Meet City Council Candidate Lucas John

West Hollywood City Council candidate Lucas John has a message he wants to get out and he intends to keep sending it, regardless of whether the voters put him in office. 

“I’ll never quit running for City Council. Even if I lose on March 8, I’ll still be running on March 9,” said John, one of the nine candidates running for the three City Council seats up for election Tuesday. “As long as I live in West Hollywood, I’ll be running for City Council.”

“Our city has become bogged down in corruption, machine politics, and we have entrenched elites who are in the back pocket of wealthy developers,” he said. “We need to stop this stranglehold and take back our city. West Hollywood needs to be more like San Francisco and less like Calabasas.” 

At 28 years old, John was only 2 when the city was founded. But this West Covina native believes the values upon which Weho was started have been misplaced. “We need to start to pool the best ideas from all the other places in the world so we can be the progressive West Hollywood that we set out to be in 1984 when the city was founded,” he said.

To accomplish that, he would insist on creating term limits for council members, calling that his “No. 1 priority.” “Being a member of City Council is not something you do for your whole life. [Councilwoman] and [Mayor] have been in office 44 years combined," he said. "It’s not a right to have a council seat forever. It’s time to let new people with fresh ideas come in.”

John said he would immediately start pushing for term limits. And he wouldn't stop until they’re in place. “Two four-year terms is enough,” he said. “Anyone who wants me to back their bill will have to back mine.” He’s so dedicated to this cause, he swears that if he can get term limits enacted in his first term, he’ll be a one-term council member. He would run a second time only if he’s still working to get those term limits enacted.

Brash, outspoken and opinionated, John is the man behind the Weho Confidential website, which he started because he “wanted to put West Hollywood on the map” by emphasizing the many unusual aspects of the city. “It’s a way of marketing the city,” he said, explaining that he’s got readers in 180 countries following the goings on in Weho.

He understands marketing well. Back in 2005 when the Pinkberry frozen yogurt chain was launched, he was on board helping to create and market the brand. He believes West Hollywood needs to brand itself better. “Weho has marketing problems and packaging problems,” he said. “The most important thing is creating a concise package that’s tangible that you can say to people here it is, this is what it is.”

“With West Hollywood, you can’t do that. West Hollywood has lost its foundation. People don’t know what West Hollywood is, what it stands for anymore,” he continued. “We need to remember it has a gay foundation, a progressive foundation. We need to define our core values better and then we need to tell the rest of the world.” He’d further like to increase tourism by better marketing West Hollywood as a gay destination. “We’re the gayest city in the world, but people don’t even know about us.”

Speaking of brands, Lucas John is actually his brand name. He’s gone by that for several years, but his full name is actually Lucas John Junkin. He shortened it, not because he’s ashamed of it, but merely because Junkin is harder to pronounce and recognize.

John also wants to establish a free medical clinic in West Hollywood. “Why is there not a free clinic here?” he asks. “Plenty of people need health care treatment but can’t afford it. We need to help those people. So, let’s create a free clinic.” 

As he talks to voters, one of his ideas seems to be especially resonating. Knowing that crystal methamphetamine is a huge problem in the community, he wants to ban the retail sale of meth pipes. “You can buy pipes in gas stations and any number of stores along Santa Monica Boulevard. Why are we allowing that?” he asked. “Meth is one of biggest problems in the gay community, so let’s ban the sale of meth pipes.”

John reports that a man in Thousand Oaks contacted him, enthusiastic about the idea. “I love that my ideas are reaching people, even when they can’t vote for me.” 

There are nine candidates running for the three City Council seats up for election Tuesday.  The other candidates are Mark Gonzaga, , Lindsey Horvath, Steve Martin, , Scott Schmidt,  Mito Aviles and John D'Amico. 

You can also check out other candidate profiles from Weho Daily and LAist online. John's profile on Weho Daily is available here and LAist's profile on John  is available here. A video profile of the candidates is also available on YouTube courtesy of LGBTPOV and Frontiers. To view John's video and other candidates videos, click here (John's video is also embedded to the right of this story). 

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