CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“LA VOTE CARRIES A NEGATIVE PORTENT FOR ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’”
A little-noticed special election in a “purple”
Los Angeles city council district that suffered enormous utility-linked environmental
damage over the last few years carries a major negative portent for the “Green
New Deal” pushed avidly by some significant Democratic presidential candidates.
Parts of the same proposed package are also embraced by California Gov. Gavin
Newsom and much of the Democratic-dominated state Legislature.
This was just about the only point of outside
interest in a mid-August vote within an area of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley
that has long elected Republicans to the city council, but to no other major
office.
The district includes most areas severely
impacted by the 2015 methane leak from the Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso
Canyon storage farm set in hills just uphill from the large Porter Ranch development
on the north edge of Los Angeles. This disaster, largest natural gas leak in
American history, continued for months into 2016 before it was staunched. It
produced headaches, illness, thousands of evacuations, lower property values and
a spate of lawsuits and fines – so far. Many individuals report they are still
affected by lingering effects of the gas plume.
So if any part of Los Angeles should have
been enthusiastic about Mayor Eric Garcetti’s version of the Green New Deal
environmental program, it should have been this district, so recently a victim
of environmental depredation.
What’s more, Democratic voter registration
has increased in the area, just as in most of California, making this longtime Republican
red stronghold into a “purple” area where either party has about an equal chance
for electoral victory. “Blue” registration in the district now tops “red” by
about 20 percent.
The council seat became vacant earlier this
year, when GOP incumbent Mitchell Englander went to work for a major sports and
entertainment promotion firm. Into the race stepped Englander’s chief of staff
John Lee and environmental activist/astrophysicist Loraine Lundquist, a
professor at nearby Cal State Northridge. Lundquist has been an activist in
efforts to close Aliso Canyon and hold Southern California Gas financially responsible
for damages caused by its gas leak.
While the local version of the green new
deal was not the only major issue in this race, it was a significant one. The not-yet-adopted
Los Angeles plan would completely eliminate single-use waste items like plastic
straws, Styrofoam cups and take-out containers, with no trash at all going to
landfills by 2050. It would also recycle all of the city’s waste water by 2035,
seeks to put one-fourth of the city’s motorists into electric or other zero-emissions
cars by 2025 and 80 percent by 2035, and wants to make the Port of Los Angeles
(America’s busiest seaport) carbon-emission free within a decade. This is intended
as a model for other cities.
Good luck!, the voters seemed to say the
other day, electing Republican Lee by a 4 percent margin in a nominally non-partisan
election. Of course, Republicans have a long record of turning out in higher percentages
than Democrats in special elections – and only 32,000 total voters participated.
Plus, there’s a longstanding Los Angeles tradition where chiefs of staff often
succeed departing incumbents on the strength of the contacts they’ve built up
by working within the same districts.
Which gives Lundquist a decent chance to reverse the special
election outcome when the seat comes up again in a city election set to coincide
with the presidential primary next spring, sure to bring a much higher turnout.
Nevertheless, if the green new deal is
not a winning issue in a district that suffered greatly from the Aliso Canyon debacle,
there’s some question it can be a winning issue in other swing areas around the
nation.
That’s something for ultra-liberal Democratic
politicians like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernard
Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to think about as they
continue claiming an even wider-ranging green new deal should be imposed across
America.
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Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough,
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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