Los Angeles City Council District 10 Mark Ridley-Thomas vs. Grace Yoo

L.A.’s 10th District, taking in Koreatown, Mid-City and parts of South Los Angeles, has had the same representative on the council for nearly 15 years: Herb Wesson, well-known deal maker and former council president.

Now, because of term limits, Wesson is looking to fill the seat currently held by County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. And Ridley-Thomas, another political veteran facing term limits, is hoping to replace Wesson on the council. First, however, he must square off against attorney Grace Yoo, his opponent in the Nov. 3 runoff election. Ridley-Thomas, a longtime civil rights advocate, has spent the last three decades winning elections, prevailing in city, county and state contests. He’s looking to return to the council after an 18-year absence — but is also seen as someone laying the groundwork for a run for L.A. mayor in the near future.

Yoo, an activist and former executive director of the Korean American CoalitionLos Angeles, is making her second run at the seat. She’s forged a reputation as a fighter against City Hall, pushing back against plans for ripping out trees in Hollywood, redrawing the city’s council district boundaries and constructing a 27-story residential tower that would have been twice as dense as the city’s rules allowed.

With City Hall the subject of a far-reaching federal bribery investigation, Yoo is running as a reformer, calling for funding at the city’s Ethics Commission and city controller’s office to be shielded from political intrusion. Yoo also wants to ensure that Ethics commissioners are no longer selected by the politicians they are assigned to watch over.

Ridley-Thomas, in turn, has been running on his lengthy track record as an elected official, pointing to his work fighting homelessness, building affordable housing and reopening Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Willowbrook. The county supervisor also touts his