As Candace Allen-Nafissi arranged the routes of the 15 volunteers who were at her house, preparing to help her knock on the doors of her neighbors in Redondo Beach’s District 3, only one thing distracted her from the task at hand: Her three-year-old son’s voice, cutting across the house, yelling out to his father, or anyone else who would listen.
“Daddy!” he yelled. “Put my new shirt on! Why are you not doing it?”
Allen-Nafissi looked around and sighed. “This is my life,” she said.
As she puts it, the last few months of her life have been a family affair as she, her husband Joe, and her sons, Kian and Kamran, have withstood the chaos of conflicting, chaotic schedules. Nafissi works about 30 hours a week with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and recently returned from a trip to Arizona, surveying an education center looking to move into Long Beach; her husband is an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s harbor division; and her sons are three years old and four months old, respectively. And yes, as her youngest is four months old, that does mean that she was pulling papers while practically postpartum. “When he was less than a month, she was doing paperwork to start campaigning,” Joe Nafissi said. “It’s been really hectic; she’s working, I’ve got a full-time job, the babies are a full-time job and this campaign thing is practically a full-time job. It’s been really hectic, but it’s something she’s passionate about.”
Given the stress of the arrangement, it hasn’t been a walk in the park. “It’s hard – I don’t sleep a lot,” she said. “Sometimes I’m up writing until 1 in the morning. Don’t be surprised if you get an email from me at 2 or 3.”
Having grown up in Torrance, she proudly says that she’s in the South Bay for the long haul. “I’m a local girl, very very close to my family,” she said. “There’s nothing you could do to pay me to be away from [them].” She couldn’t imagine having to spend significant periods of time away from the area she calls home, striking any possibility of a run in Sacramento or Washington, D.C., she says.
Generally, canvassing one’s district is a fair amount of work in itself, but on this day, she was intercepted by her three-year-old, who decided that he wanted to participate for a little while on the journey – while wearing an oversized Dodgers shirt and cap. “He won’t wear my Candace for Council shirt, but he’ll wear a Dodgers shirt.”
“I’m a parent with a young child, so I only have so much time to devote to the campaign, but my family is important; I have to make sure I give them time too. My supporters know that, and they help me by offering to pick up a few streets,” she said. “The only reason I’m able to do it all is to separate myself, and to have really clear delineations of time.”
Much of Allen-Nafissi’s support comes from her strong opposition to Measure B, which would push forward a tear-down of the AES power plant and rezone the land it sits on to make way for a mixed-use and residential development. As such, she’s picked up endorsements from her fellow B opponents, City Councilmen Bill Brand and Steve Sammarco, and a majority of her supporters are with Redondo Residents for Responsible Revitalization, popularly known as R4.
Those supporters sit alongside endorsements from U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, whose office she worked in as a district representative, State Senator Ben Allen, and city council members from across the Beach Cities. That experience, she says, is what sets her apart from the others in her race, some whom are graduates of Leadership Redondo.
“I didn’t need to go through Leadership Redondo for two reasons,” she said. “One, I have a Master’s in Public Administration. Everything you learn in Leadership Redondo, I already know already. Two, I worked for all those legislators they met with; I have a better working knowledge then they will ever have from those day meetings. Leadership Redondo is simply for people to learn about the community; I didn’t have to learn about the community, because my work has always been this.”
While walking the neighborhoods, Allen-Nafissi spotted a canvasser for Yes on B, who confirmed to a Nafissi volunteer that she was, indeed, getting paid by AES. “It’s interesting that they can’t get people to volunteer,” she said. “No on B has tons of volunteers, but if Yes on B is so wildly popular, if it’s what the people want, why can’t they get people to walk for free? I hope people pick up on that.”
She says she’s seen a groundswell of support for those opposing Measure B, encountering a number of like-minded residents throughout the day on her canvassing walk and heatedly agreeing with a fellow opponent of B, barely allowing him to get a word of agreement in edgewise.
“I do, I get fired up,” she said. “Honestly, what I get fired up about is that I feel [AES is] taking advantage of this community.”
“When people ask why I’m running, I remember the stories: Mr. Hopgood on Clark Street, or Mr. Waterman on Harriman Street, who’ve lived here 50 or 60 years, she says. “I’ve lived here for 5 years; I haven’t been here as long as everyone else, but I’ve lived here long enough to have a deep appreciation of this city, and to recognize how much people love this city. Where are the voices for these folks? You don’t see 80 year olds making it out to City Council – they can’t! I’m happy to fight for them, and it’s not fair for them to be taken advantage of. It really bugs me.” ER
