Eric Garcetti Archives

We are voting for LA’s Mayor on Tuesday. Find your polling place here.

My daughter couldn’t wait to show us the YouTube video they discussed in her AP US History class last week. “It’s hilarious,” she said.

You know what’s not hilarious? We’re having an election in Los Angeles next week, and this guy is the Republican candidate for Mayor.

My understanding is that this municipal election will feature a non-partisan ballot; there are no party “tickets,” just a long list of candidates. Kevin James is the lone Republican on the ballot. There is also a Socialist and four or five Democrats (I’m not sure of the political affiliation of at least one of the candidates).

I’m not too worried about Kevin James winning the election, although I would feel a lot better about that if he’d acted like this at the one debate I attended. Instead, he came across as funny and only moderately conservative (even if I had a hard time making sense of some of his answers to questions about the environment). That makes sense when you are running in a city that skews blue. And when you read the positions of the candidates side by side in this terrific interactive tool published by the Los Angeles Times — there isn’t a whole lot of difference between all the candidates’ positions. Even those of Kevin James.

They all want to fix our city’s fiscal problems, our transportation issues, grow our tax base by eliminating excess taxes, and get rid of the massive red tape you encounter whenever you try to get anything done here. They all claim to support public education. No one is advocating the issues that make me see red, like teaching creationism or revoking Obamacare.

So when you’re facing a slate of candidates whose stated views are all pretty similar to your own — and without a lot of polarizing issues between them — how does one choose?

Unfortunately, I tend to focus on superficial qualities. I confess that if I’m given a choice between a male and a female Democratic candidate, I have always gravitated toward the female. For the last couple of years, my involvement with the MOMocrats has led me to associations with groups dedicated to electing more women to office, like EMILY’s List and Women’s Campaign Forum. I spent much of last year working on a project we call Run, Mama Run – which consisted of an interactive map showing female candidates in races all over the country.

In this year’s race for Mayor of Los Angeles, there are TWO highly qualified female candidates in contention: City Councilwoman Jan Perry and City Controller (and former Councilwoman) Wendy Gruel. So which one did I decide to support?

Neither. I’ve decided to endorse Eric Garcetti. And not all the reasons are superficial (although some are).

Let’s start with those:

Eric Garcetti & MOMocrats — Eric Garcetti meets MOMocrats SoCal Mom and Queen of Spain. Photograph copyright 2012 Daphne Brogdon

Garcetti’s campaign actually did some blogger reach-out over the summer, and I had an opportunity to chat with the candidate one-on-one over a fabulous lunch at the late, lamented Campanile. He impressed me with his understanding of the problems we face in this city (he should – he was President of the City Council) and his vision for fixing them. I learned that he was a Rhodes scholar and a professor at Occidental College (teaching diplomacy and world affairs) before embarking on his political career.

Most important: He really listened to my concerns, and even followed up with me by email after reading my post about it.

When I posted photos from the meeting to Facebook, I received comments from other political folk I know — all fans. “He’s the real deal,” one of them told me.

A political campaign is not all that different from marketing a product: a testimonial from someone you trust counts more than any 30-second ad.

What really put me over the top for Garcetti was learning that he was the candidate endorsed by NOW (over the two female candidates). The reason is his support of CEDAW, the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Garcetti is on the record as a supporter, and has vowed to implement the treaty in Los Angeles if elected.

I can’t find any mention of women’s issues in connection with the female candidates. Perhaps because they are women, they don’t feel the need to speak out on that?

At any rate: I’ve made my decision. I’ve made my endorsement public. I’ve even placed a sign on my lawn.

Now let’s hope I remember to vote on Tuesday!

The Happy Hour, Oscars and Other Bullet Points

I have not been writing much. I blame tax season: it is just one more big task I have to juggle between all the other big tasks on my to-do list. I could handle any one — or maybe two — and do them well. If only I could focus on one at a time.

These days, my biggest goal in life is to pare that list down to something I can reasonably manage.

In the meantime, I flit from one project to the next; never quite finishing and never quite getting it right. At least, that is how I feel.

Tarantino at the Oscars — Quentin Tarentino at the 2010 Oscars. Photo copyright 2010 by Donna Schwartz Mills

The Happy Hour

There have been some constants: Over on our InQuestOf site, my sister and I have been playing with Google Hangouts. We call it our Monday night Happy Hour, because we go on at 5:00 PM and pour ourselves some cocktails or wine.

It’s very much what we would be doing if we lived in the same town: hanging out in our kitchen and dishing about what’s on our minds.

Last night, we talked Oscars. Neither my sister nor I were all that offended by Seth MacFarlane’s performance — not as much as my friends. I can’t help but approach it from the viewpoint of a refugee from the TV writers room (as an assistant, never a writer). I understand the pressures of writing a joke, how hit and miss it is — and how one that kills with the dudes in the room doesn’t land with the female taking notes (which leads the dudes to conclude that she has no sense of humor).

I also remember how it was to work for immensely talented guys who were indulged by management despite engaging in immature, inappropriate behavior. Hollywood is a place where people with talent never have to grow up — as long as they are earning the studios money. I’m pretty sure that describes MacFarlane, who became TV’s youngest executive producer at the ripe old age of 24.

As for my sister: I think her views are colored by the fact that MacFarlane reminds her of her son. Me too, for that matter.

And then there was that awful misfired “joke” about adorable Quvenzhane Wallis, tweeted out by an Onion staffer. The word that person used is not one that should be applied to anyone, and even more offensive when used to describe a little girl. It is not a word any CEO would want to find in an official company Twitter stream, no matter the business. I was pleased to see the Onion apologize and promise to discipline the staffer. Without knowing who the person is, I stop short of advocating he or she be fired. Again, I think my experience working with comedy writers colors my reaction. Nine out of ten jokes fail — even those written by very funny and talented people. Putting them out live on Twitter is a high wire act. I want to believe that the person who used that word suffered from a brain fart. And I want to believe that the person has now learned that the word in question is NEVER OK, and if given a second chance, would not repeat the mistake.

Then again, if this is someone who persists in applying that word to women and little girls, they should fire his or her ass.

MOMocrats

There’s a municipal primary election next week, and I’ve been trying to finish a post about the LA Mayor’s race. Yes, I am supporting candidate Eric Garcetti, as you can see from the lawn sign in our front yard. This is a first for us! We live in a conservative neighborhood, and my husband has always been afraid that displaying my political views to the world around us will make us a target of vandals. The sign has been up for two weeks, and the only damage it has suffered has been from the birds who like to perch on it.

I hope to get to that post today.

In the meantime, I still produce and host our weekly podcast each Wednesday, which can be streamed at BlogTalkRadio here or on Stitcher or downloaded from iTunes here. Tomorrow we are featuring Lee Fournier-Reyes of CoupleDumb.com, who will talk about her visit to Congress earlier this month on behalf of the Shot@Life campaign, , which is working towards eradicating deadly diseases throughout the world via childhood vaccinations. I am also trying to get a MOMocrats newsletter out before the podcast airs tomorrow.

Additionally, I am also still co-curating the MOMocrats Facebook page daily, as well as keeping our SheVotes Tumblr updated (although not as often as I did during the Presidential election — another task that needs more of my attention).

Engender Media Group

Earlier this month, Cynthia Liu and I updated the website for our little social media agency. I think it’s starting to look nice — a good thing, as this kind of web work is really, really time consuming.

Other Stuff

Last week, I took on a brief VA assignment for my friend, Kim Moldofsky, who holds a monthly Twitter party on STEM education. It was one of those rare jobs where I got to learn something new and fascinating while I worked.

For the last few years, I’ve toyed with the idea of training for a 5K (as a walker! Please! I am not crazy). One obstacle has been the state of my feet, which suffered from twenty years of wearing five-inch heels. The result is a collection of calluses and corns and a tendency to blister; I cannot wear dress shoes for more than about ten minutes before the pain becomes insufferable. This is why you usually see me either barefoot or in cushion-y Skechers — but even those start to hurt after I’ve walked about a mile.

A friend who is a runner suggested getting fitted at the shop where she buys her shoes, and last week I took her up on that. She drove me to FleetFeet in Encino, where I met a nice salesperson who measured my sad little feet every which way and then made me walk so she could observe my gait. In addition to the corns, I appear to be compensating for last year’s broken toe, which now also flares up with arthritic pain in cold weather. This goes rather well with the arthritis I now feel in my knees.

Ech. Nothing says “I’m getting old” like complaining about your arthritic knees. Now that I have, I’ll shut up about it.

Anyway — I walked out of there with a new pair of grey Nikes plus inserts to counteract the problems with my gait. I also purchased three pairs of expensive, cushioned socks that promise to reduce the threat of blisters (“Cotton retains moisture,” I was told and these won’t).

So now that I have no excuse, I’ve begun taking a mid-morning break to walk. Only about a mile to begin with and will work my way up. That has to be a good thing, right?

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