Christian Anthony Horvath’s path has taken him from New Jersey to Los Angeles, from touring musician to family man and now, potentially, from concerned citizen to city councilman.
But first, he has to get through the canvassing his district.
“Man, there are a lot of dogs in this neighborhood,” he muses as he walks past the third house that day to feature a cacophony of barking accompanying a doorbell.
Originally from the East Coast, Horvath moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream as a musician. He was moderately successful, making a living on the road and releasing two albums, but after marrying and having a daughter, he saw that he needed to slow down. After his wife became pregnant with twins, he set down roots, taking his day job as a freelance art director “to the next level.”
A resident of Redondo Beach for eight years, Horvath’s community service is ingrained in him: he’s a 2011 graduate of the Redondo Leadership Class, he’s an organizer for TEDxRedondo Beach, he’s a harbor commissioner and, as Councilman Pat Aust terms out, he’s decided to place himself in the race for District 3’s City Council seat.
His technique is always the same: Standing on a stranger’s doorstep, he introduces himself as Christian, “from down on Van Horne.” “It lets them know I’m from the neighborhood,” he says, hopefully removing any doubts that he might a salesman, or worse, some uncaring political hack.
He offers a card and a flyer, both sharply printed on full-color glossy card stock, both featuring his logo, a family photo, and a plethora of ways to contact him: Facebook, Twitter, email, phone number and website.
He explains that he’s running for City Council, hoping to replace the outgoing Aust, and asks if they have any concerns that he might be able to look into for them.
He says that he’s done this, by himself, for every street in the district he hopes to represent — and that when he’s done, he’s going to start all over again.
To say that Horvath is meticulous would be an understatement. An art director by trade, he runs a “full-service creative agency” by day, assisting clients in everything from developing graphics to building websites, explaining that the research phase of working with a client, where he gets to understand their culture, is among the most important steps in the process.
Simply put, the guy understands branding.
That he’s going door-to-door, grassroots-style, is a calculated decision. Sure, he explains his politics when asked, clarifying that he supports waterfront redevelopment, that he hates the idea of money in politics, that his vote in favor of Measure B is certain, and that waterfront fears are generally unfounded.
“What I see along the waterfront is a concept; when developers come in with a project, they come in up here, at the ceiling they’re allowed to build within,” he says, dismissing the idea that CenterCal is planning to build a megamall along the shorefront. “To me, I see everything happening down there as a concept, as ideas, and there’s plenty of room for it to grow into something everyone can be happy with.”
But what he’s selling on that day, in a neighborhood whose residents often say that they feel neglected by their councilman, is someone who is taking time for them; someone who leaves a door hanger with a personalized sticky note on it when he misses someone at their house.
“For me, I work with clients in a whole ton of different industries, and they all come to you with problems that you have to solve…but you don’t just solve them on your own,” he says. “It’s a process; the client wants to be involved with what’s going on, and they should be, and we learn. It becomes a real collaborative process, and it turns out that the final product is something that the client is 100 percent happy with.”
“For being a volunteer or a civil servant, you’re representing your district and the city at large, so there has to be a way to have a give and take and formulate a vote on something based on a collaborative effort.” ER
