A candidate’s value is worth uncovering
Values. It’s a simple word packed with meaning. Much of that meaning has been hijacked by marketers trying to sell “new and Improved” soap and the far-right Christian conservatives who think “family values” are restricted to the mythical ideal paradigm of mom, dad and two kids living in suburbia with lawns manicured by their Mexican gardener and their house cleaned by a Honduran.
The dictionary defines value as “a person’s principles in life or standards of behavior.”
That seems a good way to evaluate the candidates for the 41st Assembly. In one week, we will go to the polls to choose our district representatives for the State Assembly in November.
The candidates themselves are an eclectic mix of individuals, each with strong credentials. There is the standard “Former D.A.” Barry Groveman (www.barrygrove-man.com) who runs on a “law and order” platform, but who himself was the subject of a cease-and-desist letter from the Sierra Club for violating his candidate’s pledge not to use their logo in his campaign materials unless he was endorsed, which he wasn’t. Only Kelly Hayes-Raitt achieved the Sierra Club’s seal of approval.
Jonathan Levey (www.levey2006.com) is the Cal State professor who wants to feather his environmental credentials nest by trying to take credit for the amount of land that was set aside by Cattelus Development, the company he worked for as vice president reporting directly to the CEO. He’s the “idea” candidate. He has ideas for everything, but those are like noses — everyone has one.
There is the Democratic machine politician, Julia Brownley (www.juliabrown-ley.com), who as President of the Santa Monica School Board, has a strong record of toeing the party line.
Shawn Casey O’Brien (www.citizen-shawn.net) is the “lone wolf” — the fringe Democrat who stands up for what he believes in — social justice and “plenty for all.” The self-styled F.D.R. Democrat is an anachronistic social activist whose in-your-face politics are simultaneously engaging and off-putting.
The Republicans are putting two immigrant candidates in the race — Tony Dolz (www.tonydolz.com), an immigrant who hates immigration, and Dr. Adriana Van Hemert, (www.adriana4assembly.com), an off-the-shelf, vanilla candidate who parrots the party line without vision or fervor.
Libertarian candidate Conrad Frankowski is an absolute unknown, as in, I couldn’t find any information on him on the Internet. Literally, none.
Which leaves me with the only viable candidate who is living her values — Kelly Hayes-Raitt (www.kellyforassembly.com).
When it comes to education, Hayes-Raitt is the one candidate who is suing President Bush to provide for our schools and has taken action to get the Santa Monica-Malibu School District the hundreds of thousands of dollars it is due, but has not received.
Where was the school board president who wants to look like a leader and be elected on an education platform? I guess she was too busy glad-handing with City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.
It is that type of “in the trenches”, action-oriented behavior which makes Hayes-Raitt not just a good candidate, but one that is living her values. Putting a stop to unfunded mandates is the single best way the local government has of getting control back from the fat cat, out of touch East Coast elitists who think they can run our schools from 3,000 miles away in D.C. We need representation that is concerned with doing the right thing, here, today. I am tired of the resume-building do-nothings who see each political office as merely a stepping stone to the next office. I want a candidate who is willing to state unequivocally what they believe, and then sign their name to it.
I want a candidate who doesn’t use deceptive language to make you think they are qualified environmentalists, when they are really in the pocket of the big developers. Levey’s latest piece of mail uses the phrase “heal the bay”and “healing and restoring the bay” with the obvious goal of appearing to have been endorsed by Heal The Bay.
Compare that with Hayes-Raitt, who actually helped found the organization that was named in her living room.
No one is endorsed, however, by Heal The Bay, as they are a non-profit and cannot make endorsements.
Republican candidate Dr.Van Hemert is a law and order mouthpiece who is more interested in punishing guilty sex offenders than helping the innocent. At least it appears that way on her off-the-shelf stock Republican website. Seriously, you could substitute any other California Republican name on this website, and there would be almost no other changes needed to the content.
Hayes-Raitt has actually been a standout leader on women’s issues, creating the Women’s Health Campaign, and she took on the drug companies to make sure that “lifesaving” medicines actually save lives.
Grassroots elegance. That’s how I describe Hayes-Raitt. She sees that legislators have real jobs to do, and that it is not all about raising money like Levey and Brownley (both of whom brag about their fundraising on their respective websites), or breaking campaign pledges like Groveman did with the Sierra Club.
If values are to mean anything in this next election, we should be looking at what the candidates do to determine their values. How have they acted in their campaign and what they say in their campaign literature are demonstrations of what they will be like in office. Is getting elected more important than being brutally honest about who endorses you? Is looking like a leader more important than being a leader? For some of these candidates, that is excruciatingly clearly the case.
For Hayes-Raitt, who has been on the front lines in the environmental wars, displaying honesty and being true to her self; getting elected is just the next step in her continuing to be true to the woman, leader and social architect her mother raised her to be.
Now those are real values. (David Pisarra welcomes your questions and comments at or 310/664-9969.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 30, 2006. Read the original PDF.