ICAN Statement Following Israeli-American Candidate Withdrawal from West Hollywood City Council Race
The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) expresses deep concern over a disturbing incident in the West Hollywood City Council race involving an Israeli-American candidate.
It has come to our attention that Mayor John Erickson, an incumbent candidate running in the same election to City Council, recently filed a complaint against the Israeli candidate over a minor issue related to disclosures in a recent SMS text message campaign.
Alarmingly, Erickson submitted an accompanying video file containing unusual audio. An investigation by the City Attorney confirmed that the audio was referencing Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the Israeli-American hostage who was tortured and executed by Hamas.
As the only Israeli in the race, the targeted candidate interpreted the inclusion of this audio, along with an intimidatingly worded notice from the City Clerk as a targeted, threatening, and discriminatory form of harassment.
Given the current climate of anti-Israel activity throughout Los Angeles, this incident escalated into a serious concern for the candidate and their family, leading to their withdrawal from the race.
Mayor Erickson’s Vice Mayor, Chelsea Lee Byers, works as the paid Director of Operations for an organization called “Beautiful Trouble,” an anti-Israel 501(c)(3) organization that funds “beautiful, creative, and disruptive” pro-Hamas actions across the country through charitable grants.
ICAN condemns both Mayor Erickson’s actions and the City Clerk’s failure to properly handle the submitted materials, further exacerbating the harassment by failing to sanitize the offensive content while arbitrarily withholding it in the formal submission to the State.
Such tactics and negligence only serve to undermine the integrity of the election.
We call on the relevant authorities to fully investigate this incident and ensure that all candidates, regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender, or national origin are treated with fairness.
In West Hollywood, all City Council seats are elected at-large, meaning that councilmembers are chosen by voters citywide rather than from specific districts. The positions of Mayor and Vice Mayor rotate annually among the five councilmembers, and these roles are largely ceremonial, without additional powers. Councilmembers serve multiple terms but do not hold the Mayor or Vice Mayor position consecutively.
John Erickson was elected to the West Hollywood City Council in 2020. He previously worked at West Hollywood City Hall and is currently Vice President of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. John Erickson was sworn in as Mayor of West Hollywood on January 16, 2024.
Erickson announced his re-election campaign for the West Hollywood City Council in early 2024. He has been actively campaigning since then, receiving endorsements from California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara; Congressmembers Adam Schiff and Sydney Kamlager-Dove; State Senator Ben Allen; Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur and Jesse Gabriel; LA County Supervisors Lindsey P. Horvath, Kathryn Barger, Janice Hahn, Holly J. Mitchell, and Hilda Solis; Sheriff Robert Luna; District Attorney George Gascón; Assessor Jeffrey Prang; West Hollywood Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers, Councilmembers John Heilman and Sepi Shyne; Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman; Culver City Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin; Councilmembers Freddy Puza, Triston Ezidore, Gleam Davis, Caroline Torosis, Jesse Zwick, Amy Thomas Howorth; former officials John D’Amico, Abbe Land, Mike Bonin, and Julian A. Gold, M.D.
Mail-in ballots will be sent out on October 7th and start arriving on October 8th. Election Day is November 5th, 2024.
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Correction #1: At the request of former Beverly Hills Mayor and City Councilwoman Lili Bosse, we are issuing a correction to remove her name from the list of officials endorsing Mayor Erickson. While her name is listed on Mayor Erickson’s campaign site, Mayor Bosse has confirmed that she did not endorse him.