Vote for YJ Draiman for Mayor of Los Angeles 2017 - Check Ballot #33 on March 7, 2017
Vote for YJ Draiman for Mayor of Los Angeles 2017 - Check
Ballot #33 on March 7, 2017
Getting
Candid with YJ Draiman Full video 020117
A dozen hopefuls step up to the starting line for Los Angeles mayoral race
Y.J. Draiman would take Mayor Eric Garcetti’s job by boosting business. David Hernandez would supplant the mayor by building infrastructure. And Garcetti would be re-elected mayor by having already led Los Angeles.
They were among the dozen candidates to formally declare they would run for mayor before the deadline ends at noon today. Candidates have until Dec. 7 to collect enough signatures to get onto the March 7 city election ballot.
“We have people filing even today for mayor,” said Tom Reindel, public services administrator for the Los Angeles City Clerk-Election Division, which remained open during the Veterans Day holiday.
“If someone shows up at 12:01 p.m. (today), they will not be processed.”
Besides the mayor’s race, elections will be held for city attorney, controller, eight-odd numbered council districts and even-numbered Los Angeles school board and community college districts.
Garcetti, a native of Encino, was voted into office in May 2013 after a bruising battle with former City Controller Wendy Greuel, a native of North Hollywood.
Highlights during his term include passing a $15 minimum wage, a new contract with Department of Water and Power workers, a Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Olympics, and the recent passage of the Measure M transit tax.
After announcing he’d run again more than a year ago, he has raised $2.25 million toward his re-election bid, according to a Sept. 30 campaign filing, the latest available.
Among the dozen challengers for the $249,000 mayoral seat were five from the San Fernando Valley: Draiman, a Northridge East Neighborhood Council board member from Northridge; Hernandez, a community advocate from Valley Village; Rudy Melendez, a laborer/artist from North Hollywood; Eric Preven, a writer/producer from Studio City; and Diane “Pinky” Harman, a retired educator/actor from Northridge.
Draiman, a retired real estate developer, had run for mayor three years ago. He says he’s running again to make a difference: in energy and water conservation; and in bringing business back to Los Angeles.
“That is key to this city,” said Draiman, 67, a registered independent. “You bring business back to the city, and you employ the unemployed. I am very determined. I want this city to move forward. It’s ridiculous; we’re going backwards.”
Hernandez, a retired insurance adjuster, once ran for Los Angeles County supervisor as well as Congress. He’s also been active in community issues, from advocating for Asian elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo to fighting a proposed bullet train in the Northeast Valley.
“I’m running because I can only do so much as a community advocate to make a positive change,” said Hernandez, 68, a registered Republican who raised $1,300, “including going to basics and resetting our priorities to public safety, infrastructure, business opportunities and quality of life.”
Harman taught English as a second language in Los Angeles schools for more than three decades before she found a second wind as a senior rapper and hip-hop dancer.
She says Queen Latifah named her “Pinky” on account of her signature head-to-toe pink getups. She is running for mayor, she said, to advocate for senior citizens, end racial injustice and put an end to criminal hacking and stalking.
“I’m pink and positive,” said Harman, 65. “Keep it pink and positive. I would paint the town pink and make Los Angeles have a pink horizon.”
Of the dozen candidates to have declared their intention to run for mayor, Mitchell Schwartz has raised $255,000. The former communications director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, who lives in Windsor Square, has cited crime, traffic and education as key issues.
Paul E. Amori, creator of Amori’s Casino & Burlesque, will run for mayor having founded the Love Party, which he said will launch a political paradigm by putting love into action to solve problems.
Steve Barr, founder of Green Dot Public Schools, had raised $18,000 to campaign for mayor by last fall, but he had not formally declared his candidacy by noon Friday.
The most active city race may be to replace Councilman Felipe Fuentes, who stepped down from his job in September to become a lobbyist in Sacramento.
By Friday, 21 residents had declared their intent to run for City Council District 7, which includes Northeast Valley neighborhoods from Sunland-Tujunga to Sylmar.
