Antonovich: On the Right Side of the Issues

Best known for his deep-rooted conservatism, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has represented all or portions of the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys since he was elected to the board in 1980.

Born in Los Angeles in 1940, Antonovich was a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District before being elected to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees in 1969. He was known as an aggressive politician who led efforts to rid the system of instructors he believed leaned too far to the left politically.

In 1972, Antonovich was elected to the state Assembly, where he served three terms. After an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, Antonovich taught at Pepperdine University and in the Cal State system.

He shocked the political establishment by upsetting incumbent Supervisor Baxter Ward in 1980 and holding off Ward again in a bitter campaign four years later. Since then, Antonovich has been regularly reelected in his conservative 5th Supervisorial District.

While the supervisor has matured from young, rhetoric- spewing firebrand to professorial elder statesman, his trademark issues have remained the same: opposition to taxes and illegal immigration and support for development and privatization.

He is also responsible for shepherding the rebuilding of Olive View-UCLA Medical Center through the political process after the 1971 Sylmar-San Fernando earthquake.