Feldstein Soto faces data leak, rivals’ surge

Leaked LAPD – A leaked trove of LAPD records rattled the Los Angeles city attorney race, prompting key political support to shift. Incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto now faces Marissa Roy, a progressive deputy attorney general, and John McKinney, a county prosecutor backed by m

When Hydee Feldstein Soto hosts a news conference. she speaks as if the case load is the message—prosecutions. payouts. courtroom outcomes that never feel far away in Los Angeles. But this year. the campaign around the city attorney’s office has collided with something more immediate and more personal: a breach that exposed a massive trove of LAPD records leaked onto the internet.

The fallout came fast. Last month, the city’s police union withdrew its endorsement of Feldstein Soto and told its members to vote instead for John McKinney, a Los Angeles County prosecutor who, in recent weeks, has seen a massive influx of corporate cash to support his campaign.

The office itself is still widely misunderstood. The city attorney prosecutes most misdemeanor crimes. defends the city against costly lawsuits. and serves as the public’s chief lawyer—responsibilities that tend to be obscured until something goes wrong. This year. the obscurity is starting to lift. pushed into view by bruising allegations. last-minute challenger momentum. and a sudden political reshuffle among the people who typically keep the seat’s politics predictable.

Feldstein Soto’s first term has been defined by escalating litigation costs and allegations of misconduct and mistreatment of employees. She has denied wrongdoing and defended her record. Now two well-funded opponents flank her from different ends of the political spectrum.

Marissa Roy, 34, runs as the progressive challenger and deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. Her pitch is that the city attorney should operate like a sprawling “public interest law firm. ” suing to fight wage theft and renter harassment. She also emphasizes a care-first approach to homelessness and positions the office as a legal bulwark against the Trump administration.

In the city’s political ecosystem, Roy’s candidacy arrives with a ready-made contrast. Roy Behr. a veteran political consultant in Los Angeles. said Roy and McKinney have clear brands and target audiences. while Feldstein Soto may now be running as a candidate without a constituency. Behr said he wouldn’t be surprised if Feldstein Soto didn’t make the runoff. because she faces “two people with pretty clear critiques from different directions.” He added that. in his view. “All she’s left with is ‘I did an OK job in an office that people don’t really understand.’”.

Feldstein Soto, 67, presents her own contrast—grounded in stability. She says the city attorney needs a steady hand amid a budget crisis and as Los Angeles gears up to host the Olympics in two years. In a recent interview. she scoffed at her opponents’ lack of experience and dismissed Roy’s campaign promises as “insane.” She also said McKinney’s background as a felony trial prosecutor has little overlap with what the city attorney’s job requires.

“This is not the time for on-the-job training,” Feldstein Soto said.

Her critics say the office she leads has been difficult to manage and politically volatile. She has received endorsements from Mayor Karen Bass and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), but critics have pointed to frequent personality clashes that they say alienated her from Democratic kingmakers. McKinney, in a recent interview, called her a “bully,” and said her behavior has demoralized her staff.

Feldstein Soto pushed back, arguing that many of the allegations trace to a 2024 lawsuit filed by a disgruntled employee. The employee claimed they were subjected to a “barrage of retaliatory actions” after reporting issues within the office. including mishandling of grant funds. discriminatory treatment of co-workers. and “inappropriate alcohol consumption” in the workplace. Feldstein Soto said the case remains pending and told voters the employee was fired for having improper outside employment.

The city attorney’s office is also being judged through money—how much it pays, and why. Feldstein Soto said she dropped most charges in campus protest cases connected to the war in Gaza after concluding many lacked enough evidence for prosecution.

She also defended the office’s rising legal costs. City payouts have exploded under her watch. moving from $64 million in the mid-2010s to $294 million in the last fiscal year. Feldstein Soto said rising costs reflect an increase in “nuclear verdicts” in civil courts nationwide. She also said the city’s payouts were inflated by a “cascade of horrible” cases pending when she took office. pointing to examples that involved the city’s misuse of federal housing grants and a massive sewage spill.

“I’ve protected the city at every turn,” she said. “I’m the only candidate in my race who has the receipts to prove that I can do this.”

Roy, for her part, said the biggest challenge might be convincing Angelenos to vote at all. She described the city attorney race as a historically low-turnout, down-ballot contest where too many residents don’t realize what the job actually entails.

“It’s where we always start, to be honest,” Roy said. “It is one of the most important, least understood positions.”

In a city where 60% of residents are renters and many feel under siege by the Trump administration. Roy has framed her campaign around civil rights enforcement—against landlords as much as against Washington. She has campaigned as a civil rights avenger ready to spar on behalf of working-class Angelenos.

Her outreach has been built around explaining the office from the ground up. Roy recently hit the streets sporting a crisp purple blazer. violet chrome manicure. and battered pair of black Rothy’s flats—signs of the work her volunteers have already invested in the race. She told a would-be voter in Silver Lake that the city attorney is “also the lawyer for the people. ” after first stressing. “Of course it’s the lawyer for the city.”.

McKinney’s campaign carries a different kind of urgency, rooted in prosecution and public safety. The 58-year-old county prosecutor said he wants more “aggressive” prosecutions for misdemeanor gun crimes. He also believes the city attorney has the power to “leverage” homeless people into mental health or addiction treatment after they’ve been arrested.

McKinney acknowledges the shift from criminal prosecution to civil defense and citywide legal work. He has no experience as a civil litigator. but said he still thinks he can help drive down lawsuit costs for the city. He told The Times he envisions himself as “a protector. as the local prosecutor. and a defender. as the general counsel of the city.” He also said. “I think public safety is the number one priority. or should be. of all elected officials.”.

Despite his comparatively modest direct fundraising—McKinney has received just $72,000 in direct contributions—independent spending has supercharged the campaign. Independent expenditures supporting his bid have poured $1.7 million into the race in the last two weeks.

The vast majority of those funds have come from a political action committee backed by Airbnb. the same company Feldstein Soto sued last year for violating price-gouging laws in the wake of the wildfires. Feldstein Soto said she has aggressively prosecuted and sued those seeking to profit off wildfire victims. winning a $1.2-million settlement against another rental company in a price-gouging suit this week.

Feldstein Soto says the money flow tells a story about loyalty. She argued both challengers are financially beholden to special interests. She pointed specifically to McKinney’s Airbnb windfall and to Roy’s support from a political action committee bankrolled by an organization whose attorneys often sue the city. Feldstein Soto said the donors aren’t investing “millions of dollars for fun and for free” because they expect “a return on investment.”.

McKinney disputed the framing, saying Airbnb simply believes in his campaign to clean up the city, improving tourism and the company’s profits. Roy said she has received broad support from across the legal profession and is committed to reducing lawsuit payouts that have “spiraled out of control.”

Dan Schnur, a USC professor and former advisor to Republican politicians in California, put it in electoral terms. He said Feldstein Soto’s biggest obstacle might not be her opponents. but voters themselves—“very similar to what Bass is going on in the mayor’s race.” Schnur described the electorate as impatient and angry. wanting change now.

And that’s where the race has landed: not just on legal strategy or prosecutorial style. but on whether Los Angeles voters—fed up with the people they see. distrustful of the systems they feel. and increasingly attuned to who is funded and who is left out—will decide that the city’s most consequential lawyer deserves a reset.

Los Angeles city attorney race Hydee Feldstein Soto Marissa Roy John McKinney LAPD records data breach police union endorsement nuclear verdicts lawsuit payouts campus protests Gaza homelessness policy misdemeanor gun prosecutions Airbnb political spending