Community Shows Support for Joe Bray-Ali
Los Angeles, CA: Once again the community of Council District 1 voiced its dissatisfaction with its current representative last night at the Lincoln Heights Debate, held at Sacred Heart Auditorium. Joe Bray-Ali capitalized on community frustration and promised to open a responsive council office when elected to City Council. A LiveStream of last night’s debate is available on Joe Bray-Ali for City Council’s Facebook page. Viewership online has surpassed 3,400 viewers as of the distribution of this release.
Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council sponsored and organized the forum. Throughout the first half of the debate Joe Bray-Ali, along with other grassroots challengers for CD1, raised persistent critiques of the incumbent’s disinterest in the community. In the second half of the debate audience members asked direct questions to the candidates; almost all audience questions showed antipathy toward Councilmember Cedillo on a range of issues, including displacement, eviction, immigration, wasteful spending, and staff unresponsiveness.
One heated exchange at the debate featured a recently evicted community member, Martha Ponce who claimed Cedillo’s staff shut her out when she sought assistance. Candidates offered their sympathies and commitment to assisting her, however when Councilmember Cedillo began answering, she turned her back on him. In contrast, Joe Bray-Ali demonstrated his knowledge of the Lincoln Heights neighborhood and shared with Martha the contact information of a local landlord who has pledged specifically to rent to displaced neighbors.
Audience members and undecided voters saw Joe Bray-Ali once again as the winner of the debate. Joe consistently linked community concerns over public safety, affordability, and cleanliness to an unresponsive council office and a complacent incumbent. In his closing statement, Joe Bray-Ali outlined the diverse coalition that comprises his grassroots campaign in CD1. Joe turned in the most petition signatures to qualify for the ballot, and was the first candidate in CD1 to qualify for public campaign financing.
Joe Bray-Ali commented on the debate:
Once again the community came out in unison to voice its frustration with our current council representative. Street safety and economic displacement are major problems in Lincoln Heights, and the neighborhood is right to demand more from their next representative. I will work tirelessly for the people, and look forward to the honor of serving them by building safe streets and strong neighborhoods in Council District 1.
Joe Bray-Ali is a Democratic candidate for Los Angeles City Council in Council District 1. Joe is a small business owner who knows first hand how to grow a successful business in today’s economy. He is a community activist and father continuing his advocacy for safe streets and strong neighborhoods in his campaign for City Council.
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