CANDIDATES JOCKEY IN PRIMARY FOR ASSEMBLY SEAT FIVE DEMS, TWO REPUBLICANS, ONE LIBERTARIAN IN RACE.Byline: Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO - For the past six years, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley Fran Pavley is a Democratic politician and previously served as a California Assemblywoman and as the first mayor of the Southern California community of Agoura Hills. She served as a Mayor and Councilmember for four terms. , D-Woodland Hills, has made it her mission to improve the environment, and most of the major candidates looking to succeed her hope to continue that legacy. The race for the 41st Assembly district features five Democrats, two Republicans and a Libertarian seeking their parties' nominations in the June primary. The district is considered a safe Democratic seat, with a 48-29 percent Democratic edge over Republicans in voter registration Voter registration is the requirement in some democracies for citizens to check in with some central registry before being allowed to vote in elections. An effort to get people to register is known as a voter registration drive. Centralized/compulsory vs. . The district stretches along the coast from Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. to the west San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and parts of Ventura County. Barry Groveman - a city councilman, former mayor of Calabasas and an environmental attorney - is the only candidate not from Santa Monica. Grooveman has spent much of his career working on environmental issues, first as an environmental attorney for the city of Los Angeles
If elected, Groveman would like the state to aggressively pursue polluters by stiffening stiff·en tr. & intr.v. stiff·ened, stiff·en·ing, stiff·ens To make or become stiff or stiffer. stiff penalties for repeat offenders and by scientific "fingerprinting" of chemicals in hazardous cargo carried off the coast. To fight traffic congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. , he would like to see the state use more computerized traffic signals and copy a Houston program in which towing companies must move cars involved in freeway crashes within six minutes. He would also like community colleges to offer free tuition. "I have a 26-year history of problem-solving and taking on big battles and getting good outcomes and I want to take that to Sacramento," Groveman said. Jonathan Levey is a teacher and attorney from Santa Monica and, at 35, the youngest candidate in the race. He teaches business law at California State University, Channel Islands California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI) is a university located in Camarillo, California, in California's Ventura County. CSUCI opened in 2002 as the twenty-third campus in the California State University system, succeeding the Ventura County branch campus of . Previously he was vice president of Catellus Development Corp., a major real estate investment trust and developer - one, which he is quick to add, that has worked on projects such as creating wildlife preserves in the desert and building affordable housing. "I'm clearly the person in the race who is not a career politician," Levey said. Levey said he hopes to work on protecting parks and open space and clean water in Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is an arm of the Pacific Ocean in southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume . He also would like to see the state recruit and foster more companies that research alternative energy, offering them incentives to locate and expand in California. On education, he would like to see more local control and accountability of school districts as well as more charter schools. Julia Brownley Julia Brownley is a California State Assemblywoman representing California's 41st Assembly District (2007-2008). She was elected to the Assembly on November 7, 2006 [1]. She is a Democrat. is president of the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District A unified school district is a school district which includes both primary school (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high school (grades 9-12). In Illinois, these districts are called unit school districts. and has been on the board for 11 years. She would like to see the state spend more on education. That may involve raising taxes, she said, particularly looking at whether to modify Proposition 13 into a split roll that would require businesses to pay more in property taxes. She would also like to lower the threshold for cities to pass their own ballot measures to increase local taxes to help schools. She said the state should also invest more in public transit and she supports universal health care such as proposed for the last several years by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles. "I'm running for the Assembly because I want to make education a priority again in the state of California," Brownley said. Democrat Kelly Hayes-Raitt runs a political communications and community-organizing business and serves on Santa Monica's Commission on the Status of Women Noun 1. Commission on the Status of Women - the commission of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations that is concerned with the status of women in different societies . She was a co-founder of the environmental group Heal the Bay Heal the Bay is a U.S. environmental advocacy non-profit organization based in Santa Monica, California. Heal the Bay is dedicated to protecting California's Santa Monica Bay, a region of the Pacific coast encompassed by Malibu's Point Dume on the north and the Palos Verdes and was director of the Coalition for Clean Air. "All my life I've been working for social justice - a better environment, better opportunities for students, better retirements for our seniors," Hayes-Raitt said. Hayes-Raitt, who lags three opponents in fundraising, said the first thing she would work on if elected is clean money. She supports a system of public financing of campaigns such as the state of Arizona has, in which candidates agree to spending limits in exchange for receiving taxpayer funds to help run their campaigns. She would also work on increasing the use of solar panels. Shawn Casey O'Brien is one of the few Democrats who does not list the environment as a top priority, instead focusing on issues to help the disabled. O'Brien, who was born with cerebral palsy cerebral palsy (sərē`brəl pôl`zē), disability caused by brain damage before or during birth or in the first years, resulting in a loss of voluntary muscular control and coordination. , has spent much of his life as an activist for disabled causes. He also edited an anthology of stories about disability issues and is working on publishing his first novel. "I believe, in the most affluent country in the world, we ought to at a minimum educate our children and take care of our disabled," O'Brien said. He also would like to work to protect the coast and increase air-quality control laws, and would seek to increase tax revenues through a split-roll under which businesses would pay more in property taxes. He also wants to ban fundraising while the Legislature is in session in an effort to clean up the campaign finance system. On the Republican side, businessman Tony Dolz is running primarily on an anti-illegal immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. platform. Dolz, who is a member of the Minuteman border patrol, would like to see all government services denied to illegal immigrants, greater enforcement at the border and more deportations. "I am concerned about the risks and costs of broken borders and massive illegal immigration in the state of California," Dolz said. Dolz is an immigrant himself. He came to this country from Cuba as a child in the 1960s and became a U.S. citizen in 1986. He lists his occupation on the ballot as "national security analyst," though he makes his living through several businesses that he and his wife own selling baby products, homeopathic Homeopathic A holistic and natural approach to healthcare. Mentioned in: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome homeopathic, adj health products and bedding. He listed national security analyst because he provides information and analysis to private groups working on anti-immigration issues. Dolz's rival in the Republican primary is also a legal immigrant. Adriana Van Hemert, a children's social worker from Santa Monica, came to the United States in 1968 from the Netherlands and became a citizen in 1975. Van Hemert, who works for Los Angeles County, also has a doctorate in psychology. One of her top priorities is improving the vocational alternatives available to high school students. She would like students to have alternative high schools they can attend to learn trades like woodworking and plumbing, with only a basic academic curriculum. "The children in this state need a chance for a better future," she said. Her other issues include helping small business by removing state restrictions and further reforms of the workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. system. She would like to improve traffic congestion through the building of a monorail monorail, railway system that uses cars that run on a single rail. Typically the rail is run overhead and the cars are either suspended from it or run above it. system. Conrad Stefan Frankowski, a human resources executive from Woodland Hills, is the Libertarian Party's only candidate in the 41st Assembly district. harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com (916) 446-6723 CAPTION(S): box, map Box: 41st Assembly District race Map: 41st Assembly District |
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