John McKinney

Why Thrive LA endorses John

Los Angeles needs a City Attorney who will prosecute crime, protect taxpayers, and defend the legal infrastructure that keeps the city functioning. The 2026 race offers two candidates who understand that the office is, at its core, a law enforcement position. Either John McKinney or Hydee Feldstein Soto would bring the prosecutorial seriousness and practical judgment the role demands. **John McKinney** John McKinney is a career prosecutor with nearly 30 years in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, he earned his law degree from UCLA School of Law in 1997 and went on to try more than 50 capital murder cases, spending over a decade in the elite Major Crimes Unit. He was named Most Valuable Prosecutor in the Hardcore Gang Division. McKinney built his reputation the old-fashioned way: in courtrooms, against the worst offenders in the county. When George Gascón's activist prosecution policies gutted morale inside the DA's office, McKinney ran against him in 2024 and won an internal straw poll of fellow prosecutors with nearly 65% support. He ultimately endorsed Nathan Hochman to ensure Gascón's removal. That decision showed strategic discipline, not ego. Multiple police officers' associations (Covina POA, Santa Monica POA, West Covina POA) backed his DA campaign, a signal of deep trust from law enforcement. On homelessness, McKinney advocates what he calls "compassionate accountability": services paired with enforcement of public safety laws. That framing rejects the permissive, services-only model that has failed Los Angeles for a decade. His campaign for City Attorney emphasizes fiscal responsibility within the office itself, arguing that every dollar wasted on unnecessary legal costs is a dollar unavailable for parks, infrastructure, and public safety. **Hydee Feldstein Soto** Hydee Feldstein Soto is the incumbent City Attorney, first elected in 2022 as the first woman and first Latina to hold citywide office in Los Angeles. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia Law School, she spent decades in private legal practice and as general counsel before taking office in 2023. Feldstein Soto has used the office aggressively on public safety. She launched the Western Avenue Initiative alongside DA Nathan Hochman to combat sex trafficking, targeting buyers and traffickers rather than victims. Her office reported 72 arrests of sexual predators along the Figueroa Corridor. She secured a $1.3 million grant to prosecute impaired drivers. She created the Neighborhood Law Corps as a community-level enforcement tool to address chronic nuisances and blight. These are measurable results from an office that too often operates in the background. On fiscal accountability, Feldstein Soto campaigned on ending no-bid city contracts that produce $800,000-per-unit housing, pledging to cut costs dramatically. She has emphasized cutting red tape to simplify doing business in Los Angeles. She carries endorsements from Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Traci Park, and County Supervisor Janice Hahn, along with support from the Los Angeles firefighters union. Either candidate would bring prosecutorial experience, a commitment to public safety enforcement, and the practical judgment Los Angeles needs in its chief legal officer.