Term Limits Will Soon Change Approach to City Council Races

Voters in the 2nd, 4th and 12th Los Angeles City Council districts in our region took part Tuesday in one of the final rounds of a political era. It was one of the last times in which voters had the luxury of doing little homework before casting a council ballot.

The painful few who went to the polls in those districts had familiar and longtime incumbents to vote for, and they took the opportunity. Joel Wachs won the 2nd with 76% of the vote, John Ferraro won with 72% in the 4th, and Hal Bernson won the 12th with 73%. All, to say the least, know their way around a council chamber. All have clearly stated agendas, long track records and well-known areas of expertise.

So, if you were fairly pleased with services and the general state of things in those districts, you probably just voted for them.

Term limits for the council (which we certainly supported) is bringing that era of simplicity to an end. Within the next election or two, the comfortable shoes will be gone. Folks will be required to try on new and unfamiliar fits. It’s going to bring change in the way council elections are conducted. It should also signal a huge change in what voters look for in a candidate.

In the future, the candidate with the biggest war chest will not necessarily scare off opponents and become a shoo-in on ballot day. High name recognition, whatever the source, won’t carry as much weight as usual. Blockbuster endorsements from elected officials of higher rank, no matter how early they come, could be less important. It’s a welcome change because it levels the playing field.

Simply put, those elected to the Los Angeles City Council will have no more than two terms to work with. The voters will need to know less about the traditional measuring sticks and more about candidates’ accomplishments and what they will be ready to do--almost immediately--when elected. The idea that someone might eventually grow into the job won’t be a selling point. There won’t be time for that.

It may mean that there will be a lot of one-term council members. If they do not light a fire in that first four years, few constituents may want them around a second term. Better, perhaps, to get someone else elected who might be worthy of two terms.

The new criteria were most apparent in the vote for the 5th City Council District, which had no incumbent. It may have provided a window to future council campaigns.

In the 5th, Mike Feuer (with 40% of the Tuesday vote) unexpectedly sits in first place in preparation for the June election runoff. Barbara Yaroslavsky, who even had Mayor Riordan’s early endorsement, came closer to missing the runoff (27% to 21%) than she did to finishing first.

Feuer has the most impressive record of accomplishments. As a Harvard University and Harvard Law School graduate, he is not the stereotypical lawyer many love to poke fun at these days. As the former executive director of Bet-Tzedek Legal Services, he has done impressive and inspiring legal work to assist an incredibly diverse array of people in need: Nazi Holocaust survivors, victims of Alzheimer’s disease, elderly homeowners victimized by scam artists in South-Central, San Fernando Valley residents who suffered through the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and small-business owners rocked by the 1992 riots.

Feuer has also done best in outlining his agenda for the 5th District and the city, with a plate that includes ethics reform and a vision of how to put more officers on the street in a district that does not have its own police station.

Barbara Yaroslavsky had incredible name recognition, but this was not a situation in which a husband or wife had died in office and the surviving spouse was stepping in to offer continuity. Zev Yaroslavsky is still alive and well and doing a creditable job as county supervisor for many of the same constituents. The voters wanted and still want to know what Barbara would do as a council member. They wanted to know where she differed with the former council member, and where she agreed with him. She has so far offered few specifics and done a poor job of getting her vision across.

Roberta Weintraub, who finished third, had big money, a revamped image and name recognition. But her campaign platform sounded as if she was again running for the Los Angeles school board, where she served for many years, not the City Council. The voters weren’t sold.

Jeff Brain finished a distant fourth with 12% of the vote. He is a young, smart and savvy businessman, and we’d like to see more of him in the future. But it was Feuer who managed to build a campaign from the ground up. Feuer was ready to compete on all fronts in this new era of term limits. He was able to articulate a sensible and specific agenda. That is how Mike Feuer earned our endorsement for the 5th District City Council seat.