Former Manhattan Beach mayor Steve Napolitano formally declared his candidacy for the 2016 race to replace Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe yesterday.
Napolitano has worked as a senior deputy for Knabe for the past 10 years. He said that his experience qualified him for the job.
“I’ve worked at the highest level of county government for ten years with the best in the business,” he said. “I want to build upon the work of Supervisor Don Knabe.”
Knabe’s district stretches from Marina Del Rey to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Long Beach and Diamond Bar.
Napolitano will be running against Congresswoman Janice Hahn, who represents the region of San Pedro to South Gate in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a former Los Angeles city councilmember. Hahn’s father Kenneth was a Los Angeles County supervisor for 40 years and also a Los Angeles city councilmember.
Asked how he plans to overcome the possible advantage of her father’s legacy, Napolitano said that it was “over a quarter of a century ago” and pointed out that Hahn ran a different district.
“For those who remember Kenny Hahn, folks need to know he isn’t running,” wrote Napolitano in an email. “Janice is running. Janice is not Kenny. Unlike her father, Janice has served in two of the most dysfunctional bodies of government — the City of Los Angeles and Congress, and has next to nothing to show for it. She could stay in Congress and fight to make a difference, but she decided to quit because DC is ‘broken,’ as if that was news to anyone. Janice runs for Janice. I’m running to help people, to help the Fourth District and the County as a whole.”
Although he is a registered Republican, Napolitano said that he was “not running as a partisan politician.”
“I’m running as a problem-solver,” he said. “There’s no partisan way to do that.”
When asked what he’d like to fix, he said, “A lot of things that have made headlines recently.”
Among them he included keeping down crime. He attributed a recent increase to prison sentencing reform laws AB109 and Proposition 47.
He also mentioned improving the foster care system and housing for the homeless, especially veterans.
Before working for Knabe, Napolitano was the youngest elected Manhattan Beach city councilmember. He began in 1992 at the age of 26 and served three terms while working part-time as a teacher and going to Loyola Law School.
He and his family live in Manhattan Beach, where he has lived all his life. ER
