Eight Minutes with Janice Hahn

When Janice Hahn took the opportunity to visit the , I managed to sideline her for a few minutes to discuss her candidacy.

Hahn was the first person to officially announce as a candidate for the 36th Congressional District since Jane Harman resigned her position Feb. 8, but she'll have a strong opponent in California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who announced her candidacy on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Hahn said she believed she stood a good chance, whether or not Bowen ran. “I’m running hard,” she said. “I came out early, I’ve got good labor support… a lot of local officials in the 36th District [and] I’m going to run a very grass-roots organization.” Twenty-four hours after making that statement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) officially endorsed Hahn.

During our interview, Hahn discussed several major issues that she believed were important to address, including ways to get people working again.  She said bootsting tourism in West Los Angeles was one way to do that. “Tourism is the number one industry round here,” she said, and suggested that West LA be proactive about increasing tourism to help the  local economy.

Venice Beach is a major tourist destination on the Westside so I asked Hahn how to  boost tourism there given that Venice Blvd and the 733 Rapid buses that bring people to the beach all the way from downtown are packed to the gills in the summertime. Hahn said she would “talk to [Councilman] Bill Rosendahl about this, and see what his ideas are.”

It’s good to hear that Hahn is willing to engage local leaders but thus far Rosendahl has not made that a priority.  If creating tourism jobs is one of Hahn's priorities then she needs a vision for increasing beach access with minimal impact on coastal communities, as well as Mar Vista.  

Asked about the local and state budget crises, Hahn said, "We need to figure out how to spend money investing in the right things that will pay dividends in the long run like education... infrastructure [and] energy while they cut [government] spending."  She went on to say that government spending cuts are a given.

Giving in to spending cuts is just giving in to the crisis, and Hahn's acceptance of them undermines her message about getting people back to work.  State and local governments are among the biggest employers in West L.A. and the South Bay, and they are cutting jobs like crazy. It's going to be difficult to create additional jobs when government jobs are taking huge hits.

Perhaps Hahn has a plan for saving government jobs as well. Government unions are going to want to hear what Hahn will do to help them survive, and neighborhood leaders in West L.A. are going to want to know how local and state government can continue to provide services, otherwise Hahn will lose support.

People I’ve spoken with who live in the district speak well of Hahn. They say she’s good at finding solutions to intractable problems and she’s a voice for her people. I’m looking to see how she engages with whoever else enters the race, and if she will be able to come up with specific proposals to create jobs that help the private and public sector survive the great recession.

Alex Thompson, bike activist, knocks on doors and knocks down doors at City Hall as the president of Bikeside LA. Here in Mar Vista, he is the treasurer and community director of the Mar Vista Community Council. He can be reached at alexcthompson@gmail.com.