SATURDAY POLITICS: John Duran Snubs Sheila Kuehl In L.A. Supervisor Runoff

In a pretty shocking turn of events, openly gay West Hollywood city councilman John Duran has endorsed Bobby Shriver instead of openly lesbian Sheila Kuehl in the run-off for Los Angeles County Supervisor. Kuehl placed first and Duran third in the June 3 primary election.

Karen Ocamb reports for Frontiers L.A.:

“A lot of our old assumptions are no longer true,” Duran told Frontiers on July 7. “The idea of the first gay this or that has run its course. We just had a lesbian Speaker of the Assembly replace a gay Speaker of the Assembly. We have a gay City Controller and gay City Councilmembers in L.A. and West Hollywood. It was a big issue in the 1990s, and we fought hard for it—to have LGBT people immersed in the power structure. Now we’re in it. We are it. Now how people vote is based not on whether someone is gay or straight—but on whether we agree or disagree with them—and that’s how it should be.” 

Duran said he decided on Shriver after having lunch with both candidates and participating with them in 25 debates. “In all those debates, I found myself agreeing with what Bobby was saying—in particular, his experience and how he perceives local government—and many times I was in disagreement with Sheila.”

This is a very disappointing development. John Duran is a friend of mine and I am stunned to read that he thinks that LGBT people have made so much progress that it is not important whether one of the most powerful important elected positions in the country (Los Angeles County Supervisor) should be filled by an openly gay politician. I vehemently disagree with this sentiment. Even if the person involved was not Sheila Kuehl, one of the smartest politicians ever to serve in the California Legislature (and who was the first openly LGBT member of that body), Duran would still be wrong. The fact that he is endorsing someone other than Kuehl when she is still in the run-off makes Duran's decision worse than wrong.

Taking Subway To Westside Getting More Likely In Los Angeles

Check out this picture of the proposed extensions to the purple and exposition lines which will mean that in the near future one can take the Metro to places that people will actually want to go.

Officials from Metro and the Federal Transit Administration signed a pair of agreements this morning in Washington D.C. for a $1.25-billion federal grant and a $856-million federally-backed loan to build the first phase of the Purple Line Extension subway under Wilshire Boulevard. We’ll post video of this morning’s event later. 

The agreements clear the way for construction activities to begin later this year on the 3.9-mile addition to the Purple Line, which currently terminates at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. The first phase of the project will extend the line to the intersection of Wilshire and La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Three new stations will be included in the first phase: at Wilshire and La Brea Avenue, Wilshire and Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire and La Cienega. 

The first phase of the project is scheduled for completion in 2023 with a project budget of $2.821 billion. The Metro Board of Directors is scheduled this summer to select a contractor to build the first phase. The subway is one of 12 transit projects funded in part by the Measure R half-cent sales tax increase approved by more than two million voters in Los Angeles County in 2008 (the measure passed with 67.93 percent approval).

This is very exciting news! Kudos to Mayor Eric Garcetti with moving forward with this. The next 3rd District County Supervisor will also be involved in making sure this project happens.

Hat/tip to L.A. Observed

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.

Los Angeles March 2011 Election Results

The March 8, 2011 Los Angeles City-wide election results are now available.

Proposition Me    Results
Measure G   Yes   74% YES
Measure H   Yes   75% YES
Measure I   Yes   78% YES
Measure J   Yes   81% YES
Measure L   Yes   63% YES
Measure M   Yes   59% YES
Measure N   Yes   70% YES
Measure O   Yes   51% NO
Measure P   Yes   66% YES
Measure Q   Yes   62% YES
Los Angeles City Council Races
LA CD 2     Krekorian* 76%
LA CD 4     Labonge*   55%
LA CD 6     Cardenas*  58%
LA CD 8     Parks*     50.89%
LA CD 10    Wesson*    73%
LA CD 12    Englander  58%
LA CD 14    Huizar*    64%
Los Angeles Community College District
Seat 1      Field*     59%
Seat 3      Veres      57%
Seat 5      Svonkin    35% (May 17 run-off)
Seat 7      Santiago*  66%
Los Angeles Unified School District
Seat 1      Lamotte*   74%
Seat 3      Galatzan*  62%
Seat 5      Sanchez    45.37% (May 17 run-off)
Seat 7      Vladovic*  63%

As you can see, most incumbents (indicated by the asterisk) were re-elected. In the hotly contested election in the gay-enclave of West Hollywood, one (appointed) incumbent, Lindsey Horvath failed to make the Top , placing 5th in preliminary results:

Scott Schmidt	1226
Lucas John	469
Abbe Land*	2548
Mark Gonzaga	474
Mito Aviles	919
Steve Martin	2026
John D'Amico	2471
Martin Topp	140
Lindsey Horvath	1902
John Heilman*	2359

Heilman has been on the West Hollywood City Council since the city was incorporated in 1984! The other two councilman, John Duran and Jeffrey Prang were not up for re-election, and Duran supported D'Amico. The West Hollywood City Council will now have 4 openly gay men and one straight woman.

Speech By John Duran at Weho Protest Over PROP 8

John Duran, openly gay, HIV+ Latino former Mayor of West Hollwyood and Board President of Equality California gave the following powerful remarks last night from the stage about Proposition 8, LGBT civil rights and racism (as transcribed by lesbian reporter Karen Ocamb):

My voice has been horse almost gone but I had to get out of bed to be
here with all of you. I was so happy last night at the Music Box at
8:01 when California put Barack Obama over the line to be our next
President of the United States.

(Cheers.)

And I rejoiced watching (?) in Times Square in New York and Grant
Park, in Chicago at the Old Court House in Atlanta – all across this
country people cheering for Barack Obama as we did as a gay and
lesbian, bisexual and transgender community at the Music Box. We
shared that joy together.

And then, within 30 minutes, as the numbers started to come in – I
felt the joy being deflated by the fact that we were falling behind
on Proposition 8.

And then I was crushed when I heard that people of color were voting
against the GLBT community.

(Boos)

And I started to wonder to myself – how could this be? After all we
have struggled together as one coalition – in the Rainbow Coalition –
how could it be?

And then the stories started to come in from last night from my own
Latino culture on Santa Monica Boulevard – that there were Latino
males with Yes on 8 banners screaming “faggot” and “queer” at our
people along Santa Monica Boulevard.

(Boos)

As I heard the story of our black lesbian volunteer at a polling
place who was told by another black woman that “her kind” didn’t
deserve civil rights – how could that be?

(Boos)

My friends Alan and Jeff – who I married on Sunday – when they were
passing out No on 8 literature – had an old woman come up and spit
upon them. How could that be?

(Boos)

These were the stories I heard – so what it told me – and I get this
now – is that Yes on 8 – it was supported by black and white and
Latino and Asian and young and old people – that is true.

But the OTHER HALF of the vote was also black and white and Latino
and Asian and young and old.

(Cheers)

Never again. Never again will I assume that just because somebody is
of one race they are more likely to be supportive or opposed to me.
Or if somebody is of one religion – that he or she is more supportive
or opposed to me. Or of one political affiliation.

I need to start the same question with every person I meet,
regardless of those characteristics: Are you with the gay and lesbian
community or are you not?

(Cheers)

I completely get that the history of our country – and I completely
get the black community’s struggle against slavery and being denied
the right to vote and the lynching and the Jim Crows laws. And it
moves me with compassion when I hear those stories.

And I get the stories of Cesar Chavez and the farm Workers and the
xenophobia and what they had to fight for here in California. And it
moves me with compassion to hear about it.

And Asians being taken away to concentration camps during World War
Two. And Jews suffering in the Holocaust. I get all that.

But what about our chapter in the civil rights history? (Cheers)

(This is only partial because of the applause) If you want us to vote
for you or fight for you – then you must vote for us as well.

(Cheers)

But I am not here to compare our civil rights struggle to their civil
rights struggle. There’s no winner in the game for the bottom rung on
the ladder – we’ve all suffered. That is a no-win game.

I am here to say you must respect our same call for justice as we
respect your call for justice….
(cheers) because we too know brutality – the brutality on the
schoolyards when we were children and we know the brutality that AIDS
decimated our community over the last 25 years.

And we know the indecency now of not only being called threat to
children – as if we are a threat to our own children – but now to be
told indecently – we don’t have the right to marry the person we love.

That is not right in this America.

(Cheers)

So our stories are a call for justice – the same tonight. Remember
these dates: remember this night because this night is a new page in
the history our gay and lesbian community’s struggle. This week – we
will remember it from this time forward – just like October 11, 1987
when ACT UP was formed in Washington DC during the March on Washington.

And just like September 30, 1991 when we rushed into the streets when
Gov. Peter Wilson vetoed AB 101.

This night is our decade’s call to action…(much screaming and cheers)
– God Bless you all….

Wow. Channeling Harvey Milk. Remember the date: November5, 2008.