Tag Archives: Warren Furutani

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CA-36 musical chairs: Furutani Announces for LA Council District 15

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Yesterday’s victory by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn in the special election for Congressional District 36 has set the musical chairs rolling once again, as Democratic Assemblymember Warren Furutani, who represents the 55th District, declared his intention to run for the impending vacancy. Via email release from Parke Skelton:

(LOS ANGELES) Quickly following Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s victory for Congress in the special election yesterday, Warren Furutani wasted no time in announcing his plans to run for City Council.

“I was born in San Pedro and have lived in the 15th Council District for almost 20 years,” said Furutani. “I’m an LA guy and I’m very excited at the opportunity to work closely with the community on important issues like job creation, gang prevention, education, transportation, air quality and improving the great neighborhoods of San Pedro, Watts, Wilmington, Harbor City and the Harbor Gateway.”

Furutani began his career in Los Angeles as a community organizer during the civil rights movement. He later worked as a counselor at one of the toughest continuation high schools for dropouts in Downtown LA to keep at-risk kids out of gangs and in school.

Per the release, Asm. Furutani currently represents approximately 30 percent of the turf that is Council District 15. If successful, Furutani would join fellow former Assemblymembers Paul Koretz (District 5) and Paul Krekorian (District 2) on the Los Angeles City Council. While going from the Assembly to a City Council would normally seem like a downgrade, Los Angeles is a distinct exception for several reasons, in no particular order: 1) the pay is substantially better; 2) City Hall is a much easier commute than Sacramento; 3) more authority over similar turf; and 4) members of the City Council are only term-limited out after three four-year terms without the threat of being redistricted out since the Council controls redistricting.

In Furutani’s case he would get nearly 14 years on the City Council should be be successful, since Janice Hahn’s unexpired term would not count against his term limit. Not a bad way to end a legislative career. As of yet, no dates have been set for a special election, as Janice Hahn has not formally resigned her Council seat.

Budget

Save The Spending Cap Three

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As Becks mentioned in an eloquent diary on the Rec list, Karen Bass has made a baffling, counter-productive move to punish Sandre Swanson, Warren Furutani, and Tony Mendoza, lawmakers who did the right thing for their districts and their state by opposing the spending cap part of the budget.  The LA Times has a good story on this.

Like a military commander busting down insubordinate troops, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) has stripped committee chairmanships from a trio of wayward lawmakers after they refused to join fellow Democrats in support of a key budget provision.

The three assemblymen — Sandre Swanson of Alameda, Warren Furutani of Gardena and Tony Mendoza of Artesia — voted last month against a measure to cap state spending, which will appear on a special statewide ballot this spring […]

By removing the three lawmakers from their posts, Bass takes away key staff assistance, clout on policy issues and potential fundraising power.

She’s hurting those lawmakers, but as the above sentence makes clear, she’s hurting their constituents as well.  All because they couldn’t go along with a plan that will make it impossible to deliver basic services to Californians, even in good economic times.  And the spokeswoman for Bass trying to sidestep the rationale for this is pathetic.

“Having now had a couple months to see this class in action,” the speaker felt changes were needed “to ensure the Assembly can continue to do the best job for the people of California,” said spokeswoman Shannon Murphy.

She declined to elaborate, calling the changes “an internal caucus matter.”

You’ll notice that Darrell Steinberg did not mete out this punishment to, for example, Loni Hancock, who voted against the spending cap in the Senate.

I understand the desire for leadership to have control of their caucus, but unless we’re concluding that Karen Bass really really wanted to cap state spending, there is no good reason to enforce party discipline on a terrible vote.  When the spending cap goes down because of the arrogant way that Bass and the legislature hid the true costs, both on the spending side and on the taxation side, these three members who were right all along will appear to be the only ones who suffer.

I think it’s worth writing or calling the Speaker and asking her why she wants to punish progressives for voting to protect services for Californians.  And you might ask her, politely, to reinstate the Spending Cap Three.

District Address

5750 Wilshire Boulevard

Suite 565

Los Angeles, CA 90036

Phone: (323) 937-4747

Fax: (323) 937-3466

Capitol Address

P.O. Box 942849

Room 219

Sacramento, CA 94249-0047

Phone: (916) 319-2047

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Brian’s Random Tuesday Morning Update

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A few random pieces cobbled together by the magic of bullet points:

  • Charlie Brown is having a fundraiser in Pasadena tonight hosted by some of our favorite Blue Dogs including the ever-so-fab Jane Harman. If you've got $250 to spare, perhaps you can ask her about this bizarre editorial with Pete Hoekstra.  Charlie Brown for Congress (4th CD), Reception, US Reps. Adam Schiff, Jane Harman and Brad Sherman “invite you,” Charlie's Angel $2300, Sponsor $1000, Co-host $500, Guest $250, 7 p.m., Home of Dr. Michael Fortanasce, Glenoaks Blvd., Pasadena. Contact: 916 782 7696.
  • On the totally random front,Germany's largest employer and transportation company, Deutsche Bahn, is trying to privatize. They're hitting some snags now, and I'd say…good. See, management (and Merkel's CDU) wants to sell a stake to institutional investors, and the more liberal SPD party wants to sell to small investors. But, perhaps they could take a look over the pond and see how great our transportation system is. Because constantly bailing out our air transport companies post-regulation has been great.  Hopefully somebody is paying attention at our CA High-Speed Rail Commission. Byt the by, the bond package for high-speed rail is still on the ballot for next November as far as I know. I'm sure Arnold will attempt to back it off again. Hopefully the Dems will support a vital piece of infrastructure for the 21st Century.
  • The Special Election to replace Laura Richardson in the Assembly is today. The competitors have been doing quite a battle, but I lean towards Furutani. And if I'm reading Paul Rosenberg's comment correctly, so does he.
  • The Governator is allowing hospitals to continue operating without completing seismic upgrades ordered after the Northridge 1994 quake. While I understand the need to ensure that our hospitals keep running, we also need to ensure that they are safe. Why can't they complete the upgrades? Well, under resourcing of course.
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AD-55: IEs get nasty in LA Assembly Special Election

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The special election to replace now-Rep. Laura Richardson in her SoCal district is coming up soon. However, it's not just the two candidates, Warren Furutani and Mike Gipson who are spending like crazy to get 'er done. Nope, like every other election in California, this one is dominated by Independent Expenditures. Given that this is the only item on the ballot, turnout will be terrible, so each vote is priceless. And the IEs, and candidates, are spending accordingly.

 The candidates themselves have raised about $500,000 between them, with Furutani leading Gipson with more than $350,000 raised.

While donations to the candidates are capped, money streaming into independent expenditure campaigns, which by law can’t coordinate with the candidates, is limitless. (SacBee CapAlert 11.28.07)

So, I didn't really have a favorite in this race, really. I just didn't know enough about the candidates. I mean, I knew that Warren Furutani is an Asian-American and is endorsed by the CDP and a bunch of Democratic Clubs,  the Sierra Club, a bunch of unions, most of the Assembly, including the Speaker, Mayor Villaraigosa, and state Controller John Chiang, amongst many others. And, I knew that Mike Gipson was an African-American who had held local offices in Carson and is endorsed by Rep. Richardson, Sen. Perata and a bunch of Senators, one Democratic Club, and some other local officials. All well and good, there. I suppose I would lean towards Furutani because all the local Dem Club endorsements mean he has some grassroots support. Cool.

Furutani's IEs are mostly funded by labor, so I'm pretty comfortable with that.  But the amazing part about Gipson's IEs? Yeah, it's the same one that tried to take down John Chiang in the Controller's race. So that we could have Controller Tony Strickland, as that would be, you know wonderful. Yup, it's money from Intuit, the software company, and a bunch of tobacco companies.  I guess the backstory on that is that Intuit didn't like the previous Controller, Steve Westly, cutting into their TurboTax business with his easy filing process. And the tobacco $$? Well, they're always trying to buy politicians, aren't they?

So, while I can't make an official Calitics endorsement, I can say that I, personally, now support Warren Furutani. Unfortunately, Mr. Furutani doesn't have an ActBlue page. So, Mr. Furutani, could you get on that? I'm really not into Dem. candidates using sytems like "Click and Pledge" which allow you to "Pay only 4.75% processing fee per transaction for Visa, MC, Discover, & 5% for JCB- accept only the cards you want." Umm, ActBlue only charges about 3%. Why do all these Dems keep using other providers???? Do we really need to throw away 2% of online donations?