Four years ago, twelve candidates vied for the open seat to represent Los Angeles City Council District 13 and surrounding communities left vacant by Mayor Eric Garcetti. Sam Kbushyan ran a strong campaign in Council District 13 and rallied the Armenian Community to vote but placed third behind candidates Mitch O’Farrell and John Choi.
Kbushyan faced a tough endorsement choice between John Choi, the political insider, and Mitch O’Farrell, the Deputy to Councilman Garcetti. Many of his loyal Armenian-American votes were first-time voters that cared deeply about Little Armenia in East Hollywood and getting services and representation.
Sam Kbushyan decided to support Mitch O’Farrell in the 2013 general runoff election because he promised to support the Armenian Community and promote Armenian Staff in his office. With our Community’s strong support, Councilman O’Farrell was elected by just 1,455 votes. And ever since his election he has kept his word to our community with attention to our issues and collaboration with our community leaders to promote Little Armenia. As Sam Kbushyan noted, “I am very proud of his promotion of Star Parsamyan to be his Deputy Legislative Director.” Putting someone from our community in that position showed that Mitch was willing to put his promises into action.”
When Councilman O’Farrell asked for Kbushyan’s support for re-election this year, Sam Kbushyan was proud to endorse him again and once again rally our community to his side. Kbushyan noted, “I promised him then that the strong political force we were able to capture in 2013 would turn out for him in 2017. Fully twenty-five percent of his votes in his recent re-election can be attributed to our community’s strong turnout. We should all be proud of that effort.”
As a community leader, Kbushyan says he looks forward to continuing to help Councilman O’Farrell create new projects and opportunities for our community in Council District 13 during this next term. We look forward to covering those stories and bringing them to you.