Young renegade, longtime leader vie in 3-way council race for District 5

Attorney Jesse Creed is hoping for an upset win in the March 7 primary for Los Angeles Council District 5, a race pitting him against two-term incumbent Paul Koretz, 61, a familiar face in the organized Jewish community and longtime leader in the city.

If that sounds far-fetched, Creed, 31, says he is inspired by former Jewish elected officials Zev Yaroslavsky and Roz Wyman, who were in their 20s when they first won seats to represent the district.

“This district is famous for electing young renegades,” Creed said in a phone interview. “Roz Wyman was 22. Zev was 26… This district confounds, it absolutely confounds. I’d be the youngest person serving on the city council today.”

An oddly configured district that includes neighborhoods on the Westside, the San Fernando Valley, Bel Air, Westwood and Pico-Robertson, among others, District 5 is approximately 20 percent Jewish, according to estimates by Creed and Koretz. The district has been represented by a Jewish councilmember since 1953, the year Wyman was elected.

Creed and Koretz participated in a candidates’ forum on Feb. 12 at Leo Baeck Temple and agreed to be interviewed for this story.

Koretz and Creed have more than Judaism in common: They are both Democrats -— though L.A. City Council is a nonpartisan position — and both oppose Measure S, which would place a maximum two-year moratorium on certain development projects in the city.

Supporters of Measure S argue its passage would combat the interests of billionaire developers whose projects cause traffic and disrupt neighborhoods. Opponents say the measure would worsen the affordable housing shortage in Los Angeles and lead to fewer construction jobs.

While Koretz has not publicly opposed the measure, he said in the interview he plans to vote against it. He said passage could kill the plan for George Lucas’ Museum of Narrative Art at Exposition Park, and the moratorium could potentially last longer than two years, leading to negative economic consequences for the city.

Creed attributed his opposition to the city’s affordable housing crisis. “If it was just on the Westside, I would have a different opinion, but at this point I’m not willing to put any gas on the fire of this housing shortage we have in this city,” Creed said at Leo Baeck Temple.

Mark Herd, who has run unsuccessfully for national and state offices as a Libertarian, is also competing for the seat. He appeared at the Leo Baeck Temple forum, which was moderated by KCRW’s Warren Olney, but declined to be interviewed for this story after he was unhappy with his portrayal in a Los Angeles Times editorial that endorsed Koretz.

At the forum, Herd offered support for Measure S, saying it would reduce traffic gridlock and help maintain the character of neighborhoods. “I hate to say it, but it’s the only solution on March 7,” Herd said. “So, if you like gridlock and don’t care about your specific [neighborhood plans] … then vote no on Measure S.”

Koretz told Olney that one area he would like to focus on is climate change if he is elected for a third, and final, term.

“I’m going to be laser-focused on having L.A. become the leader in fighting climate change, not only in the city of Los Angeles but so that will reflect nationally and worldwide,” he said.

Due to changes in the election schedule, the winner of the race will serve 5 1/2 years rather than the customary four, a change to eliminate local odd-year elections and improve voter turnout.

A candidate exceeding 50 percent of the vote will win; otherwise, the top two finishers will face each other in a May 16 runoff.

During the campaign, Creed has criticized Koretz’s relationship with political donors. He said he believes Koretz is too beholden to real estate developers.

As of Jan. 21, Koretz’s campaign had raised more than $387,000, while Creed’s campaign had raised just over $264,000, according to the L.A. City Ethics Commission.

Koretz has emphasized Creed’s lack of experience and his lack of attachment in the district, where he has never even coached a baseball team, as Koretz framed it at Leo Baeck Temple.

Creed, who left the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson to devote himself full time to the campaign, has touted his effort toward expanding housing for veterans at the West Los Angeles Veteran’s Administration (VA) campus, which is not within the fifth district. He was brought in to implement the settlement agreement between the VA and veterans who had sued it.

Other issues addressed during the campaign have included homelessness, mansionization and traffic reduction. Mansionization is the practice of homeowners expanding the size of their houses beyond the character of the neighborhood.

“I think every district needs to chip in to help with the homelessness crisis,” said Creed, a Toronto native who was raised in a Conservative household.

Creed attended high school at Palisades Charter High School and was involved with the Chabad movement. During a phone interview, he recalled how he was unaware that he had Crohn’s disease at the time of his bar mitzvah, which was held at Mishkon Tephilo in Venice.

“I was incredibly ill, so a lot of it I don’t really remember,” he said. “I felt like there was a muse coming through me, inspiring me to recite my haftorah and then it disappeared. I just had to do it.”

A summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, where he was a top graduate in his class, Creed has been endorsed by philanthropist Bruce Corwin as well as several entertainment industry figures, including Renee Zellweger.

Creed attributes his success at school and as a lawyer to hard work.

“Everything I accomplished I earned it by working harder than anybody else around me and I want to work harder than anybody else for you,” he said to the audience at Leo Baeck.

He said his history of adjusting to new communities as his family moved from place to place would serve him well if elected.

“Having been an outsider in many points in my life … makes me fiercely independent in many ways and gives me the courage to stand up to power, like I’m doing in this race,” he said.

Koretz’s father escaped Nazi Germany and was a Democratic activist who introduced Koretz to politics when he was a boy. The councilman’s role in Los Angeles civic life dates back to campaigning for the incorporation of the City of West Hollywood in 1984. Around that time, he met his wife, Gail, through a Jewish dating service he described as “primitive,” which had advertised in the Jewish Journal. They have been married 30 years.

He served on the West Hollywood City Council and in the California State Assembly prior to his election to the City Council.

A fan of Ray Bradbury fiction, Koretz said he’d wanted to be a science fiction writer before he became a politician.

“West Hollywood happened,” he said, “and I haven’t written any fiction in over 30 years.”