A Normal Israel, in Agoura
About two months ago, Dr. Mark Capritto, the tough-minded vice principal of Agoura High School, came face-to-face with one of Zionism\’s most unusual developments: a nice Jewish gang.
About two months ago, Dr. Mark Capritto, the tough-minded vice principal of Agoura High School, came face-to-face with one of Zionism\’s most unusual developments: a nice Jewish gang.
Just when we thought it was safe to proclaim the mayoral campaign free from the kind of race-baiting that has tainted previous runs for City Hall, we get this bogus automated telephone message, falsely attributed to Republican candidate Steve Soboroff, attesting to his supposed reliance on \”Jewish money.\”
Aping the famous Army recruitment commercials, the mayoral candidates have all urged Los Angeles to \”be all you can be.\” But City Attorney James Hahn, ostensibly the one shoo-in for the run-off election in June, has come up with a novel approach to realizing his own mayoral ambitions — by being the people\’s second choice. Hahn knows that outside of his base constituency within the African American community, few people are genuinely fired up about his candidacy. But that\’s okay, he says, because only one of his rivals is going to win the primary in April. And the people who supported the others, often with great passion and fervor, will most likely transfer their allegiance to their second-choice candidate — himself. It\’s a strange race, to be sure, and its Aesopian undertones may well inspire future tales of \”The Tortoise and the Hahn.\” Still, at press time Hahn\’s lead over Steve Soboroff and Antonio Villaraigosa had narrowed — and while Hahn shares the endorsement of the Los Angeles Times with Villaraigosa, the Valley-based Daily News has endorsed Soboroff.
State Controller Kathleen Connell comes to the race for mayor with a bit of a reputation as an ice queen.
Trust current mayoral candidate and State Assembly Speaker Emeritus Antonio Villaraigosa to come up with a uniquely strategic location for his storefront headquarters.
Real estate broker, Parks and Recreation Commissioner, and Staples Center deal-maker Steve Soboroff likes to speak of his summer job, when he was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, driving actor Kirk Douglas around town and answering his fan mail.
The call came in last Wednesday from one J.R. Durrer, an Encino resident who works in Boyle Heights. Durrer had been heading west up Seventh Street, where he caught a red light at the corner of South Boyle.
He says he\’s 61, but you wouldn\’t know it either to look at him or the paper-shrouded desk in his downtown office. After half a life crusading, his batteries retain their charge even as his office space threatens to succumb to the ever-encroaching mudslide of municipal files. I am told that City Councilman Joel Wachs prefers holding forth from his offices in Studio City. But today is a day for meetings and interviews — it is past 3 p.m. and I am his third griller of the afternoon. He is always this busy, even more so now that he is running for mayor, and his desk is always on the verge of collapse. \”I haven\’t taken a day off in 20 months,\” he confides.
The more time I spend trailing the Los Angeles mayoral candidates, the more I find myself musing about rehabilitating the commissariat as a form of government. Or, failing such \”Red Dawn\”/\”Red Alert\” scenarios, perhaps we might seek something akin to the national unity administration now under contemplation in Israel. I say this not just to be provocative — well not only. It just strikes me as a huge waste of precious talent, integrity and commitment to be forced by a winner-takes-all electoral system to have to pick just one of these outstanding people for mayor while jettisoning the others.
We\’ve elected an \”Education President.\” Now, get ready to choose the \”Education Mayor.\”