If you're a candidate in a five-way primary campaign, what do you do to try to distinguish yourself from the others?
Two answers have emerged this week in the wide-open 41st Assembly District primary in which five Democrats are jostling for the right to replace termed-out incumbent Fran Pavley.
Attorney Jonathan Levey has taken what might be called the scholarly approach. This week he released a 161-page, pocket-sized book titled "Ideas in Action." The book details his thoughts and positions on such issues as traffic, the environment and healthcare. It's a thoughtful publication and includes references to various web sites at which readers can get additional information on various subjects. But it is not exactly passionate...
Passion, it seems, is more the province of activist Kelly Hayes-Raitt, who sent an e-mail to supporters today asking them to join her at hearings tonight and Wednesday on BHP Billiton's proposed Cabrillo Port liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Oxnard and Malibu. Hayes-Raitt says it's time to "send the mega-multinationals packing... When I fought offshore drilling as Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy's statewide environmental representative, we beat the oil industry in our state's longest public hearing in history. We won then; we'll win now." In her e-mail, she compares the LNG industry to Enron before that energy company was "exposed for manipulating the market, creating false shortages and gouging customers."
I just leafed through the 22-page chapter on the environment in Levey's book. Twice. It could be I'm missing something, but I don't see a word about liquefied natural gas.
I was proud to join over 400 people in Malibu and nearly 600 people in Oxnard to oppose the proposed LNG platform! The State Lands Commission just extended its comment period to mid-May. I encourge readers to send comments to: BHPRevisedDEIR@slc.ca.gov. For more information, please visit: http://KellyForAssembly.com/in-lng.htm or call us at (310) 392-8715.
I read Levey's book too. I agree that it's not extremely passionate, but I don't think that means he believes in his ideas any less. There's a lot of passion going around the Democratic party these days, but not enough of the hard-nosed can-do pragmatic types who actually translate that passion into legislative success.