by Andrea Ruse
The race for the 53rd District State Assembly seat is arguably the most competitive in the state, packed with eight candidates in the Democratic primary, more than $2.2 million poured into campaigning and a roughly half million dollar corporate-backed campaign against front-runner Betsy Butler.
Since 1992, the Assembly seat for the 53rd District — which includes Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo beaches, Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, El Segundo, Torrance, Lomita and the Venice Beach portion of Los Angeles — has gone to a Democrat.
In November, Republican candidate Nathan Minz, who is unopposed in the primary, and third-party candidates will face the winner of the Tuesday, June 8 Democratic primary to succeed termed-out Democratic Assemblyman Ted Lieu. All but one candidate in the Democratic pool are running for the first time for the seat. Pete Thottam of Venice unsuccessfully ran against Lieu in 2006.
“It’s not unusual to have eight candidates running,” said James Lau, Democratic candidate from Venice. “What’s unusual about this race is to have four or five viable candidates. There are usually three at the very most. This one’s crazy.”
Two candidates are from the beach cities. Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward says he wants to use the fiscal and educational success of his city as a model for the entire state. Manhattan Beach resident and career educator Diane Wallace says Sacramento is in dire need of an experienced educator to turn around California’s deteriorating education system.
With less than a week away, candidates are hitting the home stretch canvassing neighborhoods, sending out last minute mailers and some showing television commercials.
“In a crowded field, you have a lot of people still undecided and trying to get to know who the candidates are,” said Nick Karno, Democratic candidate from Venice.
Mitch Ward
Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward said he is happy to be gaining recognition as the Democrat’s “small business candidate.”
Ward, 49, is from Arkansas and has lived in the South Bay for nearly 20 years. He has served on the Manhattan Beach City Council since 2003, twice as mayor, and on city commissions. A former Wall Street consultant to clients including the Los Angles Police Department and L.A. City, Ward also owns and operates a Computer/IT repair business.
The creation of jobs is Ward’s top priority. He wants to re-regulate bank lending to make obtaining loans easier for small businesses, which he said will account for the creation of 88 percent of new jobs in coming years.
“Why should we strangle them by not giving them credit?” he said. “Small businesses need credit to grow because they will get us out of the quagmire.”
In the face of deep education cuts, Ward suggested placing a freeze on state college and university tuitions for five years, as well as finding a dedicated source of education funding, such as proceeds from the sale of vanity license plates that represent local sports teams. He also proposed a corporate reinvestment program, where local corporations — such as aerospace and engineering companies — would pool money toward college funding for students entering related fields and who would have the opportunity to work for those businesses after graduation.
“Hundreds of jobs are going unfulfilled because we don’t have the pool of applicants we need in the state,” Ward said. “A lot of jobs are being outsourced.”
Ward also said he would push to change the requirement for budgeting local revenues from a two-thirds to 55 percent legislative vote in order to empower cities to be better able to address funding needs. At a panel discussion last month at El Camino College in Torrance, Ward suggested prison funds used on nonviolent offenders, such as violators of marijuana laws, be shifted toward shoring up the state’s more than $20 billion deficit. A proposition that would make the sale and use of marijuana legal will be on the state’s November ballot.
Ward is endorsed by over 50 local mayors and council members from the state, the California Legislative Black Caucus, The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and the International Union of Operating Engineers.
“It’s an honor to be in this race as a representative of the South Bay and Manhattan Beach,” Ward said. “My goal was to stay in this race and be as competitive as possible.”
Betsy Butler
According to campaign filings, a total of $554,000 has been spent by multiple corporate interest groups in a highly-charged campaign against Democratic candidate Betsy Butler. The Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) – an industry-sponsored group advocating legal reforms — reportedly spent $185,000 alone.
Butler, 46, is from Sacramento and has lived in Marina del Rey for roughly 20 years. For more than a decade, she has worked as a fundraiser for groups including the Consumer Attorneys California and various environmental nonprofits in the state. Butler is also a board member of Equality California. She has served in the Department of Commerce and the office of U.S. Senator Alan Cranston.
“I am running for State Assembly to fight to end the corporate domination of the state legislature that is slowly strangling our state,” Butler said in a statement.
She claims CJAC is a “coalition of large businesses working to deny consumers and workers their right to seek legal remedy against corporate misdeeds.”
Butler supports requiring oil companies to pay an oil severance tax for drilling, the regulation and prohibition of excessive health insurance premium hikes and closing corporate tax loopholes to fund schools, health care and public safety programs.
“We need to drive the lobbyists out of the Capitol and return the voice of the people,” Butler said. “I have spent my life fighting to give people a voice…As our Assemblymember, I will fight to dramatically reduce the influence of lobbyists and corporate interests.”
Butler is endorsed by the National Organization of Women, Planned Parenthood, L.A. County and Torrance firefighters associations, the California Nurses Association and the Consumer Federation of California.
James Lau
At a pre-endorsement party in March, James Lau earned the Democratic Party recommendation for the Assembly seat in the 53rd, with 60 percent of his party’s votes — five time more than the nearest competitor.
Lau, an environmental education director, has spent the last decade as a policy consultant and advocate in the State Legislature. He is the director of the California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the former director of The Children’s Partnership. He has also served on the L.A. County Democratic Central Committee. In 2005, he was named 53rd District Democrat of the Year.
Lau, 35, said his experience working on a tax policy that saved the state over $6 billion without raising taxes will help him find similar solutions for the state’s current budget crisis.
“I know how to navigate and get things through the process,” he said. “I want to use my expertise to make an immediate impact. The budget is a big issue and people realize it.”
Lau also worked on education policy while serving in the office of former State Senator Teresa Hughes. Among Lau’s ideas for increasing education funding are allowing for more local control of earmarked money and Prop 98 reform. He also said the state could bring in up to $20 billion in additional taxes by going after the state’s underground economy.
“The schools are losing a lot of revenue and some businesses are at an unfair competitive advantage,” he said. “Those playing by the rules versus those not. We should be going after that.”
Finding green solutions and renewable energy is a top priority for Lau, who earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering in order to understand environmental public policy. Lau said that for the past eight years, he has not owned a car and travels by bus, bike or on foot.
Based on a model that has worked in Silicon Valley, he wants to form a group of local engineering companies that would act as consultants on how tax and regulatory structures can best be shaped to attract companies researching and developing green technologies.
“There is a high number of engineers here,” Lau said. “There is great intellect to tap into in the South Bay.”
Lau is endorsed by State Control John Chiang, former State Assemblyman George Nakano and Board of Equalization Member Jerome Horton.
Nick Karno
In mailers, Nick Karno has called both Butler and Lau Sacramento insiders who have supported politicians who have overseen massive budget deficits.
Karno, 40, is a prosecutor, environmental advocate and former teacher in Marina del Rey and Venice schools. Originally from West L.A., he has served on former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Project, in the office of Congressman Howard Berman and as a business representative for the Office of Economic Development for L.A. City.
“Having worked in the criminal justice and educational systems and various other areas, I have inside perspective and have seen where the problems lie,” he said.
Karno supports a combination of measures to shore up the state deficit, including diversion programs that would place the mentally ill and low level drug offenders into treatment facilities instead of prisons, which he believes could save the state billions. He also said that cracking down on underground economies, such as film piracy, could bring up to $1 billion lost in tax revenue per year. Karno believes tax amnesty for companies and individuals with unpaid state taxes — which he said totals $24 billion outstanding balances — could also bring in additional revenue.
“If we can wipe away any criminal charges, cut their bill in half and put them on a payment schedule, I think we could get $10 billion back,” Karno said.
Karno said such measures would be relatively easy to implement since they do not require tax reform or budget changes and therefore would not need a two-thirds vote in the state legislature. He also supports reforming the diversification of tax revenues — which are largely based on personal income and sales and usage taxes — to provide more stable education funding that doesn’t fluctuate with the economy.
Karno also wants to make the South Bay “the Green Coast,” by working closely with local business and builders in the district to find green solutions, including a self-financing program that would retrofit homes and businesses with green technologies.
Karno is endorsed by the California Federation of Teachers, the California Faculty Association, the United Firefighters of L.A. City, the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
Kate Anderson
Kate Anderson feels that her six years working in the office of U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman gives her the experience needed to effect change in Sacramento.
“I’ve seen the give and take of a legislature,” Anderson said. “Having good policy ideas is good, but they need to be transformed into something concrete. Working for him taught me how to move that policy forward, get people on board and get it passed.”
Anderson, 38, is from Illinois and has lived in Southern California for most of the last 19 years. She currently resides in Mar Vista, where she works as an attorney and serves as a Community Councilmember. Anderson is a board member of the L.A. County Child Care Planning Committee and former board member of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.
“My priority top to bottom is improving education funding,” Anderson said. “We used to have a system of higher education that was the envy of the entire nation.”
Anderson — who believes in free public education at all levels, including college — wants to implement an oil severance tax for companies who drill and raise liquor and tobacco license fees to provide additional revenue sources to schools.
She also wants to reform what she calls a restrictive legislative process in Sacramento by reducing the two-thirds legislative vote requirement, increasing term limits for state legislators and minimizing the amendment of state laws through the cluttered initiative process.
“We put more restrictions on the legislature than any other state,” Anderson said. “It’s one of the most important things to change in Sacramento.”
Anderson is also concerned about “cumbersome” regulations on California businesses, especially in the film industry, that are sending many companies out-of-state for production.
“We need to take a good, hard look at what other states are doing with the film industry,” she said. “Companies are fleeing to other states because of tax incentives. California needs to be a more business-friendly state and give the same incentives in a way that’s smart.”
Environmental protection and the maintenance of clean, open spaces for kids are also top priorities for Anderson, who proposes bringing the Ballona Wetlands — a protected natural habitat in Playa del Rey — under better management. Anderson is also opposed to offshore drilling and wants to find ways to increase water conservation, while shoring up the state’s water supply.
“I think we need some really big changes in Sacramento right now,” Anderson said. “I’ve got real roots in the community and experience representing a constituency.”
Anderson is endorsed by U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman, the National Organization for Women in California and the L.A. County Professional Peace Officers Association.
Diane Wallace
Career educator Wallace, 63, has made a point of not accepting funds or endorsements from special interest groups or corporations.
“I believe that the problem we have in Sacramento is our elected officials are owned by special interest groups,” Butler said. “I’ve only accepted my own contributions and small contributions from individuals. It doesn’t cost money to walk, go to forums and send emails.”
A L.A. County native, Wallace has lived in Manhattan Beach for the last seven years. She has worked as a teacher, principal, school district administrator and co-director of an inner city charter school for various schools in L.A. County. Wallace also was an administrator on a statewide early literacy project, based on research used by state prisons that used the incidence of third grade illiteracy to predict the number of prison beds needed years out.
“I worked with low-performing school districts and turned them around to improve student achievement,” she said. “It was so successful, none of the schools qualified for Reading First funding afterward. And we reduced the number of prison beds.”
She wants to find a revenue source for schools and public agencies that is independent of the state’s budget, such as the establishment of an interest-producing fund.
“This shouldn’t happen until after we have balanced the budget and are not in a deficit anymore, which should be around 2013,” Wallace said.
The creation of jobs in the 53rd presents a unique problem, according to Wallace, since incomes range from minimum wage to seven-figure-salaries.
“‘Shovel-ready’ jobs aren’t for everyone in the 53rd, she said.
Wallace wants to provide more tax incentives for small businesses and large corporations and grants for non-profit and public organizations that refill and reestablish jobs.
Edgar Saenz
By focusing on local issues at the district level in addition to statewide changes, Edgar Saenz hopes to stand out from the other seven candidates.
“It’s a race for the Assembly and the next person had better understand that in addition to the state issues, they’ve got to deliver on the local level and I think that’s what sets me apart,” Saenz said in a statement on his website.
Saenz, 48, has lived in the L.A. area for 17 years and resides in Westchester, where he works as an attorney in civil litigation. He also serves as a field deputy to U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, where he said he learned firsthand about the importance of local issues.
His main district-related priorities are the extension of the Metro Green Line to LAX and Torrance, the creation of the first dog beach in the South Bay at Dockweiler State Beach and the generation of tax revenue from the legalized sale of marijuana.
“If we legalized, regulated and taxed marijuana the way we do alcohol and tobacco, we could bring in $1.4 billion in revenue,” Saenz said last month at El Camino. “I’d rather see it go to classrooms.”
Saenz also supports an oil severance tax which he believes would provide an additional $1 billion in annual revenue. He also proposed breaking Los Angles County Unified School District up into smaller districts.
“There is too much lard at the top at LAUSD,” he said.
Saenz is endorsed by U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association and the Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion.
Peter Thottam
Attorney Peter Thottam, 39, said he will spend nothing more than his life’s $70,000 life savings to campaign for the second time for the 53rd District Assembly seat.
“I am 100 percent anti-lobbyist and 100 percent self-financed,” Thottam wrote in an article published last month in the Daily Breeze. He also demanded “enforcement and rules for lobbyist and Legislature transparency and accountability.”
Thottam is from Africa and lives and works in Venice. He is the founder and former executive director of the L.A. National Impeachment Center and has been a community activist and organizer for such causes as the anti-war effort.
Thottam’s main focus is creating more, higher-paying jobs in the 53rd District by attracting export-based manufacturers, especially within the auto and information technology industries.
“There’s a lot of money floating around looking for a home,” Thottam said. “Most firms want an infrastructure they can leverage to grow their companies.”
Thottam said he is concerned about 2.1 million jobs outsourced to China and 1.3 million to India since the ‘90s. He also noted that even locally, many companies are setting up shop in Santa Monica and Burbank, taking money and jobs out of the South Bay.
“There’s no reason the 53rd can’t be a magnet for some of that money,” he said.
Thottam also wants to modernize classrooms by replacing textbooks with the Internet — which he claims will save $1,000 per student per year – and create vocational training partnerships with the business community and private sector to give students stepping stones into employment after graduation. He also wants teacher evaluations to be restructured.
“There has got to be some focus on performance,” Thottam said. “That doesn’t only mean test scores. We want students in our district well-rounded, educated, worldly and capable of basic math and other work to compete for jobs with these companies.”
Thottam also supports reforming Prop 13 to more effectively collect commercial property taxes, restructuring the state’s prison system and denying tax benefits to state-based corporations who send jobs outside of California.
“I’m worried about the future for my kid and family,” Thottam said. “I will do everything I can to make California right again.”
Thottam is endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of L.A., U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and actor and Democratic Party activist Ed Asner.
For more information on candidates for the 53rd District State Assembly and other races, visit www.cal-access.ss.ca.gov and www.smartvoter.org. ER
