Mike Gin and Mike Webb have been friends and political supporters of each other for a long time.
Both are Republicans. Both have served the city of Redondo Beach in various capacities for two decades. Gin began as a Preservation and then a Planning commissioner, subsequently served two terms on the City Council. He is currently serving his second term as a very popular mayor. Webb began as a city prosecutor whose innovative work stifling gang activity in North Redondo won statewide notice. He is currently serving his second term as City Attorney.
Since February, however, the two men have found themselves in the sometimes awkward position of political adversaries. They are both running in the May 17 special election to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of 36th Congressional Representative Jane Harman.
Webb, who was the first Republican to officially enter the race, acknowledged occasional tensions but said he and Gin’s friendship transcends any political race.
“I think it’s not the ideal situation for either of us, or our party,” Webb said. “Having said that, I think that we might be the ideal two people to be in this situation in terms of our relationship with each other and how we’ve handled the campaign.”
Gin said doesn’t even look at the campaign as against Webb or any of his other 14 opponents but rather as a very public job application between himself and voters.
“I see it more as sort of 16 individuals, most of whom live in this district, that are interviewing for the same job,” Gin said. “I look at it as a job interview, albeit quiet a unique one, if you will – but that is ultimately what it is. We all do our best to reach out to as many voters as we can and attend as many public forums and candidate forums as we can so we can allow voters to get to know us…I don’t consider it being against anybody. I am in the race to be interviewed for a position – that is how I look at it.”
Webb praised Gin but did not shy from politically differentiating himself from the mayor. Though they are from the same party, Webb suggested that Gin’s unfailingly conciliatory approach may not be effective in the political tumult of Washington D.C.
“Mike is a very good person and he is genuinely concerned about our country,” Webb said. “I think I am both those things as well, but we are very different people, and we would be very different congressmen. I think throughout my career, both being a prosecutor and being City Attorney, I’ve had to make very difficult decisions, and I think that is strength of mine. I think that Mike’s view of Washington is that the problems will be solved if both parties get along better. And while I agree the tenor is too nasty in Washington, the career politicians have not had a problem getting together to spend too much of the taxpayers money. I don’t think we’ll fix this problem by being friendly and everyone playing nice. I think the problems will get fixed when we get people who are not career politicians to go there and make the tough choices necessary to get government living within its means, and not being so intrusive in our lives.”
Gin, who in addition to serving as mayor works as a field deputy for L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, is unabashedly positive in his view of government and the role it can play in people’s lives. His interest in politics is deeply rooted in the idea of public service. It began when he was a high school student and Leuzinger High in Lawndale and joined the Kiwanis Educating Youth service club, which emphasized volunteerism.
“I learned about volunteerism, about community involvement and the impact that community service and volunteering can have on a community and the positive difference it can make in people’s lives,” Gin said. “I think in many ways government and public service mirrors that – we may agree or disagree on different approaches and policy issues, but ultimately it is a career of service to people, and I think it is important to be reminded of that.”
Gin said that in his various capacities as a councilman, mayor, and field deputy, the day-to-day work involves directly helping people, whether with something relatively mundane such as tree trimming or through developing larger more overarching political objectives, such as improving public transportation or establishing a public arts commission.
The idea of public service is central to why Gin is running for Congress.
“This is one of the reasons why I am in this race,” Gin said. “I think government and public service has, frankly, gotten a bad rap. A lot of people work very hard at all levels. I think part of the issue is we have gotten so polarized at times in our views and sort of lost, in some cases, the admiration many of us used to have for public service and politics. I’d like to bring a different kind of conversation back, because I do believe it is honorable to be in public service. I think it really makes a positive difference in communities and people’s lives. That is what I’ve always tried to do in my elected positions in the city – to look beyond political issues and connect them in a way that really matters to people, and realize that government is ultimately here to serve people in our community.”
Webb’s political awakening began as a fifth grader at Grandview Elementary in Manhattan Beach when he and other students were allowed to watch the unfolding political and legal drama of Watergate.
“It affected me,” Webb said. “It was interesting that some people were upset with what Nixon had done, and some people were upset with what the process was doing. For me, it was an inspiring thing – it meant nobody, not even the most powerful person in the country, was above the law.”
Thus began an interest in law and government that would last a lifetime. Webb subsequently observed the economic malaise of the Carter years and the rejuvenation of the Reagan years and was further inspired by the difference political leadership could make. Webb sees a political parallel today.
“Reagan, before his policies could take effect, he restored confidence that things would get better, and that is a necessary step for things to get better,” Webb said. “I see a parallel now to the economic crisis we are going through. If we could spend our way out of it using taxpayer money, we’d be out of it, but that hasn’t happened.”
The first step, Webb said, is to bring spending in line with revenues. He points out that government spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product has hovered between 15 and 20 percent, averaging 16.9 percent, in presidents ranging from Kennedy and Johnson to Reagan and Clinton. Currently, that figure stands at 23 percent, Webb said. His argument is that tax increases are not that answer, but instead serious spending cuts must take place in all areas except core services such as national and homeland security and infrastructure needs.
“The confidence isn’t going to improve and businesses aren’t going to hire anybody if they are worried that government is going to impose new and higher taxes and excessive regulation,” Webb said. “So the best thing I think we can do as a government is prove we can live within our means, like every household has had to do, and not spend more than we take in. Once we do that, small business and bigger corporations will have confidence to hire people again, and people will have the ability to spend, and our economy will pick up.”
Gin is also a fiscal conservative but his emphasis is less on cuts and more on long-term job creation. He said his priority would be to support the local aerospace, defense, and entertainment industries in the district as well as small business, and to push for investment in technology and math education in our schools to “provide the next generation of talent” needed to support the local economy.
“For me, I think cuts alone are not going to work,” Gin said. “To me, the longer term solution is going to come through sustained job creation and entrepreneurship in our area and throughout our nation. I think we need to go through the exercise of reviewing all departments and all programs that are out there and see what is not still current and what we can look to trim. Ultimately, that won’t solve a $14 trillion deficit…We need to make sure we are fostering innovation, fostering creativity, and supporting small business and giving support to those major industries in our district. To me, that is the most systematic way of addressing the economy in the long term.”
Their differences on how to proceed with health care form is also indicative of the larger philosophical differences between Webb and Gin. Webb believes the health care reform law passed last year should be repealed because requiring individuals to buy health insurance may be unconstitutional. Webb said that a better approach would be to bring down the cost of the entire health care system by passing tort reform and fostering greater competition between insurance providers by allowing consumers to buy plans from any state. He further argued that the purview of government should not include making crucial medical decisions.
“You are going to have some government bureaucrat making these decisions, and I just don’t think that’s good,” Webb said. “I think what we need is to reduce the cost of health care overall.”
Gin said attempts to repeal health care reform are “somewhat non-productive” because the Democrat-controlled Senate would not sign off on such a move. Further, he sees some positive elements in the reforms and suggests the law could be made better with a few tweaks, such as protecting small businesses from new insurance requirements.
“Very frankly, the plan is not perfect….but there are elements in it that are good, such as eliminating the pre-existing condition issue, allowing dependents to stay on their parents plan until age 26, and a higher cap on lifetime maximums,” Gin said. “These are good things, but adding some conditions for small businesses make it better, and we can do that through legislating, not repealing the entire bill.”
The two candidates have competed for endorsements within Redondo Beach. Webb won endorsements from four out of the five city councilmen as well as the RB Police Officers Association; Gin won endorsements from two councilmen (Councilman Pat Aust endorsed both) as well as the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce and the RB Firefighters Association.
Perhaps Webb’s greatest calling card as a candidate in a district that has real terrorism concerns – the Port of L.A. and LAX – is the leadership he has demonstrated in local counter-terrorism efforts. He helped develop a regional approach for homeland security in the wake of 9/11 that became a state and federal model, and he and former RPPD Lt. John Skipper established the Foundation for Combating Terrorism and Transnational Crime, a non-profit that provided bomb dogs to the FBI, dive training the L.A. Sheriff’s Department bomb technicians, and armor to Iraqi police forces.
“The devil is in the details,” Webb said. “We are vulnerable in the 36 th District. We have two massive targets – the Port of L.A. and LAX – and it’s a very real concern. There is clearly nobody else in this race who has anywhere near the actual hands-on experience and strategic experience in trying to put together effective approaches to homeland security and combating terrorism.”
Perhaps Gin’s greatest calling card is his vast experience in the trenches of local representative government. He has excelled in the less-than-glorious details of constituent service and, as mayor, has served a unifying figure for a community that has suffered its own bouts with polarization.
“One of the things I see sometimes lacking in Congress is they talk about broad political issues, which are important, but very little if any connection is made to how broader policies and tools of government really effect local cities and communities and how people live,” Gin said. “I think from being a mayor, a city councilman, and a deputy for Supervisor Don Knabe, it gives me a ground floor view of how government can help, and in some case hamper, people’s lives. So I think it’s important to have a local perspective on things, especially in Washington D.C.” ER
