Dear Members, Supporters, and Other Readers,
Following our August general meeting we completed our candidate endorsements for the November election. The complete list is pinned on our website. At our September meeting we will discuss the ballot measures and vote on our positions. Video of our study session on the State propositions at our June meeting, with club officers, local elected officials, and State Party leaders presenting on each measure, is now online. State propositions can be confusing, but our Assembly Member Isaac Bryan (also a member of this club) is responsible for several pieces of legislation which have clarified things a bit, and Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has done a great service by insisting that proposition titles and ballot descriptions be clear and accurate.
Like millions of viewers, I was inspired by Michelle Obama’s call at the Democratic National Convention to “do something,” so this month I am going to go down our slate and describe what we can do to help our endorsed candidates.
At the top, of course, are Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President and Vice President. There has not been a second of doubt that the Democratic candidate will carry California this election. Remember that most states, including California, give all their electoral college votes to the popular vote winner, whether they win by one vote or a million, so California, the most populous, prosperous, creative, and beautiful state, the state that’s untouchable like Elliot Ness, is ignored by the Presidential campaigns. Of course our donations are always welcome and, if you have time, you can phone-bank, text-bank, or postcard to reach voters in swing states. Some of our members are even planning to travel to help the campaign. For this work, contact the Harris campaign directly.
For more on the Electoral College, don’t miss Maximina Juson’s documentary One Person, One Vote? It premieres on PBS Sept. 30, but we are hosting a special screening at the Culver/Amazon Theater at 6PM Sept. 7. The club will get a share of the ticket sales, and the filmmaker herself will be on hand to take questions and socialize after. You may remember Max as the creator of the Culver City Catalyst website and as the moderator of our 2022 School Board Forum. I’ve seen this film and recommend it highly.
To pass her ambitious agenda, President Harris will need a filibuster-proof Senate majority and a Democratic House. Contact our partners at the Grassroots Democratic HQ to help with those campaigns.
Our House member, Sydney Kamlager, also a member of this club, received 72% of the vote in the March primary and is now facing a No Party Preference opponent who got 10% in the primary. I have been wrong before, but I think she’s got this one.
Things look almost as strong for Adam Schiff for Senate. As in the March primary, there will be two Senate contests: one for the few remaining months of Diane Feinstein’s final term, and one for the next one, so we will need to remind people to vote for Schiff twice. For ‘80s LA sports fans disappointed that Steve Garvey is Trumpy now, there’s still Kareem.
Assembly Member Isaac Bryan, also a member of this club, is in an even stronger position than Representative Kamlager: he got 84% in March. However, we have a great opportunity to help Isaac by supporting Sade Elhawary in the 57th Assembly District. AD57 is just east of us, including parts of South LA and Downtown. Their Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer has chosen to not run for a third term and has endorsed Sade, along with Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis, LA Mayor Karen Bass, Assembly Member Bryan, Representative Kamlager, Senator Laphonza Butler, State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, and a legion of LA Democrats, including this Club. Isaac has been creating great legislation, most of which we have officially supported, but too much of it has been weakened or scuttled through legislative shenanigans by some of our fellow Democrats, who are indebted to corporate donors, especially fossil fuel companies and other polluters. We need to give him real allies in Sacramento. I recently met Sade and encourage you to support her however you can.
Things get a little spicier as we move down the ticket. On the County level, we have endorsed incumbent District Attorney George Gascón. Gascón ousted Jackie Lacey in 2020 by channeling public outrage at police violence, mass incarceration, and the status quo. She had refused to prosecute even the most egregious police misconduct, protected the rich, famous, and well-connected such as Danny Masterson, Bikram Choudhury, and Ed Buck, and continued seeking the death penalty after Governor Newsom declared a state-level moratorium. In 2020 Gascón was supported by prominent Democrats including then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, Adam Schiff, Gavin Newsom, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, and Kamala Harris, as well as this club. He won with 54% of the vote. This spring he had eleven challengers in the primary, all but one to his right. Now he is facing the second-place finisher, Nathan Hochman, who ran for State Attorney General in 2022 as a Republican.
Gascón has been a friend of this Club, visiting to update us on his work, and we have readily endorsed him and co-sponsored a fundraiser for his re-election. His opponent is a Republican, and it should not be necessary to say anything more than that. However, the LA Times recently reported that Gascón is far behind in the polls. This is a chance to do something. His campaign needs you. Specifically, former Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells and Council Member Freddy Puza, both members of our club, are among the hosts for a fundraiser Sept. 8. Click here to join them.
This distressing situation evokes two other motifs from the Democratic National Convention. Michelle Obama warned us to get ready for cruel and dishonest attacks, which of course we had seen the week before in Republican attempts to undermine Tim Walz’s military record and which we saw again when they mocked Walz’s son for crying in pride as his dad took the stage. Criticism of Gascón is less personal but no more accurate. It distorts crime statistics, misrepresents his record, and lies about how efficient or effective it is to solve social problems by locking people up. California has the largest prison system in the world. If locking people up worked, we would also be the safest place in the world.
George Gascón is a former Republican and a former police chief. He’s no radical but, by looking at actual human outcomes, rather than “law and order” fearmongering, he is beginning to respond to the critiques that Black Lives Matter and other groups raised in 2020 and before: not seeking the death penalty, not charging children as adults, holding police accountable for their actions, and not treating the rich and famous as if they are above the law. As they said at our convention: we’re not going back.
For Culver City School Board, we have endorsed Sameen Ahmadnia. Her performance at our forum speaks for itself, but I will add that she is clearly in it for the schools, not personal advancement, and that she is the candidate most committed to maintaining and expanding the School District’s investments in equity and sustainability. Click here to endorse, donate, and volunteer. We aren’t going back.
The things we do count for more as we get closer to home. Culver City elections have been decided by as few as 16 votes, and campaign budgets are counted in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of millions.
Thus, I conclude by asking you to give your time, money, and votes to our endorsed City Council candidates: Nancy Barba, Bryan “Bubba” Fish, and Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin. Watch our forum, and you will see the combination of care and intellect they bring. They understand the assignment. Their rival slate is committed to ignoring the research on major issues including transportation, housing, rent control, and policing, on suppressing our city’s true history, and on returning to a time when the Chamber of Commerce ran this town unchallenged. But we aren’t going back.