HISTORIC

Los Angeles County’s Powerful Board of Supervisors Will Be All Women for the First Time

State Sen. Holly Mitchell took the Second District seat in an election Tuesday.

Five women will sit on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the first time in its 168-year history as the result of a Tuesday election. State Sen. Holly Mitchell defeated L.A. City Councilman Herb Wesson to take the final seat on the all-women board. Unlike New York City, where local government centers on a powerful mayor, the county government of Los Angeles wields more power than city officials in Southern California. The men who typically sat on the board, often occupying their seats for decades, have been nicknamed “the five little kings,” overseeing a budget of $35 billion in the nation’s most populous county. Mitchell, a former nonprofit executive, told the Los Angeles Times she decided to run for the first time year ago after watching male lawmakers cut the state-subsidized childcare budget by $1 billion. “We’ve once again broken a glass ceiling right here in Los Angeles County,” she said.