New CD13 Candidate Could Be First Asian American on Council in 20 Years

A Korean-American could become the first Asian-American on the Los Angeles City Council in 20 years.

BongHwan Kim, the general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), filed papers Friday to run for the Thirteenth District seat that will open next year when Eric Garcetti terms out.

DONE oversees the city's neighborhood councils, including budgeting and elections.

Read Kim's bio here.

"Government needs to do a better job of making sure that neighborhoods are more empowered," Kim said. "Working with neighborhoods is going to be one of the few ways that government is going to be able to survive these tough economic times, and I'm uniquely qualified to do that."

A number of candidates have already entered the race, including Silver Lake resident, Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council president , local activist and realtor Ruben Martinez and film editor Thomas Marshall Penick.

Two other candidates, Deputy U.S. Attorney and former CD 13 staffer , are regular bloggers on this site.

Kim told KPCC that the demographics of the district "are a great fit for my background."

According to KPCC, the newly redrawn Thirteenth District wil be 19 percent Asian-American, with 22 percent of eligible voters Asian.

The district itself includes Thai Town, Historic Filipinotown and parts of . Many had unsucessfully lobbied to have the community incorporated in a single city council district in the recent redistricting.

Kim currently lives outside the district, in Glassell Park, which was eliminated from CD 13 in the recent redistricting.

KPCC says John Choi, a member of the city's Board of Public Works, and several other Asian-Americans may also run in District 13, where Mike Woo was the last Asian to hold a seat until 1993.

According to one report Emile Mack, a top executive in the Los Angeles Fire Department, has also filed the paperwork he needs to run.