Did you hear that deep sigh? That was me, gearing up for all the Boy Meets Congress puns I’m going to have to stomach for the next year at least because that’s right friends, Ben Savage has filed paperwork to run for incumbent Democrat Adam Schiff’s Congressional seat, CA-30. Schiff is rumored to be considering a run for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat, but remember, Feinstein hasn’t announced whether she’s going to run again or not, even if Katie Porter has decided it doesn’t matter and she wants the seat.
Savage recently ran (and lost) for West Hollywood City Council. He ran on a platform of pro-cop, which was a bold (dumb) move. I am not surprised he lost. That is not the WeHo way my friends, which is why he came in seventh out of 12 candidates in an election where the top three got elected to the City Council.
So, I lived in Schiff’s district all seven years I lived in LA (back when it was CA-28), and I have my own issues with him (it was nearly impossible to get anyone on the phone in his district office when I needed help) and all I can say to Savage is: Good luck, man. West Hollywood is on the edge of CA-30 which spans a very large section of land, and a huge demographic difference across LA County. This whole pro-cop stance he has on his website? That won’t fly in Silverlake or Echo Park, my man. A quick Google search tells me he doesn’t already have a public stance on the Armenian Genocide, which is extremely foolish, seeing as CA-30 includes LA’s Little Armenia neighborhood and has “the largest Armenian diaspora in the country” That’s pulled directly from Adam Schiff’s Congressional site, and anyone who lives in LA knows this. Come on Ben, you’re behind the curve here on your homework already!
According to RollingStone.com, Savage’s political pedigree isn’t all ego, it’s just mostly ego:
In 2003, he interned for then-U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, R-PA, while studying political science at Stanford.
Which, OK, you interned for a Republican and you’re running in a heavily Democrat district with a recently pro-cop platform, and you studied political science. How exactly do you expect to turn this into gold, here? It didn’t work for Rick Caruso, who probably had more money to sink into his campaign. Do you really expect to coast by on nostalgia for Boy Meets World, here?!
Personally, I’m not precious about Congressional seats. I think competition is good, so in that regard, I say people should feel free to run against whoever they want to. I do think they should do their homework and know who they would be representing, though. A cursory glance through Savage’s still-up WeHo campaign demonstrates what he thinks the priorities for the community are:
…facing serious challenges around public safety, struggling businesses, the cost of housing, and homelessness
It’s been a few years since I lived in LA but I still have friends who do, and they live in CA-30. Let me tell you, their number one concern is not the dog whistle of “public safety.” It is one hundred percent housing costs, which he lists third. They are broke millennials who can’t move out from their rent-controlled apartments with landlords who don’t even do the bare minimum for maintenance because they’re pissed off that they can’t raise the rent until 2024. I was in the same boat! Had to leave the state because I could no longer afford to live in LA, Ben, and my landlord thought it was OK that I had roaches infesting my kitchen and crawling all over my utensils.
Maybe this is serious, I don’t know, but as I said, there are some glaring policy errors and omissions if Savage wants to run a campaign that has a snowball’s chance in hell of having a shot, here. Plus, Schiff hasn’t even indicated whether he wants to run for any seat other than the one he currently occupies now.
(featured image: ABC)
