Palisadian Scott Corwin insists he’s not a stargazer, but then there’s that constellation of Democratic luminaries he’s posing with in photos on his office credenza’Bill Clinton, Hillary, John Kerry, John Edwards and Teresa Heinz Kerry. ‘People say, ‘How great,’ when they see these photos. I say ‘Great, come to the fundraiser.’ These Democrats energize me.’ Although Corwin is now a trustee of the Democratic National Committee, named to the body for his prodigious fundraising’about $285,000 this year’he is most excited about the neighborhood party he is co-hosting on October 10 with 14 other Palisadian couples. Although entry is only $150 a head, the evening will be modeled on a major political fundraiser, with dinner, music and a meet-and-greet, Corwin says. Special guests will be Phil Angelides, California State Treasurer and California co-chairman of the Kerry Edwards Campaign; Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A. City Council member and national co-chairman of the campaign; and State Assemblymember Fran Pavley. A self-proclaimed passionate person, Corwin says that this party is ‘a way for the community to express themselves.’ At the end of August, Corwin equipped himself with 30 Kerry/ Edwards signs and went around to his neighbors on Grenola asking if they would like to post a lawn sign. ‘I wanted to share my enthusiasm and I think it’s important that people are involved. One of my neighbors asked me for a sign and said, ‘This has given us permission to express ourselves.” Corwin, 41, grew up in the Palisades, attended local public schools and UCLA and then law school at USC. ‘I always wanted to be involved in a grassroots way with politics, but didn’t. I was never involved in a campaign except later with consumer issues as part of my membership in the Consumer Attorneys of L.A. and the state consumer group (CAOC). ‘We as a family have been involved in various different causes. My wife, Susan, is on the board at University Synagogue, and she has involved our son Joshua with the Grammercy Shelter for women and children. ‘But on a larger level, I thought everything was fine when Clinton was president. Things were good and then I became a little more aware after Bush took office. I did a lot of reading ideas from people like [political gadfly] Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky (‘Hegemony or Survival’) and Chalmers Johnson (‘The Sorrows of Empire’). I watched what has been happening over the last couple of years and have a lot of disagreement with what is going on. I think of what our country will look like when my son, who is only 11, becomes a man’in terms of welfare, health care and the environment.’ Then last fall Corwin got a call from a friend who wondered if he could help with Dick Gebhart’s campaign. He agreed’he had always liked the Missouri Congressman’and got three or four friends to attend an event. ‘I enjoyed it, enjoyed getting a chance to feel involved,’ Corwin says. In January he called the Kerry campaign and said he would like to help. That began what Corwin describes as his day job. ‘I come here to the office and work on the campaign all day, go home to spend time with my wife and son and then in the night I do my legal work.’ As a consumer rights lawyer, Corwin says that the last four years of the Bush administration have directly affected his clients. ‘A quarter of my clients don’t have health insurance. Many of them are minimum wagers, so if they are involved in an accident, my job is often to get them medical compensation.’ Corwin has taken up the presidential campaign in a serious, focused manner. And despite his newfound connections and being one of only about 200 DNC trustees, he is unpretentious, confessing that he has no political ambitions. ‘I have no agenda, nothing to gain personally.’ ‘There is only so much I can do as a person, so that’s why I am concentrating on the presidential race. Only this race for the president of the United States affects us all. It does matter, we’ve seen how much it really mattered in the last four years, and we’ll see more in four years.’
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