State Assembly Primary Candidates

Democrat Jonathan Levey (Editor’s note: Five Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination in the 41st Assembly District primary election on June 6. We begin our profiles this week with Jonathan Levy and Kelly Hayes-Raitt, and will feature Julia Brownley, Barry Groveman and Shawn Casey O’Brien next week. Meanwhile, two Republicans are competing for their party’s nomination: Tony Dolz and Adriana Van Hemert. We will also profile them next week. The seat is currently held by Fran Pavley, who is termed out this year.) By LIBBY MOTIKA Senior Editor There is good news and bad news about term limits. The bad news is that one-third of the state Assembly will be replaced in November, undoubtedly removing some fine legislators who are just hitting their stride. The good news is that one-third of the Assembly will be replaced in November, opening more opportunities for government service. For Jonathan Levey, who is running in the June 6 Democratic primary to replace termed-out Fran Pavley, the news is good. This race gives the first-time candidate a shot at representing the 41st District in an open race. At 36, Levey is the youngest (and tallest at 6′ 4”) candidate in the race, but his career to this point has offered a variety of experiences that persuaded him that he would be effective in the legislature. His decision to enter the race 15 months before the primary surprised some of his friends, who thought it was too late to join the crowded field. Five candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination. “I had thought about it,” Levey told the Palisadian Post. “But that doesn’t get you very far.” His thoughts turned more realistic after he spent the summer of 2004 working for Sen. Tom Dashel’s reelection campaign in South Dakota. “I came back in November 2004; that’s when I started to think seriously about it and talk about it with people I trust.” One of the first people Levey met when he moved to Los Angeles 10 years ago was Superior Court Judge Terry Friedman, whom he met through his work with Bet Tzedek Legal Services. For the past two years, Levey has served as chairman of The Justice Ball, a young professionals event for Bet Tzedek. Friedman, who lives across the street from Levey in Santa Monica, served eight years in the Assembly before he was elected to Superior Court in 1994. Levey grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in St. Louis, the oldest of three children. After graduating from Princeton in 1991 with a degree in public policy and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1995, he served as law clerk to the Honorable William Bauer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. While an attorney with the L.A. firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, he created the Munger, Tolles & Olson Associates Foundation, through which attorneys at the firm contribute a percentage of their salaries for charitable donations. Through March 2005, he was vice president at Catellus real estate trust, reporting directly to chairman and CEO Nelson Rising, who is also an active Democratic party strategist. Levey resigned to run for office. Anticipating the reaction of some voters to real estate development companies, Levey endorses Catellus’ approach and cites certain projects, including the conversion of hundreds of thousands of desert acres into a wildlife preserve, reconfiguring Union Station into the hub of the public transit network in downtown Los Angeles and the 300-acre mixed-use project adjacent to SBC Park in San Francisco. “I understand that people in this district are antidevelopment. It should be a difficult place to develop,” Levey says, taking the opportunity to expand on his thoughts about the connection between urban density and transportation. “Long-range planning should encourage higher density in exchange for open space. We cannot afford more and more sprawl,” he says, adding that all future planning should revolve around a transportation hub, such as that being planned for the Santa Monica Transit Plaza between 4th and 5th and Broadway and the 10 Freeway. Some of the L.A. region’s worst traffic congestion is concentrated in the 41st district on the 101 and 405, which has propelled the issue to the front-burner at the local and regional levels. In a whimsical campaign event last week, Levey scheduled a travel race in which contestants using various modes of transportation (the Metro Bus, the Orange Line bus route and surface streets) “raced” across the Valley portion of the district, from Agoura to Encino, in the morning rush-hour. The winner, using the 101, clocked in at 37 minutes, followed closely by two cyclists’one who is a professional. The meaning for Levey is that basic service is not enough, that there are simple changes and improvements that “really could get you to that meeting on time or home for dinner.” Reviving former Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg’s proposed “Commuter’s Bill of Rights,” Levey has devised a 10-point Transportation Action Plan that would include well-maintained roads (but no construction during rush hour), state and local-subsidized towing service during rush hour, designated through-traffic streets prohibiting turns from them during the business day, a flex-time scheduling tax credit for businesses, and regional wireless Internet access. Levey has not only thought about the four or five crucial issues facing the region, and the state’affordable health care, traffic and the quality of life, education and jobs, the environment, and government performance, he has written them in a book, “Ideas in Action.” He recalls that his college thesis advisor used to scoff at students who would say “I know what I mean, but I just can’t say it.” “You don’t know it if you can’t say it,” Levey believes, and has written down his ideas to spell out just exactly what it is he’s going to do if he’s elected. “I want a road map when I get to Sacramento, and these are the ideas I care about. This is what I want to do.” Not wanting to seem immodest, Levey is confident that he’ll be up to speed in Sacramento in six months. “I’m good at a quick learning curve. I’m going to be able to figure this out pretty quickly.” As with the other candidates, Levey divides his time campaigning between the Westside communities of Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu and the Valley, from Agoura Hills to Encino. Because he is a teacher at Cal State Channel Islands, where he teaches business law, he is familiar with the northern portion of the district that includes Port Hueneme and portions of Oxnard. In the end, Levey assesses the campaign in the currency of politics: How much money can you raise? have you raised? can you raise? “I’ve been the fundraising leader in the last three reporting totals,” he says, having raised more than $600,000 to date. “I’ve introduced myself to more than 5,000 people and garnered valued endorsements from former Congressmen Mel Levine and Javier Becerra, State Senator Jack Scott and the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs. I think that shows support. It’s the people part that keeps me going.” Kelly Hayes-Raitt: Democratic Primary Candidate for Assembly By LINDA RENAUD News Editor If you’re concerned about Iraq, the environment, education reform, women’s rights and healthcare for all Californians, then Democrat Kelly Hayes-Raitt may just be the candidate for you. However, while it appears she has some credentials to succeed Fran Pavley for the 41st Assembly District seat, the elected politicians in her district’Pavley, State Senator Sheila Kuehl and City Councilman Bill Rosendahl’have endorsed one of her opponents, Julia Brownley. The question is why, given Hayes-Raitt’s background? In 1983 the California League of Conservation Voters brought Hayes-Raitt, a native of Buffalo, New York, to Los Angeles to open its community organizing office. In the years since she has dedicated herself to grassroots issues. As executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air and as Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy’s environmental representative, she fought against offshore oil drilling, helped found Heal the Bay, worked on legislation to set health standards for toxic mold and to phase out diesel-fueled school buses. In April Hayes-Raitt, a well-known consumer advocate for energy efficiency, recycling and coastal protection who has publicly fought development of the Ballona wetlands, put Governor Schwarzenegger on notice when she testified at two state land commission hearings opposing one of five liquefied natural gas (LNG) platforms. “I will not rest until we have solar panels on every roof in California,” said Hayes-Raitt to a standing-room-only crowd in Oxnard. “After 25 years of fighting, I’m tired of talking about energy conservation. It’s time to talk about independence from the gas and oil industries. California has the brains, resources and sunshine to fully develop clean, renewable, decentralized energy.” While Hayes-Raitt, who is single and the only small business owner in the race, does have some political endorsements (Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamente), and some union support (L.A. County Deputy Probation Officers), she has been running a bare-bones campaign for two years now, having taken time off from her work as a private political consultant and living off the equity of her Santa Monica home. She said she’s raised about $300,000 to date, “and I’d like to raise another $30,000. This is the longest job interview I’ve ever had,” jests Hayes-Raitt, whose other supporters include Martin Sheen, Ed Begley, Jr., Erin Brockovich, the Eagles’ Don Henley (“Welcome to the Hotel Kellyfornia”) and the Sierra Club. “The 41st Assembly District is very important to the Sierra Club,” said Mary Ann Webster, chairperson of the club’s Santa Monica Mountains Task Force. “We interviewed all the viable candidates and found Kelly to be not only the best environmental leader, but the hardest-working candidate we’ve seen in a long time.” The District includes Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Encino, Hidden Hills, Port Hueneme, Westlake Village, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Malibu, Topanga, Santa Monica, parts of Oxnard and Pacific Palisades. By the time the primary is over June 6, Hayes-Raitt said she will have participated in some 60 informal “Meet and Greet” sessions, most of them held in private homes. Although two dozen constituents were invited, only five voters showed up two weeks ago to meet with her at the Casa Gateway residence of Elizabeth Cocca, who thinks the candidate has “tremendous potential. I was immediately taken with her authenticity. Peace is her theme and it’s also mine,” said Cocca, referring to the “Peace Plus” sign on one of Hayes-Raitt’s campaign brochures. Cocca, who works as a substitute teacher in Culver City, said she has never been politically involved before, “except to vote.” She is especially impressed with Hayes-Raitt’s Clean Money Campaign. “There’s a lot of integrity in that,” Cocca said. Before arriving at Cocca’s condo, Hayes-Raitt spent three hours campaigning’going from door-to-door in the Palisades. “I raised a little over $100,” she announced. On the campaign trail, she told the Palisadian-Post that she is the only major candidate in this race limiting her campaign expenditures, which is voluntary in California. Hayes-Raitt knows she will be “outspent” by wealthier opponents. “Clean money campaigns and a clean environment are intertwined,” she said. “We must get polluters’ money out of campaigns, and we must make campaigns about voters, not donors, if we are to truly make ourselves self-sufficient. Voters aren’t going to be getting a lot of mail from me. I’m just going to keep knocking on doors.” Last Sunday evening, Hayes-Raitt gave a staged reading at the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club about her two trips to Iraq called: “Please Go Home and Tell Mr. Bush Not to Bomb Us.” Having visited the war-torn country before and after the U.S. invasion, she talks of the war’s price (“California has sent more soldiers than any other state”). She has become an advocate for Iraqi citizens, saying she wants to help give a voice to the women and children there “whose lives we irrevocably changed. Our president needs to be challenged for getting us in this war.” Hayes-Raitt, who calls herself a “progressive” Democrat, is part of a group which recently sued the federal government over the No Child Left behind Act, which she referred to as “Bush’s efforts to eviscerate our public school system.” According to Hayes-Raitt, many local school districts, including LAUSD, are not getting the funding they are entitled to under the act. Asked what she thought about Mayor Villaraigosa’s plan to take over, all she would say is that if “there’s anyone I would trust with this it would be him.” However, she fears that such a change could “remove community involvement in our schools.”