Adam Schiff has been in Congress since 2000. He started as a Blue Dog in a red district— beating a Republican incumbent— and is ending his incumbency (to run for Senate) as a progressive in a deep blue district. It’s my district. I've lived here for over 30 years. I helped Schiff when he first ran and was profoundly disappointed when he joined the Blue Dogs and gravitated towards conservative positions. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him again but, as he gradually moved in a more progressive direction, he never had a plausible progressive challenger. The woman who challenged him in the last two elections, Maebe A. Girl, though had no chance to beat him, managed to galvanize movement progressives behind her. An at-large members and treasurer of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, she became the first drag queen elected to public office in the U.S., beating George Santos, or whatever his name is, by 3 years.
And unlike George Santos, Maebe A. Girl stands behind a cohesive working class and middle class legislative agenda. Co-Chair of the Budget & Finance Committee and Co-Chair of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Housing and Homelessness for the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, tackling the housing catastrophe that is plaguing both urban and rural America without any serious attention from Congress, is where she stands head and shoulders above all the candidates flooding into the race to challenge her.
The top policies her campaign is predicated on include universal healthcare, housing for all, education for all, environmental justice, racial justice, LGBTQIA rights and reproductive rights. She has adamantly spoken out against war and against big money in politics. If you are looking to sum up this third run for Congress, you can do it in 3 words: “people over profits,” which you can not say about her opponents, mostly establishment liberals. There are 8 who have filed paperwork to run against her already and that doesn’t count West Hollywood mayor Sepi Shyne, who is likely to run as well.
Today Maebe told me that “unlike any other Democratic candidate who has entered the race so far, I am the only one who has already run before, and twice, because I’m passionate about the way this district can improve, change, and become an example for the rest of the US. We are a diverse and inclusive district, and we want to see all of our neighbors thrive. We believe in looking out for each other and wish to see policies that represent our humanistic values, like universal healthcare, housing, and education. Having national representation with a local focus is what this district deserves, and we are proud to be the only campaign entering the CA-30 2024 race with over 60,000 voters behind us.”
Maebe’s most serious opponents are state Senator Anthony Portantino, best known as the guy in Sacramento who undermines solutions to homelessness and a landlord pawn; Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, the worst of the pointless career politicians and a charter school puppet; son of a rich, Nick Melvoin, is another charter school puppet and anti-union jerk; Ben Savage, a former child actor trying to bust into politics; Andrew Yang-ish tech-weirdo John Bocanegra; and Mike Feuer a conservative former L.A. City Attorney (and anti-pot nutcase).
If you’d like to help Maebe’s campaign, please consider contributing here or by clicking on the 2024 congressional thermometer on the right. Needless to say, hers is a fully grassroots campaign with no corporate dollars and no money from lobbyists or the kinds of crooked special interest organizations that finance politicians to get a leg up on their own self-serving agendas. This morning, when I asked her about how she views Schiff now that she’s run against him twice, she said that “fortunately his political stances were beginning to move somewhat left before his run for US Senate. After challenging him twice, and entering the general general election against him most recently in 2022, I felt encouraged that he finally voted against the bloated National Defense Authorization Act.”
And by the way, the cap on contributions to congressional candidates just went up from $2,900 to $3,300 today. That's the biggest rise I've ever seen. Anyone feel like being the first to give it a shot? If not... $10 would be fine too.
