Senate race pits two former colleagues against each other
SACRAMENTO In an otherwise quiet state primary election next month, one of the tightly contested races shaping up has two termed-out democratic assemblymembers vying to represent Santa Monica.
Lloyd Levine, a current Woodland Hills state assemblyman who represents parts of the San Fernando Valley, and Fran Pavley, a former state assembly-woman and school teacher from Agoura Hills, are both fighting for the democratic ticket in the June 3 primary election, hoping to win a seat that will be vacated by eight-year senate veteran Sheila Kuehl.
The race is considered one of the more interesting in the state primary election, pitting a former Kuehl protégé and public education proponent in Pavley against one of the most outspoken environmentalists in the assembly, both advocating for issues close at heart in Santa Monica.
While it is only a primary, political pundits are confident that the winner will take the seat come November given the district’s overwhelming number of registered Democrats.
Levine, 38, faced some scrutiny early in the race when it was revealed that he had moved into the 23rd senate district — from Van Nuys to Woodland Hills — earlier this year. Sen. Alex Padilla, who was elected in 2006, represents the district in which Levine resided prior to the move.
Pavley, 59, who was termed out of the assembly two years ago, pointed out that the overlap of the 23rd senate district and Levine’s own assembly territory constitutes less than 9 percent, adding that he had never represented a coastal area.
Levine defended the move, saying he has lived in the San Fernando Valley his entire life, including in Burbank where he grew up and North Hollywood.
“I don’t know why it would hurt me more in Santa Monica than Fran in the valley or either one of us in West Hollywood,” Levine said in an interview last week. “We’re both running in new territory and old territory.”
A product of Oakwood High School, Levine was inaugurated into the assembly in 2002, among his most championed issues being the environment, authoring several bills related to plastic bag regulations.
“I’ve been a leader on many issues, everything from renewable energy to recycling to childhood obesity … and I want to keep doing that,”Levine said.“The only way to keep doing that is running for the state senate.”
Levine authored a bill that created the country’s first statewide plastic bag recycling program that requires grocery stores to display recycling bins. A supplemental bill that Levine is currently advocating would require stores to reduce plastic bag usage by 70 percent in three years or charge consumers a fee.
The Santa Monica City Council is currently considering an outright ban on plastic bags.
“I was actually running in my district and there were literally thousands of plastic grocery bags hanging from the trees in the L.A. River,” Levine said. “It was so disgusting I said to my staff the next day that we need to do something about it.”
Pavley has also been a known supporter of environmental initiatives, authoring a bill that allowed bond money to be funneled into city and non-profit organizations to reduce storm water runoff.
“Santa Monica has benefited from passages of those bonds in that legislation,” Pavley said during an interview last week.
The first mayor of Agoura Hills and long-time school teacher, Pavley served on the assembly from 2001-2006, sitting on the budget and education committees during her tenure. Pavley has been endorsed by Kuehl.
Among the issues most advocated by Pavley is public education funding,a growing concern among educational stakeholders in the state.
“We are going in the wrong direction in our state,” Pavley said. “We have to make sure our state budget is not balanced on the back of cities or schools.”
Pavley said she would like the state government to provide more autonomy to the local governances as well as school districts, adding that micromanaging from Sacramento is never a good idea.
A bane of Westsiders, traffic has become an increasingly growing concerns,factions of public transportation advocates lobbying for projects including the Subway to the Sea and the Exposition Light Rail Project.Levine earlier this year said he intended to write a bill that would allow public agencies to team with private companies to fund transportation projects.
“Getting people to and from the Westside, and frankly from Oxnard through the San Fernando Valley, is a real challenge,” Levine said.
Both the Expo and Subway to the Sea projects, the former closer to reality than the latter, have a growing list of supporters, among them being Pavley, who said she wants to make sure the Expo Line does not terminate at Culver City. The second phase of the Expo project, which is still in the environmental review phase, will take the line from Culver City to Santa Monica.
Among the bills that both candidates said they intend to author in the senate are legalizing physician-assisted suicide and establishing a school curriculum for “green” jobs.
Levine said he would like to make California the second state in the country — the first being Oregon — to legalize a patient’s right to die, an issue that stirred national controversy after Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who suffered brain damage, died in 2005 when her feeding tube was removed.
“I want to allow terminally-ill patients to have that kind of autonomy at the end of their life,” Levine said.
With the eco-movement gaining steam, Pavley said she would like to provide funding for college courses that focus on jobs in the environmental sector, noting that Santa Monica College would be a good destination for such a program.
“I’m seeing an accelerated interest by solar companies in having a trained work-force,” she said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 29, 2008. Read the original PDF.