feldstein Soto was down nearly 10 points out of the polls one week before Election Day.

Since Roy had secured the support of the state’s Democratic Party and energized left-leaning voters, that put Feldstein Soto in the middle, analysts said, leaving him vulnerable in a race that most voters did not follow closely.

“To the extent that people had information, they knew that one of them wanted to be tough and the other on the other side wanted to be kind, that left him with a little room to maneuver,” said Roy Behr, a longtime adviser to veteran politicians in the city.

Roy “targeted” potential progressive voters on social media, experts said, portraying himself as a liberal in his ever-present purple blazer while discussing his vision of being “an advocate for the people.”

Marissa Roy, deputy attorney general of the California Department of Justice, appears poised to finish first in the June 2 primary race for LA city attorney.

(Gary Coronado / For The Times)

Fueled by a huge influx of money from rental giant Airbnb, some of McKinney’s ads played a big role in his rise to fame in one of New Jersey’s most violent cities. His campaign also sent out documents that painted his opponents as “George Gascón”-style Democrats, calling on the progressive former state attorney as a counterman for voters concerned about crime.

The AI-generated videos depicted McKinney as a self-styled, suit-wearing crime fighter navigating a dystopian version of LA’s Metro system.

“The debate is not about two candidates on the same stage appealing to the same person, but about attention and knowledge in the same field,” said Spencer Slovic of Mycorrhiza Digital, who handled Roy’s digital marketing. “That information war will probably play out in different areas.”

Despite the fascinating story of his powerful but misunderstood role, Feldstein Soto often struggled to explain his success in office.

In a recent interview with The Times, he said he introduced “public safety, public integrity and public services.” He went on to discuss major improvements he’s made in the office, such as limiting access to law enforcement databases by ex-employees, modernizing internal systems and improving the relationship between the city attorney’s office and the LAPD. By his own admission, he rarely publicly celebrates his achievements.

“I didn’t hold a big press conference and I got on a white horse and announced myself as Joan of Arc and the savior of all things in Los Angeles,” he said. “What I can do.”

The chaos during Feldstein Soto’s tenure was easy for voters to see. Litigation costs exploded. A high-ranking city attorney accused him of abusing his power, prosecuting political enemies, mistreating employees and engaging in “improper consumption of alcohol.” Feldstein Soto said he improved his office’s relationship with the LAPD, but the police union’s decision to withdraw its endorsement and instead reinstate McKinney cost him an important voting bloc.

Feldstein Soto’s messaging was sometimes confused and lacked the glamor of his opponents, political observers said. Campaign finance records show he paid for 80 email blasts, mailers and other messages intended to sway voters.

John McKinney, Los Angeles County district attorney, appears to be moving on to a run-off against Marissa Roy in the LA city attorney race.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

In one video, he stood in front of a stationary background and spoke for three straight minutes about his record while describing his opponents as representing the “extreme left” and the “extreme right.” He attacked both of them for receiving large sums of money from “special interests,” particularly McKinney for accepting large sums of money from Airbnb. Feldstein Soto is suing the rental giant over price hikes following the 2025 wildfires.

Roy’s campaign sent out 180 communications, record shows, most of them Instagram and Facebook ads, where his team said they immediately saw which stories resonated with likely voters and which ones were fat.

Slovic said Hydee’s “clip saying she won’t prosecute the Trump administration” seemed to resonate with voters.

“This was our best-performing ad,” he said, adding, “What Democrats want in the primaries is someone who will fight and have some backbone.”

McKinney had just 23 touchdowns, campaign records show, and another 19 by independent teams. He often relied on the same gritty ideas that defined Spencer Pratt’s viral AI environments.

In a race for office that most voters don’t understand, McKinney and Roy’s ability to play a consistent role may prove critical, political analysts say.

“Most of the voters initially did not have strong feelings about this race,” said Behr.