The last time there was a competitive race for the congressional district now known as California's 30th, Santana was leading the pack, Steve Jobs had just introduced Mac OS X, and a Republican was the mayor of Los Angeles.
The year was 2000, and then-state Sen. Adam Schiff was challenging incumbent Republican Rep. James Rogan, who had become a national star and liberal nuisance for leading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.
The fame of Rogan's impeachment, an unprecedented outpouring of outside money and the possibility of flipping a coveted House seat from Republican to Democrat made it one of the highest-profile House races in the country that anus.
The end result now seems like a fait accompli: The crowd in the Pasadena Hilton ballroom went wild just before 1 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2000, when Schiff declared victory. The now-ubiquitous California politician would go the next 11 election cycles without facing a serious challenger.
Nearly a quarter-century after his initial conquest, Schiff's departure to run for Senate has opened the floodgates, with 15 people vying to replace him and represent a district that includes a wide swath of the city of Los Angeles, all of West Hollywood, Glendale and Burbank, and part of Pasadena.
But the prize in 2024 looks very different than in 2000: The victor will preside over an overwhelmingly safe blue stronghold, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 3 to 1. It's a rare open seat that could easily be represented by the winner in the coming decades.
Amid a heated presidential election and the race to fill the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat, many voters are just beginning to pay attention to the 30th District's army of candidates. The field includes state elected officials, a member of the school board, the former mayor of West Hollywood, a trans activist, a former child star, an intensive care doctor and several others.
State Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank), Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), former Los Angeles City Attorney. Los Angeles Unified school board member Mike Feuer and Nick Melvoin are largely seen as the most competitive candidates: All have raised more than $1 million or close to it and previously represented hundreds of thousands of voters in districts that at least partially overlap with the 30th Congressional District.
Ben Savage, the actor who played Cory Matthews on the ABC comedy “Boy Meets World,” has also invested more than a million dollars in his campaign and enjoys some name recognition and a strong polling program, which which makes it difficult to completely rule it out. But he finished seventh in his 2022 City Council race in the 34,500s.–person from West Hollywood, so winning in a much larger and more competitive congressional race can be a challenge.
There isn't much room between top elected officials on major issues: They are all long-time Democrats who vociferously support abortion rights and gun control, promise to combat climate change and pledge to uphold Democratic values in Washington. , DC. Their political differences can be measured in degrees, rather than broad strokes.
The top two finishers in the March 5 primary will move on to the November election, a general election contest that will almost certainly be a Democrat versus Democrat battle.
“These crowded fields are very difficult to predict in terms of who will come out ahead and who won't,” said Marva Díaz, a political consultant and editor of the election guide California Target Book.
Díaz emphasized that on-the-ground campaigning would be particularly important in such a crowded race, particularly with literature filling voters' mailboxes.
Portantino, a well-known state lawmaker who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, is the top raiser in the field, contributing more than $1.4 million as of Dec. 31, according to federal campaign finance filings.
California State Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) in March 2023.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Portantino also has the backing of the state's most powerful labor organizations, which could be a boon in a general election, as such groups often provide on-the-ground support for their favored candidates. Last week, Portantino reintroduced a bill sponsored by the California Federation of Labor that seeks to provide unemployment insurance benefits to striking workers, a policy measure that will likely further polish relations that will change politics, as the Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure last year.
Melvoin, a two-term Harvard-educated school board member who was first elected with the help of charter school backers, has raised about $1.3 million as has Feuer, a longtime lawmaker who He has also served on the Los Angeles City Council and the state Assembly. .
Friedman had raised just over $930,000 during the same filing period. Three other candidates — West Hollywood City Council member Sepi Shyne, public health advocate Jirair Ratevosian, and Silver Lake Neighborhood Council member G. “Maebe A. Girl” Pudlo — had raised more than $100,000 as of the election. most recent filing deadline.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, in a bucolic Beachwood Canyon backyard, a group of older Hollywood Hills residents listened intently as Friedman made his speech.
“I'm going to do what is sometimes uncomfortable for women. I’m going to talk about my accomplishments,” Friedman told the crowd, before recounting his leadership on climate and sustainability issues in the Legislature.
Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) with her fellow legislators in March 2023.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
The warning was almost certainly not something her prominent male competitors would have had to deal with. But Friedman, a former film executive turned politician, has made her gender an element of her campaign. She frequently noted that she would be the first woman to hold the position and stressed the importance of having women in leadership positions “when abortion rights are on the table” during a recent debate.
She has taken an unorthodox approach to her advertising, highlighting her experience as a semi-professional pool player in a digital advertisement and an email sent to almost 100,000 homes.
Feuer and Portantino, the only two candidates who appear to advertise on the much more expensive television airwaves so far, have taken very different approaches.
Portantino has a moving 30 second ad which focuses on Mia Tretta, a teenage survivor of the 2019 Saugus High School shooting. Looking directly into the camera, Tretta tells viewers that “many politicians sent thoughts and prayers, but Anthony Portantino took action and passed laws to kept guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them and banned guns from anyone under 21.”
Jan Wieringa, an undecided voter sitting in the audience at a recent candidate forum, said Portantino's announcement had resonated deeply with her.
“That really made me realize,” the film producer said of the announcement.
Like Portantino, Feuer has also emphasized his advocacy for gun control, touting the endorsement of former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her work as a prosecutor addressing gun violence.
Then city attorney. and mayoral candidate Mike Feuer at a press conference in front of Los Angeles City Hall in November 2021.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Feuer seems more eager to publicly adopt a Schiffian mold, emphasizing his own previous battles with President Trump as city attorney. He has made the defense of democracy a central theme of his campaign, characterizing himself as “the only candidate in this race who has fought against authoritarianism and defended democracy.”
Feuer got a big boost from his former competitor, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who endorsed him early in the race and recorded an ad. singing his praises on domestic violence and elder abuse protections, anti-Trump fights and other advocacy. Feuer dropped out of the 2022 mayoral race weeks before the primary to endorse Bass.
Melvoin, who at 38 is a generation younger than other elected officials, has put generational change at the forefront of his campaign. His own 30-second campaign ad, which airs digitally and on streaming platforms, pairs him with a middle-aged actor playing a bland career politician who “is running for Congress because that's what politicians do.” career”.
Schiff has not yet made his endorsement in the crowded primary and is unlikely to do so given his own competitive battle for the Senate.
