Mark Ridley-Thomas

Two Democrats have filed paperwork to run for the state Senate seat that will be vacated by Los Angeles County Supervisor-elect Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles).

Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles) and former candidate for several offices Mervin Leon Evans both filed their intention this week with the California Secretary of State's office to run in a special election for Ridley-Thomas' 26th State Senate District seat.

The campaign of Bernard Parks claimed that its opponent for an open seat on the County Board of Supervisors, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, is attacking Parks in an attempt to distract the media and voters from Ridley-Thomas' ties to former SEIU President Tyrone Freeman, who is currently under federal investigation for misuse of union dues.

The race for the 2nd District L.A. County Supervisor seat took another strange turn this week.
 
The saga began with some anonymous emails claiming that candidate Bernard Parks (D-Los Angeles), an L.A. City Councilman, had been a registered member of the small, conservative American Independent Party for ten years.

The West Los Angeles Democratic Club’s Saturday afternoon debate was more wonkish than wild as less than 150 voters listened to measured responses by the two leading faces in the L.A. County Board of Supervisors’ 2nd District race.

Noteworthy in the 2nd District debate has been how plodding the events can feel due to the sometimes dry public personas of the race’s two top candidates - 26th District State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas and Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks.

Both have solid political resumes – Ridley-Thomas with his City Council, Assembly and State Senate years and Parks with his City Council work, a bulwark against his sometimes controversial stint as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. But neither has the want-to-shake-his-hand zest of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; if the mayor feels sometimes like a Hispanic Jack Kennedy, Parks and Ridley-Thomas both can come off as African-American versions of Henry “Scoop” Jackson.

The environmentally conscious Los Angeles League of Conversation Voters is gearing up for its annual fundraiser on May 18th and the event is becoming a fruitful “green” stop on the local primary circuit.

Despite Hollywood's love of environmental issues, the league has more of an L.A. County than a City of L.A. feel as the county's local political machinations are one part of its activist mandate. Poorer, off-the-radar cities in southeast L.A. County with serious environmental hazards such as Maywood and Cerritos are more likely to attract the league's attention than very green towns like Malibu and Santa Monica.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ 2nd District race heats up Thursday night with a debate between L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks and 26th District State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas. The race has proven a bit bruising as business, labor and African-American leaders have had to choose between endorsing one of the two black politicians.  read more »