Former Mayor Agran Running for Council
Larry Agran, former Irvine mayor and 1992 presidential candidate, is running for City Council in an effort to help thwart plans for an airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
“We need a City Council that is taking a lead in this entire battle,” said Agran, 53. “There needs to be an honest, side-by-side choice between the county’s airport plan and the South County plan. I believe that the majority of residents, if given the chance, will vote against the airport plan.”
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Aug. 7, 1998 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday August 7, 1998 Orange County Edition Metro Part B Page 2 Orange County Focus Desk 1 inches; 32 words Type of Material: Correction
Agran arrest--A story Wednesday on the 1992 arrest of former Irvine mayor Larry Agran for protesting his exclusion from a debate during his 1992 presidential campaign failed to mention that he was acquitted four years later.
Agran, who is seeking one of two open seats, is the founder of Project ‘99, an anti-airport group. Members favor converting the base to a central park surrounded by a university or college, libraries, retail stores and a cultural complex.
A UC Berkeley graduate, Agran earned a law degree at Harvard in 1969 and then served as legal counsel to the state Senate committee on health and welfare.
He was a member of the City Council from 1978 to 1990, and became the city’s first mayor to be elected directly by the people for the last two of those years.
In 1992, Agran mounted an against-all-odds bid for president, campaigning as a Democrat on a platform of massive defense cuts. Showing his tenacity, he raised enough money to qualify for matching federal funds. But he also was arrested in New York for protesting his exclusion from a political debate.
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