QUEER QUOTE: Sheila Kuehl Sworn In As LA County's 1st Openly Lesbian Supervisor!

Sheila Kuehl was sworn in as one of the newest "five little kings" of Los Angeles County on Monday December 1. Kuehl won a hard-fought election over Bobby Shriver on November 4th and becomes the first openly LGBT member of the powerful body, which is the head of the executive and legislative branch for Los Angeles County, a municipality with nearly 10 million residents (more than several states).

Kuehl, 73, was sworn in by her sister, Sacramento Superior Court judge Jerilyn Borack. Here's a  short excerpt of her remarks which will serve as today's Queer Quote:

And that brings me to this moment. After a two-year job interview, overseen by very talented people, and with all of your help, it brought together this amazing coalition on which we build. And this unique, this sprawling county speaks hundreds of languages and dialects that encompasses the richest and the poorest in America. To have the chance to assemble an outstanding team, to work as change-agents, through connection, through collaboration.
People say to me, what’s your agenda? OK, here’s my agenda: I want children, every child in the county—actually more, but we’ll just start with the county—I want them to be safe. I want them to be healthy. I want them to be educated. I want them to be able—without barrier—to fulfill their potential. That is a big job for the county. 

I want us to be connected from one end of the county to the other. I want you to be able to live wherever you want to live, that you can afford. I want you to work wherever you want to work. I want you to come down here and see a play. Or whoever, wherever you want to enjoy art, culture, food. I want you to be able to hop on a train, hop on a bus, hop on your bike—I don’t care what it is. It’s not a war between bikes and trains and cars and buses. It’s a system. And that’s what we’re going to make. 

And I don’t want there to be any more homeless people.

Go read the whole speech for yourself. It's really very, very good.

Hat/tip to Karen Ocamb for the picture and story.

Robert Garcia Elected 1st Openly Gay and Youngest Mayor of Long Beach

Openly gay Robert Garcia was elected the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach, and at age 36, its youngest by defeating Damon Dunn with 52.1% of the votes cast yesterday.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

In Long Beach, City Councilman Robert Garcia won the mayor's race outright with 52% of the vote. Former NFL player Damon Dunn got 47%, a difference of about 1,900 votes. About 17.6% of Long Beach voters turned out for Tuesday’s election.

That was a better turn out than in Los Angeles County where a mere 13.19% of registered voters completed ballots. Openly gay Sheila Kuehl is going to be in a November run-off to become one of the "five little kings" that run Los Angeles County by winning 36.18% to Bobby Shriver's 28.80% in the 3rd Supervisorial District. Openly gay Jeffrey Prang will also be in a run-off to become the L.A. County Assessor by coming in first  in a large field with 18.06% of the vote. Hilda Solis will replace Gloria Molina in the 1st Supervisorial District.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Will L.A. Have An Openly Gay County Supervisor?

Hmmm! The plot thickens in the low-profile but incredibly important Democratic primary election for Los Angeles County Supervisor on June 3rd. The L.A. County Supervisor is one of the most powerful elected positions in the country, with each of the 5 Supervisors representing roughly 2 million Angelenos, more than several U.S. Senators. There are two Districts up for election this year, District 1 where Gloria Molina is being termed out and is likely to be replaced by former Congresswoman (and Obama Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis) and District 3 where 8 candidates are vying for the top two slots, with two openly gay candidates are serious contenders. MadProfessah has already endorsed Sheila Kuehl. Kuehl announced her intentions to run for this seat years ago and has had a historic political career as the first openly LGBT member of the Assembly and the Senate. Kuehl has also won the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Club and the East Area Progressive Democrats.

Last Sunday the Los Angeles Times picked John Duran over Kuehl in its endorsement for the 3rd District, possibly upending the race.

Kuehl, to be sure, has a strong record in those areas as well, and her knowledge of and experience in state government would be of great benefit to the county, which gets much of its funding and many of its programming guidelines from Sacramento. Of the two, though, Duran gets the nod because he is also the one most likely to lead the county toward new and better ways of thinking about and doing its business.

The primary election is less than two weeks away. Voting has been going on  by mail for at least two weeks already. Thanks to a stupid ballot initiative that passed in June 2012, California now has a "Top 2 jungle primary" which means that regardless of party, only the Top 2 candidates will be on the November ballot after surviving the primary. I have my absentee ballot and will be giving my endorsements next weekend.

It would be incredibly exciting if the top two candidates are openly gay, but most likely Bobby Shriver and either Kuehl or Duran will make the cutoff. If both LGBT candidates do make the run-off there will be an internal lesbians versus gays fight like we have not seen since the 2012 battle between Torie Osborne (Kuehl's former lover and longtime ally) and Betsy Butler (Duran's straight best friend who has served on the board of Equality California). In fact some say that Duran's entry into the Supervisor race is basically payback for some of the chicanery that occurred in the bitter fight in 2012 for the 50th Assembly District (where both their candidates lost and Richard Bloom ended up winning the seat).

Hopefully this time an LGBT candidate will emerge victorious, instead of bloodied and defeated.

SATURDAY POLITICS: L.A. County Democrats Endorse Kuehl, Solis, Prang

The Los Angeles County Democratic Party has issued their endorsements in a series of high profile country races.

The LACDP has endorsed two openly LGBT candidates for two important positions: Sheila James Kuehl for County Supervisor (District 3) and Jeffrey Prang (Los Angeles County Assessor). They also endorsed progressive Hilda Solis (and former Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration) for County Supervisor in District 1 (the district I live in).

The County Supervisor positions are incredibly powerful. There are only 5 such positions representing the concerns of more than 10 million Los Angeles County residents, so they have more constituents than all Congresspeople and some United States Senators! Thanks to term limits, two slots are opening up, with the forced retirements of Gloria Molina (District 1) and Zev Yaroslavsky (District 3).

MadProfessah has also endorsed Solis and Kuehl in these races already.

CA-32: Judy Chu Wins Primary Election!

MadProfessah-endorsed candidate Judy Chu won the hotly contested Primary for the Democratic Nomination for the 32nd Congressional District to represent the seat vacated by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. With 100% of precincts reporting Chu leads Gil Cedillo by 4,124 votes, 31.9% to 23.38%, a margin which is less votes than 26-year-old Emmanuel Pleitez received (6,509).

Amusingy, Judy Chu will face Republican Betty Chu in the runoff election, set for mid July. However, in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, Judy Chu is assured to become the first Asian American Congresswoman to represent Los Angeles County.

Congrats to Judy and all my friends who worked on the campaign. Go sleep. You did good.

CA-32: API LGBT Support Judy Chu for Congress

Assemblymember John A. Pérez (46th District) and
Board of Equalization member Judy Chu
MadProfessah with Judy Chu

Curtis Chin, Judy Chu and Jeff Kim

A fundraiser primarily hosted by members of the Asian-American and Pacfic Islander LGBT community in Los Angeles was held for Judy Chu's run for the 32nd Congressional District seat vacated by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. The event was hosted (and primarily organized) by Jeff Kim and Curtis Chin at their downtown loft. It was attended by the first openly gay person of color elected to the California Legislature, John A. Pérez who represents the 46th Assembly District.

MadProfessah was a co-host of the event and has endorsed Judy Chu's run for the seat. She is primarily running against State Senator Gil Cedillo who does not represent any portion of the 32nd Congressional District.

At the event, Judy Chu gave a number of reasons why she expects to win the race, the first was Experience. Since she has been representing different portions of the 32nd district for 23 years, having been elected 9 different times in School Board, City Council, Assembly and state Board of Equalization races. The second reason was money. She said that her goal was to raise $750, 000 and has so far raised $425, 000 and Governor Schwarzenegger has until Tuesday to announce when the Special Election will occur (which is likely to coincide with the statewide special election already set for May 19th). The third was endorsements. She has been endorsed by all three assemblymembers who represent the 32nd Congressional District (her husband)Mike Eng (49th AD), Kevin de Leon (45th AD where MadProfessah lives) and Ed Hernandez (57th AD). In fact she has been endorsed by 75 elected officials who represent portions of the 32nd CD while Cedillo has only 10. In addition, Chu has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which has identified 40, 000 union households in the district. In a 15% turnout election, it probably takes less than 20, 000 votes to win the Democratic primary, which is tantamount to winning the election in such a Democratic-leaning CD.

Judy Chu has been a longtime supporter of LGBT and progressive causes and is exactly what DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga means when he says that we need to elect BETTER Democrats and not just MORE Democrats.

If you are interested in supporting Judy Chu for Congress check out her website at judychu.net.

CA-32: Solis Confirmed As Labor Secretary 80-17

The race for the 32nd Congressional District of California begins today since it's current representative Hilda Solis was confirmed as Labor Secretary by the United States Senate Tuesday by a vote of 80-17.

The current leading candidates, according to dday at Calitics are:

Judy Chu is currently on the Board of Equalization. While a Chinese-American running for a seat that is majority Latino, Chu has the support of the California Federation of Labor, which typically cleans up in these kinds of special elections. That alone makes her the favorite IMO.

Gil Cedillo is a State Senator in the adjoining district, and so he represents very few of these constituents. He has been strong on issues around immigration in particular, and will certainly be formidable in this race.

Emanuel Pleitez worked in the Obama transition team on the Treasury Department. The fact that Treasury has practically no senior officers staffing it save for Tim Geithner, over a month after the inauguration, doesn't really speak well to Pleitez' transition capabilities. But he apparently has the most robust campaign apparatus in the district thus far (with 17 volunteer full-time staff members), and he was born and raised in the district.

MadProfessah is endorsing Judy Chu, who is an incredibly strong ally of the LGBT community.

CA-32: Local Ethnic Political Fault Lines Revealed

A little bird told me that Labor Secretary-designee U.S. Representative Hilda Solis would love to endorse Judy Chu to replace her in Congress representing the 32nd District but the Obama Administration has told her that Cabinet secretaries can not get involved in the political fight to replace them. State Senator Gil Cedillo is the only other declared candidate in the potential special election, after Gloria Romero dropped out of the race, endorsing Cedillo, and announced her intention to run for State Superintendent of Education in 2010. Romero also later endorsed Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Monica Garcia for her 24th District State Senate seat.

Capitol Weekly has an article in the Thursday January 22 edition on Solis' confirmation process that also mentions some intriguing details on the intricate positioning that other politicians are doing to fill in the holes in the Southern California political power structure as one of their own is elevated in Washington.

On Thursday morning, both the Service Employees International Union and and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor endorsed Chu.

There have been tensions between Romero and Maria-Elena Durazo, head of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. But Capitol sources say Romero decided to focus on the superintendent’s race after consulting with former Sen. Richard Polanco, among others.

The potential Congressional showdown has also divided the Capitol’s Latino Caucus, of which Cedillo is chair. Cedillo has tangled with Assemblyman John Perez, D-Los Angeles, and has even threatened to challenge Perez for his Assembly seat in 2010.

Perez is the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Villaraigosa is said to be leaning toward endorsing Chu, though his office did not return calls seeking comment.

Cedillo and Villlaraigosa were once close political allies, with Villariagosa using his clout to help Cedillo’s election to the Assembly in a 1997 pecial election. But tensions between the two childhood friends quickly grew, and eventually boiled over after Villaraigosa's failed race for Los Angeles mayor in 2001. Villaraigosa threatened to run against Cedillo for Senate after his 2001 defeat, and the rift has never healed between the two. Cedillo stuck with Hahn when Villarigosa eventually defeated Hahn in 2005.

[...]

If Chu is to win the seat, she will have to earn some Latino support. The 32nd Congressional District is about 62 percent Latino. Asians make up about 20 percent of the district population. Latinos make up about half of the district’s voter registration. Asians comprise about 13 percent of registered voters.

[...]

Chu has already secured the endorsement of Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-El Monte, who has his eyes on Romero’s senate seat in 2010. Chu and her husband, Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Los Angeles, -- two of Hernandez’s top potential rivals -- are said to be backing Hernandez for the Senate seat.

[...]

Romero’s exit from the congressional race sets up a 2010 showdown between Romero and Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, for state superintendent. The current superintendent, Jack O’Connell is being pushed out by term limits, and has announced his intention to run for governor in 2010.

Got all that? On one side you have John Perez, Antonio Villaraigosa, Ed Hernandez and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor with Chu versus Romero and Polanco with Cedillo in a 62% Latino district. I presume L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina (who previously rejected a run for the seat herself) will be on the side of Romero/Polanco/Cedillo, but only time will tell.

CA-32: Romero and Chu Eye Solis' U.S. House Seat

State Senator Gloria Romero

It's all about MadProfessah's hood! Previously, I blogged about a scramble among prominent Latino politicians in Los Angeles that had started when word leaked that MadProfessah's congressman, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA-31) had been offered a position in President Obama's cabinet as U.S. Trade Representative. Becerra turned the position down, deciding to stay in the House as the #5 Democrat in that chamber and wait his chance to become to the first Latino Speaker of the House. This will not be the last time we hear the name Xavier Becerra.

Now imagine the maneuverings are going on now that U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (CA-32) has accepted Obama's nomination as Labor Secretary, giving up a Congressional seat in East Los Angeles that she has held for 5 terms. This time it's my State Senator Gloria Romero who has given an explicit statement of interest in the job. "

"Absoutely I am very interested in this seat. I have represented this district for over 10 years in the California state legislature," she said. "I know this district well, and this district knows me."

Other names that have been discussed for the seat include Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, Judy Chu, chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization, and her husband Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-El Monte.

Both Chu and Romero would be an amazing congressional respresentative and I would be hard pressed to pick between Romero and Chu, although knowing what I know right now, I would pick Chu. I know very little about Hernandez except that he's in his second term in the Assembly. Both Chu and Romero are strong supporters of LGBT equality and have been endorsed by Equality California when they ran for their current elected positions. Interestingly, Romero replaced Solis as the representative of the 24th State Senate district, will she also replace Solis as the representative of the 32nd Congressional district?

The race is on. May the best woman win!