Republican Tony Dolz handily won the 41st Assembly District race against his opponent Adriana Van Hemert in Tuesday’s primary. Dolz garnered more than 75 percent of the vote and will now be campaigning against Democrat Julia Brownley to replace Fran Pavley (Agoura Hills-Dem.) who is termed-out in the coming November election. Dolz , who lives in Santa Monica, ran on one campaign platform: illegal immigration. “I think the vote reflected exactly what the polls have been saying,” said Dolz in a phone interview from his home where he was enjoying his victory on Wednesday morning. “Eighty percent of Americans and some 70 percent of Republicans are now more concerned with immigration than with the war in Iraq and the economy.” Asked how he planned to campaign against Brownley, who was endorsed by both State Senator Sheila Kuehl (Santa Monica-Dem.) and Pavley, Dolz said he had no plans. “I don’t care what Brownley does. I think she represents ‘politics as usual,’ which is out of step for this election. I think immigration is going to be the big issue and the heat is only going to continue, at every level. Washington is not going to settle this before November and the Governor is in a difficult position.” Dolz, himself an immigrant, said that while the governor is “very aware” of the impact, “both good and bad” that illegals have on the California economy, he also recognizes the need for “at least appearing to have boots on the ground, which is why he reluctantly agreed to sent the National Guard to the Mexican border, but only after President Bush assured him the state would not be stuck with the bill.” Dolz said his first order of business is to get the governor to issue two executive orders: to check the immigration status of every state employee, and to demand that any agency providing benefits verify the immigration status of the recipients. Dolz’s campaign demanded the recovery of what he described as the “illegal misuse” of an estimated $10.5 billion of California taxpayer’s money spent annually to provide services to illegals. “This has got to stop,” Dolz said. “It is taking a terrible toll on our health care and education systems.” A Cuban-born Hispanic, Dolz, 47, came to the U.S. as a child and became an American citizen in 1986. His hardline stance is not unexpected considering that Dolz is a founding member of the Minutemen Project, the self-appointed civil defense corps determined to secure our borders. Dolz spent Memorial Day weekend break ground on the Minutemen Fence at the Arizona/Mexican border accompanied be his family, which includes his Danish-born wife, Bettina, who sells a number of high-end health, clothing and quality linen products on the Internet , and his two children’Dylan, 5, and 11-month-old Sienna. Dolz, a businessman who specializes in information technology and telecommunications, said he voted by absentee ballot.

Cheryel Kanan, an active resident since 1963 and longtime business manager of the Pacific Palisades Post, will receive a major honor at next Thursday’s Chamber of Commerce installation and awards dinner at the Riviera Country Club. She has been named the Mort Farberow Businessperson of the Year, an award presented by the Chamber on behalf of the Palisades deli owner who died in 1999. “To honor Mort,” said Executive Director Arnie Wishnick, “the Chamber chose three criteria that Mort held dear: community, Chamber and children. Cheryel Kanan exemplifies it all.” Indeed, her list of volunteer leadership roles in the community has been staggering. Currently, Kanan is president of the Palisades Americanism Parade Association (PAPA), the committee that organizes the Fourth of July parade and fireworks show every year. She and her husband, Dan, have also worked at the pre-parade VIP luncheon in the Methodist Church courtyard since 1993. “We’ve only missed two parades since moving to the Palisades,” said Kanan, who rode in the parade in 1994 when she was Chamber president. She hopes that her five children and seven grandchildren will be waving to her from along the route this year. “The parade pulls together the community in a special way, on such a special day,” she continued. “I’m very patriotic; my father was a tail-gunner on a B-17 in World War II, so the flag and what it meant was a real symbol in our home.” Kanan grew up in Venice (her father was a manager for Standard Oil) and was a high school senior when she met Dan, a UCLA student, while working part-time at a McCarthy Drugstore. They were married in 1960 and three years later found a house on Hartzell in the Palisades that was built on two lots. “This enabled us to build a new house [where they still live] and rent the other,” she said. The Kanans were soon sending kids to Palisades Elementary, and it didn’t take long for Cheryel to become a volunteer. “I wanted to start giving back and also meet more people, so when our oldest boy (Daniel) entered kindergarten, I went to orientation and a week later the PTA president called and asked if I would sell ice cream after school every Tuesday. I said yes. Then a couple weeks later she called and said that the Ways and Means chairman had resigned and would I take on that position? Sure, I said, even though I didn’t know what the Ways and Means person did.” Kanan got to know Mort Farberow when she asked him to cater a Founders Day luncheon at the school. “I quickly learned that he was a teddy-bear kind of guy on the inside and a very giving person who was concerned about the community,” said Kanan, who later would be president of the PTA at Paul Revere, president of the Junior Women’s Club and Las Doradas, and an active member of the Assistance League. Before her children were born (Daniel, Debbie, James, Nicole and Tamira), Kanan was a bookkeeper for a catering company, and once they were all in school she began working part-time as a bookkeeper for various professionals in the Palisades. In 1982, she and Dan became co-owners of Medford’s on Swarthmore (now the PaliSkate store). “I loved it and I hoped it would become a family business,” she said, “but the kids all wanted to do their own thing, so we sold the business to Jack Forgette.” After joining the Palisades Post as a bookkeeper in 1984, Cheryel became office manager and, in 1990, business manager. Professionally, Dan worked for the County Assessor’s office from 1960 to 1979, then went into real estate development in Santa Monica, Redondo Beach and West L.A. with his brother, Ed. Like his wife, Dan has been active in various business and charitable organizations over the years, including the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Family YMCA and Boy Scout Troop 400 in the Palisades. He also served on the Civic League in the 1980s. “I love this community so much,” Cheryel said, “that I’ve always wanted to give back as much as I could to keep it the way it is, and I’m fortunate that Dan has the same philosophy. We support each other.”

The paparazzi lined up to photograph Julia Louis-Dreyfus walking down the red carpet at last week’s “Bring Back the Beach” dinner, Heal the Bay’s annual fundraiser held this year at the Santa Monica Airport. The actress definitely stood out. Maybe it was the bright green shirt she was wearing or the color of all the money she has helped raise in her 10 years on the board of the environmental nonprofit. Whatever it is, her presence helped fill the Barker Hangar which was decorated with flying kites. The centerpiece at each table featured a sand castle which turned out to be the dessert (chocolate mousse cake). More than 1,000 guests paid $500 each for the privilege of dancing to the Beach Boys, bidding on one of Brian Wilson’s guitars (which went for $10,000 during the live auction) and to hear Louis-Dreyfus speak. “I just love the ocean,” she told the crowd. “A decade ago our beaches were so polluted they weren’t safe to swim in. While they are better now, we still have a way to go. Today, the State of California, National Geographic, Heal the Bay and other partners are working together to educate schoolchildren from K through 12 in our public schools. That’s six million kids in California schools learning about the environment. That’s huge,” Louis-Dreyfus said to applause. Asked later why she supports Heal the Bay, one of the largest environmental organizations in L.A. County with over 10,000 members, she said “because it’s local and I believe in supporting local, grassroots organizations. It affects me in my back yard, although the issues this organization deals with have national and international implications.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her husband, television producer Brad Hall (“The Single Guy”), have lived in the Palisades for 13 years. While they could live anywhere in the world, they choose to live here because “it feels like a small town in a big city and I like that,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “And the proximity to the ocean is divine.” Her favorite place to shop? Elyse Walker and Gelson’s. To eat: Cafe Vida. To play with her children: Palisades Recreation Center and Will Rogers State Beach. Louis-Dreyfus, who has a privileged background and is wealthy in her own right (from ongoing “Seinfeld” residuals), lives a “green” lifestyle. She and her husband both drive hybrid cars and “we’re about to buy a diesel truck,” she said. The couple, who married in 1987, often spend weekends at their “green” house in Montecito with their sons, Henry,14, and Charlie, 9. The family’s vacation home is near Santa Barbara, where Hall was raised. Louis-Dreyfus said their house there is “all-green” because having a second home “is a huge luxury. It’ s solar-paneled, and made of recycled materials and sustainable woods.” Architect David Hertz transformed the couple’s oceanfront bungalow into a high-tech, energy-efficient home that features wall-to-wall windows to maximize the natural light and bring the outdoors inside. Part of the roof is retractable, allowing for a view of the sky. Syndecrete, a lightweight concrete material Hertz makes out of recycled ash and carpet fiber, was used in parts of the kitchen, bathrooms and outdoor terraces. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York in 1961. Her parents (French billionaire Gerard Louis-Dreyfus and Judith Bowles, a writer) divorced when she was one. The actress spent her childhood dividing her time between her parents’ homes in New York and Washington, D.C. The actress met Hall while both were attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He invited her to join his theater group, the Practical Theatre Company. The couple also performed improv with Chicago’s Second City and were then asked to join the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”– the only husband-and-wife team to do so in the history of the show. After a three-year stint on SNL (1982 to 1985) Louis-Dreyfus appeared in several films, including Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986), before returning to NBC in 1990 to star in the then low-rated sitcom starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld. How did she get the gig as Elaine Benes, Seinfeld’s neurotic ex-girlfriend? While on SNL, she met writer Larry David, who later co-created “Seinfeld.” David’s wife Laurie and Louis-Dreyfus became fast friends. “When we met, we immediately bonded,” recalled Laurie David. “Since Larry’s married to me and he wrote the dialogue and the character, a lot of me rubbed off on her, and her on me.” Larry David is also the creator and star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” In 1998, the year “Seinfeld” ended, Louis-Dreyfus was chosen by People magazine as one of “the 50 most beautiful people in the world,” and was the voice of Princess Atta in the hit Pixar-animated film, “A Bug’s Life,” that same year, After nine seasons, during which time she won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for “Seinfeld,” Louis-Dreyfus took a break before going on to star in three of her own sitcoms: the short-lived “22 Minutes with Eleanor Riggs,” created for her by Hall; “Watching Ellie,” which was canceled after one season; and “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” which CBS renewed last month. While in New York promoting her show, in which she plays a divorced mom, Louis-Dreyfus hosted SNL–the only former female cast member to ever return as host. She appeared with former “Seinfeld” cast members Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld in the opening monologue. Back in L.A. last week, Louis-Dreyfus, 45, said that of all the roles she’s played, it’s her real-life role as “wife and mother,” that she enjoys the most, followed by her work as an “actress and activist.” As a Palisades resident, she worked with her neighbors to get speed humps on Alma Real, “which was purely a safety issue. Drivers were using our street and other streets in the Huntington to avoid the traffic on Chautauqua. And because our streets are wide, these drivers had the false impression that the speed limit was something like 40 to 45 m.p.h., which it’s not. So we as a community worked really hard to get these humps in as we felt it was the only way to get people to slow down, short of putting lights in or having cops at every corner.” Louis-Dreyfus, who is also involved with Laurie David’s National Defense Research Council, feels the best way to make a difference “is to start by making a difference in your own life. I’m drawn to the water and ocean, which are so basic and fundamental that when they are taken advantage of, it bothers me to the core.” Her favorite thing to do at the beach? “Walk, and then watch my children and husband surf.”

Dr. Adriana Van Hemert, a Republican running in the 41st Assembly District primary, thinks she has at least a “50-percent chance” of winning against the only other Republican in this race, Tony Dolz. “My opponent is only interested in one issue’illegal immigration,” said Van Hemert, who lives in Santa Monica. “While it affects us all, it’s really a federal issue. There are a lot of other issues in this campaign. We’ll see what the voters have to say June 6. ” Van Hemert believes in fewer government regulations and that the government should be “a facilitator, not a regulator” in the private sector. While she has no children of her own, she is “pro family” and “pro child.” As a social worker, she has seen the system at its worst, having worked with abused children and low-income families in crime-ridden areas of L.A. She said she is running for the Assembly “to ensure that all children within the State of California have the opportunity for a better future. The education system in this state is broken and needs to be fixed. Parents need choices and to be involved. We need more charter schools.” For the past 10 years, Van Hemert has done pro-bono work with the homeless and mentally ill, the elderly and people with addictions. She has also worked with minorities and the Latino population, counseling children in the Compton schools, as well as in their homes. Having visited dozens of L.A. schools, she is concerned with what she sees as an “obvious decline of our educational system. I have worked with seniors in high school who could barely read or write at a third grade level.” While Van Hemert believes in quality education, she also sees the need for an alternative to high school, “a trade school where our children would be afforded the opportunity to learn employable trades, with an apprentice program in which local businesses participate. Every child is capable of excelling at something, given the chance.” Van Hemert was born in the Netherlands, emigrated to the U.S. in 1968, settled in the Salinas Valley and, after the untimely death of her husband two years later in a traffic accident, decided to relocate to Southern California, where she had a number of careers (acting, real estate, business entrepreneur) before becoming a social worker. She holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in human development with an emphasis on marriage and family therapy. She also trained at UCLA in family mediation and alcohol and drug counseling. In this last week of the primary campaign she said she is going to be precinct walking and cold-calling, looking to conjure up last-minute support. Asked how fundraising for her campaign was going, Van Hemert, 59, told the Palisadian-Post on Tuesday that “it’s going as well as can be expected. I think big money is waiting until after the primary.” Van Hemert, who became a U.S. citizen in 1975, said that since she arrived here 38 years ago, she has seen the “American dream” erode and now elude many citizens, especially in California “due to rampant government spending and wasting taxpayers’ money on programs that don’t work. We need to bring back integrity and accountability to Sacramento,” she said. “I am neither a lawyer nor a career politician. I am a private citizen who understands the concerns of voters.”

Here’s the deal: contribute $1,000 to Republican Tony Dolz’s primary campaign and receive a luxury down quilt valued at $800. Dolz is offering this in exchange for those who support his sole campaign plank in the 41st Assembly District race: illegal immigration. On one hand, his hardline stance is unexpected considering he is an immigrant himself. A Cuban-born Hispanic, Dolz, 47, came to the U.S. as a child and became an American citizen in 1986. On the other hand, it’s no surprise considering that Dolz is a founding member of the Minutemen Project, the self-appointed civil defense corps determined to secure our borders. In fact, Dolz spent Memorial Day weekend in Arizona with his family, which includes his Danish-born wife, Bettina, who sells a number of high-end health, clothing and quality linen products on the Internet (including the luxury quilts), and his two children’Dylan, 5, and 11-month-old Sienna. Dolz went to Arizona to break ground on the Minutemen Fence. He and hundreds of other volunteers strung barb wire near Palominas, along the Mexican border. The Minutemen’s goal is “to force our President and Congress to secure our borders and to enforce the immigration laws that are in the books now,” Dolz said. “The number of illegal aliens in our country [estimated to be 11 million to 12 million] is proof that our government does not enforce the laws and, despicably, that they do not want to enforce the laws.” Dolz, who lives in Santa Monica, describes himself as a “national security expert” and a Minutemen lobbyist in the official voter’s pamphlet. “Our family celebrates legal immigration and opposes lawlessness” reads his campaign statement. Dolz said he vowed, after 9/11, to dedicate himself to securing the border “so that kind of tragedy would never happen again.” While the immigration debate is heated (the House and Senate bills differ on whether to allow illegal immigrants to qualify for citizenship), Dolz’s stance is clear. “Although English is not my first language, I have less of a problem than our senators, our congressmen, most of our state assemblymen and state senators and many in the media understanding the meaning of the word ‘illegal.’ For example, it is illegal to violate our borders; it is illegal to hire illegal aliens; it is illegal to use a false Social Security card for the purpose of gaining employment; it is illegal not to pay taxes on earned income; it is illegal to use false declarations to obtain a California driver’s license; it is illegal to drive without a driver’s license and without insurance; it is illegal to receive tax-paid social services which only citizens are eligible to receive.” Dolz said his campaign revolves around the recovery of what he describes as the illegal misuse of an estimated $10.5 billion a year in California. “I would like to take much of that improper use of California taxpayers’ money and use it to lower the cost and improve the quality of education and health care in our state,” said Dolz, a businessman who specializes in information technology and telecommunications. “For more than a year I have put my business and personal life on hold and dedicated myself to our national security and to responsible, sustainable and controlled immigration policy,” he said. “My campaign revolves around issues brought about by the dereliction of duty of our federal government and state legislators in bestowing tax-paid services to illegals. I am the best-qualified candidate to deal with these issues.” Dolz said that to be against illegal immigration is not to be confused with “being against legal immigration. It is patriotic to demand that our elected representatives secure our borders for the safety of all Americans. To demand that our immigration laws be uniformly enforced and that our government act responsibly is not racist. And for the President to think that rotating the National Guard every two weeks at the border is going to do what needs to be done is not workable. For one thing, they won’t even be armed, which will only add to the immigration chaos.”

Shawn Casey O’Brien is the underdog among five Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in the 41st Assembly District primary’a position he understands. When O’Brien was in grade school and coping with cerebral palsy, bullies stole his crutches and stuffed him in a trash can. He climbed his way out and crawled up the hill to get his crutches. “I was a mess,” he says. “I don’t like bullies, but they’ve made me what I am’I stand up for the underdog.” The oldest of seven children, O’Brien was born into a union family in Pontiac, Michigan. His father worked for Fisher Body before going into the state legislature. “I was taught early to respect labor,” says O’Brien, who calls himself an FDR Democrat who believes social programs with their safety nets help save the country’s middle class. “If you have grandma taken care of with Social Security and your children can get low-interest loans for college, that leaves a middle class able to spend,” O’Brien says. “It isn’t an original idea; I got it from Henry Ford who figured out if he paid his workers enough, he made out because they could afford the cars.” O’Brien started his political career at age 19 when he hitched out to Santa Monica to work for Tom Hayden’s 1976 senate primary campaign against John Tunney. After the election he sang in a rock-and-roll band called “The Cripples.” One night he was in Santa Monica thumbing for a ride home, when a man in a blue station wagon picked him up. They struck up a conversation and when the man heard that O’Brien had a band, he asked O’Brien to sing him a song. The man driving the car was Bob Dylan, who was impressed enough to take one of O’Brien’s tapes to Management 3. The company wanted to manage him, but told him to change his punk image to a “John Denver on sticks” kind of persona, drawing on the fact that he uses crutches. O’Brien refused, and he and his band were blackballed for several years. “I was 23 and didn’t understand the opportunity I had,” O’Brien says. “I don’t think anyone ever said ‘No’ to that company.” He started writing and had almost finished his first novel, “Notes of a Political Roadie,” when someone broke into his house and stole his briefcase, which contained the manuscript. He didn’t have a copy (in that era before the computer), and had to resign himself to its loss. Twenty years later he finished another novel, “For the Love of Long Shots,” which is excerpted in “Voices From the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act,” published by Oxford Press. Along the way, O’Brien got married and had a daughter and then became a certified paralegal so that he could support his family. During that time, he came across a parking lot in Venice that had the handicapped parking area chained off. This triggered his activism to register disabled voters. Throughout the 1990s, he was executive director of the Unique People’s Voting Project, a grassroots effort that was able to register over 100,000 Californians. He was also a member of the California Secretary of State’s Taskforce on Touchscreen Voting and is currently on sabbatical from co-hosting KPFK’s “Access Unlimited,” the disabilities awareness show for people who are born “in the know” or those that arrive there accidentally. In 2002, O’Brien ran for Secretary of State and even though he spent less than $7,000, he received more than 81,000 votes, which was surprising, but helped him realize the value of “grassroots” politics. “I would outlaw fundraising while the legislature is in session,” he says. “It’s almost impossible for an average citizen of modest means to run against the millionaires.” “If I’m elected, neither I nor my staff will spend one moment of our time raising money for future campaigns,” O’Brien promises. “I will spend full time legislating.” He estimates that current legislators spend 40 to 50 percent of their time lining up support for future campaigns. He would also do away with term limits for two reasons: the people who pass the budget are no longer in office to be held responsible for legislation they’ve passed, and lobbyists are the only people with institutional memory. “We end up with totally inexperienced legislators who don’t know how to deal with internal politics.” O’Brien is quite clear about the transportation issue. “It’s not enough to say we need mass transit; it needs to be accessible and faster than traveling by car. If it takes 30 minutes to get to work in a car and 70 by mass transit, you’ll never get people out of their cars.” He also points out you can’t fix traffic problems in Santa Monica or Agoura unless you take a regional approach, because many people drive 30 or 40 miles to get to work. He supports a subway extension along Wilshire so that passengers could travel between downtown and the beach, dedicated bus lanes on the freeways, and expanding the car-pool diamond lanes by adding a second one to keep traffic flowing. O’Brien opposes passing bonds to pay for infrastructure. “I’m against borrowing because it taxes future generations which allows the governor and his wealthy friends to have lunch today.” But he’s in favor of having California join other states by charging a severance tax on oil extracted in California and using the money to help provide research and production incentives for alternative energy, alternative fuel vehicles and, energy-efficient technologies. “If corporate loop-holes could be closed, an additional $2 to $3 billion would be added to the treasury and help forestall additional borrowing. “I’m tired of the legislature balancing the budget on the backs of the poor, senior citizens, children and the disabled, while they give tax breaks to the most fortunate among us, which ultimately destroys the middle class,” O’Brien says.

Campaigning for nearly two years for the Democratic nomination in the 41st Assembly District, Barry Groveman has been endorsed by a broad spectrum of leaders: Senator Dianne Feinstein, Sheriff Lee Baca, L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, and California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. But as he met for an interview with the Palisadian-Post at Mort’s Deli two weeks ago, Groveman admitted to one frustration. “My biggest problem is I’m running against two potent legislators.” He meant Assemblywoman Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills, who is termed-out this year, and State Senator Sheila Kuhn of Santa Monica, who previously held the 41st District seat for three terms. These two strong leaders have both endorsed Julia Brownley, president of the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board, and their support could prove decisive in a primary election with an anticipated light voter turnout. Another strong contender in this winner-take-all primary is 35-year-old attorney Jonathan Levey, who has been endorsed by the L.A. Times and the L.A. Weekly. Yet as Groveman assessed the final stages of a long, grinding campaign from South Oxnard to Santa Monica, he was optimistic that voters would endorse his career accomplishments, his energy, his candid opinions and his collaborative skills. “This campaign has presented a market place of ideas and the person who puts forward the best ideas should win,” said Groveman, who has been offering a flurry of problem-solving proposals drawn from his 27-year career as an environmental advocate, criminal prosecutor, public official and community volunteer. Born in New York and raised on Long Island, where his father owned an electronics company, Groveman graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in political science and then moved out to Los Angeles to earn his law degree at Southwestern University School of Law. He began his legal career in the L.A. City Attorney’s Office in 1979, and from 1980 to 1983 he was head of environmental protection for the city, serving as counsel to Mayor Tom Bradley, the City Council and city commissions. He then led a countywide Toxic Waste Strike Force and, in 1986, was principal co-author of the landmark environmental law, Prop. 65, the “Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act.” After entering private practice in 1987 with Musick, Peeler & Garrett, Groveman continued to play an active role in environmental issues’from perchlorate contamination in water supplies in San Bernardino County to MtBE contamination of water supplies in Santa Monica and Morro Bay. He also was appointed to head an independent “School Safety Team” looking into environmental problems concerning several school sites within the LAUSD, which ultimately led to closure of the infamous Belmont Learning Center. In 2000, Groveman ran unsuccessfully for District Attorney against incumbent Gil Garcetti and Steve Cooley (“Cooley won because Gil and I split the vote”) but came away with important campaign insights. “In order to win in the future, you have to survive losing, because it teaches you a lot,” Groveman said. “I’ve run my whole Assembly campaign differently because of that.” What did he learn? “That there’s no substitute for my own judgement. I have to rely on a lot of people, but at the end of the day, my judgement is very important and there’s no substitute. Also, my instincts are good and I need to rely on them.” In that vein, he generally travels alone to interviews and other appearances. “This is not something that requires handlers,” he said at Mort’s. “I’m my own handler. I want to be accessible and free, and I know what I’m saying’I have 30 years experience; I don’t have to worry about what to say about a particular issue. I know the issues.” After being elected to the Calabasas City Council in 2003 and “bringing forward a series of reforms that were approved and implemented by the council,” Groveman served a short stint as mayor beginning March 23, 2005. He cites his council accomplishments as an important factor in holding his base of support on the “Valley side” of the district, which includes Agoura Hills, Encino, Hidden Hills, Oak Park, Tarzana, Westlake Village and Woodland Hills. The Valley has 41 percent of the district’s registered Democrats, compared to 28 percent in Santa Monica, where his four opponents all live. Helping Groveman make inroads along the coast is an endorsement by Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Shriver, who said in a statement that he supports Groveman because “he will focus on homelessness” as a regional challenge that requires “bringing other cities into this work” beyond Santa Monica and L.A.’s Skid Row. “Also, Barry will work hard to develop and finance a system that cleans all storm drains in the Santa Monica Bay watershed…[He] has committed to me that he will make regional storm-drain cleanup a priority.” Meanwhile, Groveman said he wouldn’t concede education votes to Brownley, arguing that he’s an advocate of everything from anti-bullying statues to charter schools. “Charters have some good, innovative ideas that we need to look at. They’re showing good results, and I also like the competition that they create for public schools’keeping people on their toes, keeping them accountable, and giving more control back to the community.” Like every candidate running for office in Los Angeles, Groveman has ideas for how to ease traffic congestion. He emphasizes a regional approach, starting with the appointment of a high-level “road superintendent” whose responsibility would include focusing on traffic flow issues along critical roads’such as Sunset, PCH, and the 10 Freeway leaving Santa Monica every afternoon’and marshaling the necessary resources to reduce gridlock. Other traffic ideas include (1) “computerizing all signals at major roadways and on/off ramps,” (2) “stopping rush-hour construction projects,” and (3) “removing freeway accidents in six minutes,” a plan modeled “on Houston’s successful traffic mobility program, which includes clearing non-injury collisions, fender benders and flat tires within six minutes, thus reducing backup that leads to gridlock and additional accidents.” If elected, Groveman vows to “fight aggressively to bring universal health care to all Californians, beginning with uninsured children.” He said at Mort’s, “I really believe I’m the only candidate in this race who has the bipartisan skills and bipartisan support to broker that kind of solution,” based on the recent Massachuetts plan. “My opponents are criticizing me because I have business support and criticizing me because there are Republicans who support me. But Im running to be a representative for everybody in this district. And as a lawyer I’m skilled at representing a lot of different parties.” Groveman also wants to “increase cigarette taxes by $2.60 per pack to invest to public health.” As Calabasas mayor, he helped pass a groundbreaking secondhand smoke ordinance which does not ban smoking, but requires individuals to smoke in designated outdoor areas, away from others. Married, and with a son in fifth grade, Groveman stays fit and trim by jogging every day in the Santa Monica Mountains near his home. “I’ve been running my whole life, but in the last 12 years’since my son was born’I’ve tried to run at least a half-hour every day, without fail. I run in the dark, I run in the weather, I’ve even run with injuries. I’m not competing for anything, it’s just a nice discipline: I do my best thinking and I get the tension out of my body.” Groveman’s wife, Susan, and son Brandon are actively involved in the campaign. “I’m lucky that they are into what I’m doing,” Groveman said. “Susan calls people who have been invited to events and is very effective. Brandon has enjoyed coming to the debate forums to sit in the audience and make me smile. One time I had him come up and stand with me on stage and get a feel for what it’s like when you look out at a thousand people. Pretty soon he tugged on my jacket and whispered in my ear, “Dad, listen, if they ask you a tough question you’re not sure about, I’ll take a crack at it.” Barry Groveman is a serious, intense fellow, but when he told this story, his face beamed and for a moment he could forget about his all-consuming quest for political office.

(Editor’s note: Five Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination in the 41st Assembly District primary election on June 6. Last week we profiled Jonathan Levey and Kelly Hayes-Raitt; this week we feature Julia Brownley, Barry Groveman and Shawn Casey O’Brien. Articles on the two Republicans competing for their party’s nomination’Tony Dolz and Adriana Van Hemert’appear on page 5. The seat is currently held by Fran Pavley, who is termed out this year after six years on the job.) Julia Brownley knows that she will have “big shoes to fill” if she wins Tuesday’s Democratic primary and is elected to represent the 41st Assembly District in November. With the endorsement support of State Sen. Sheila Kuehl and State Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, Brownley hopes to continue their fight for environmental protection and universal health care. But the Democratic candidate is, first and foremost, a leader in education, currently serving her third term on the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board and third time as president. “My expertise is education,” says Brownley, a Santa Monica resident. “I want to be to education what Fran has been to the environment and what Sheila has been to health care.” Her involvement in the city’s school system began at the local level as PTA president at Grant Elementary, where her children attended school. She says she knew she could make a stronger impact, and ran for school board president in 1992, but lost. She ran again in 1994 and was elected. “The school board job is the best job I’ve had,” says Brownley, who holds a B.A. in political science from George Washington University and an MBA from American University. Last year, she helped organize the “Caravan for Kids,” sending more than 5,000 parents, teachers and students to Sacramento to fight Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut school funding by $2 billion. Brownley, who is also endorsed by the California Federation of Teachers, has fought to raise academic achievement for all students, reduce the dropout rate, and increase school funding to reduce class sizes and pay for arts, music and after-school programs. “I’m really appalled at where California is with regard to education,” Brownley says, adding that she believes the state needs to “invest in community colleges and UCs, in research and cutting-edge technology.” She is “motivated by service,” said Louise Rishoff, Pavley’s district director, at a recent meet-and-greet in Topanga. “She helped make the Santa Monica school district a model for excellence.” Brownley believes that she and Pavley are “cut from similar cloth in a lot of ways,” as they are education advocates with a passion for the environment. She praises Pavley’s “green” accomplishments, calling her the “quintessential environmental goddess for the state of California.” Brownley traces her own environmental passion back to the 1970s when she was in Washington, D.C., working for Williamson Stuckey, a “moderate Democrat” who served in Congress from 1967 to 1977. “He introduced me to the importance of environmental concerns and open spaces,” she says. She went on to work for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, specifically on the dangers of lead-based paint in urban neighborhoods. In 1980, Brownley moved to San Francisco where she worked in product marketing and branding before moving to Santa Monica in 1983. “I consider myself a native Californian,” says Brownley, who was born in South Carolina and grew up in Virginia. “I’m here for the rest of my life.” When she relocated to Santa Monica, she worked as a product manager for Steelcase, a leading office furniture manufacturing company, but the job required a lot of travel and Brownley wanted to spend more time at home. “It wasn’t my passion,” she says, which is why she left the job to work for the school board. As president, she promoted her district’s policy to replace older diesel buses with buses that run on cleaner, alternative fuels. She recently won board approval to ban pesticides and herbicides at school sites and to incorporate “green” building objectives into all future plans for district facilities. Endorsed by the California League of Conservation Voters, Brownley links environmental issues with transportation, which she considers a regional issue. The crisis in the transportation system is “really is about finding financing,” says Brownley, who believes that state and city officials must unite “to ensure we’re getting every federal and state dollar.” She wants to join Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky in expanding current bus and rail transit systems in Los Angeles. She is particularly enthused about the impending construction of a light-rail line along the Exposition Corridor from downtown L.A. to Culver City (and eventually on to Santa Monica), to relieve pressure on the 10 Freeway. “Within a six-year cycle, finding funding [for the light rail] is really doable,” she says. Brownley is emphatic about the importance of partnerships, whether it’s working with local workers, nonprofit organizations or state officials. “My moral compass is justice,” she says. “I strongly believe there is no justice without economic justice.” Brownley was an active supporter of the Living Wage Campaign for hotel workers in Santa Monica, marching with them to support union organizing drives for the Doubletree Hotel, which is on district-owned property. She convinced the school board to adopt a labor peace policy at the hotel. She also helped create a partnership between her school district, Blue Cross and the Venice Family Clinic to start a health clinic at Santa Monica High to provide free health care and counseling to students. “I think we have hit the proverbial wall with regards to health care,” says Brownley, who is endorsed by the California Nurses Association. “I believe California has a strong responsibility to lead in this issue. I believe all Californians should have access to health care.” If elected, Brownley says she would partner with Kuehl to pass single-payer universal health care (SB 840), make sure that all children are covered and work to lower the costs of prescription drugs. Should she become the next state assemblywoman, she foresees her biggest challenge as “hitting the ground running and being effective right away,” adding that “I think I will do those things, but it’s about building relationships and trust.” “Restoring trust back into the government” is another key element of Brownley’s campaign. She supports Assemblywoman Loni Hancock’s “California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act” and wants to work with Hancock to minimize the influence of “big money” on the California political process. Brownley also wants to work with State Sen. Debra Bowen, who is running for secretary of state, on fail-safe voting systems. In November’s statewide elections, Brownley says she hopes the Democrats can retain a strong majority in the state legislature, and gain a Democratic governor. “That will provide a more effective landscape to move ahead on more significant legislation,” says Brownley, who is endorsed by the California Democratic Party as well as many local Democratic groups including the Palisades club. “I really see the Palisades community as my own community,” she says. “I know many people in the Palisades by virtue of living in Santa Monica.” She adds that she plans to follow in Pavley’s footsteps in terms of “accessibility,” or Fran’s involvement in the community. “I just want to have a seamless transition when it comes to that.” Brownley admits that her marketing background has been helpful in the last 15 months, as she has been campaigning and, essentially, selling herself. Her days are “nonstop” and, lately, spent phone banking, precinct walking and doing interviews with the press. She has raised more than $400,000 and her goal is to reach a half million. At 53, Brownley says, “I’ve never worked harder.” She usually gets up around 5:30 or 6 a.m. so that she can spend a little time with her son before he leaves for school. Fred, 18, is a senior at Santa Monica High School, and will enter UC Berkeley in the fall. Her daughter, Hannah, is a sophomore at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Brownley, who is divorced, winds down at the end of the day by “hanging out with my son, having dinner, and reading the paper.” She adds, “I’m really hoping that June will bring both my son and me a new journey.”

Last week Heal the Bay released its 16th annual Beach Report Card which shows that Los Angeles County had by far the lowest grades’with the top two of the 10 most polluted beaches in the state located right here in the Palisades. While a total of 32 beaches statewide received an F grade in the 2005-2006 report, the distinction of being the “most polluted” actually goes to four locations in North Santa Monica Bay that tied for the most number of violations: Escondido Creek and Puerco Beach at the Marie Canyon storm drain in Malibu and Castle Rock Beach at the Castle Rock and Santa Ynez storm drains, located between Santa Ynez and Topanga canyons. Will Rogers State Beach at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon, which routinely gets an F, was ranked the second most polluted beach in California.(See related story, page 9) Heal the Bay’s annual report, a comprehensive evaluation of coastal water quality based on daily and weekly samples gathered at beaches from Humboldt County to the Mexican border, assigns an A to F letter grade to more than 450 California beaches based on their levels of bacterial pollution. Only 68 percent of L.A. County beaches scored an A or a B letter grade, compared to the statewide average of 85 percent, that got A’s and B’s during dry weather. A poor grade means beachgoers face a higher risk of contracting illnesses’such as stomach flu, ear infections, upper respiratory infections and skin rashes. The report shows that some of the most popular beaches in the region, including Surfrider in Malibu (ranked 4th) and Avalon on Catalina Island (ranked 3rd) are among the most polluted. “This Beach Report Card demonstrates that just because you go to the beach in a multimillion-dollar neighborhood doesn’t guarantee it is safe for swimming,” said Dr. Mark Gold, Executive Director of Heal the Bay. “Whether you are in San Pedro or in Malibu, you have a chance of being next to a highly polluted beach. Beach water quality knows no geographic or economic bounds.” The 2005-2006 report is the first to incorporate new monitoring systems endorsed by the State Water Resources Control Board and the California Beach Water Quality Work Group. Last year, monitoring programs were modified to collect samples directly in front of flowing storm drains and creeks’locations known as “point zero”‘ and 14 new Santa Monica Bay sites from Malibu to Palos Verdes were added under the beach bacteria Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements. According to Heal the Bay, the new monitoring program indicates that people who swim directly in front of flowing storm drains are more likely to encounter highly polluted waters. And as in past years, there continues to be a great disparity between dry and wet weather, when water quality typically plummets because of the pollution that rain flushes through the storm drain system and into the ocean. While 80 percent of the beaches monitored in Southern California during summer dry weather received A grades, that number dropped to only 37 percent during wet weather, with 31 percent of the beaches monitored receiving an F grade. However, the report does say that overall water quality in dry weather continues to be good, meaning that the majority of California’s beaches are in safe condition for swimming and surfing throughout the upcoming summer season. “We’re happy to report that most beaches in the state continue to have safe levels of bacteria during the summer months, especially open ocean beaches,” said Dr. Gold. Gold noted that there were large expanses of the California coastline which got a letter grade of A, including the South Bay of Los Angeles County, Palos Verdes, as well as Seal Beach to Huntington Beach and Newport to San Clemente in Orange County, stretches of Ventura County, and nearly all beaches in North San Diego County. Approximately 85 percent of the beaches monitored statewide received a grade of A or B, meaning very good to excellent water quality. “The public has a right to get water-quality information that will help them make informed decisions about where to take their families swimming,” said Dr. Gold. “The Beach Report Card helps families understand which beaches they can visit without fear of getting sick.”