Palisades Dems Make No Endorsement in 50th Assembly District Race

None of the three Democratic candidates vying to represent the , which includes West Hollywood, will be able to boast of an endorsement from the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club. The club's executive board failed to reach a decision on which candidate to back after hosting a forum Sunday featuring ,  and .

A candidate needed at least 60 percent support from the 21 board members who voted. No candidate reached that threshold, board members said. Adam Wolman, the club's vice president in charge of communications, said the club would not release the voting results.

The vote followed a candidates forum at the Pacific Palisades Woman's Club that was attended by about 140 people. The candidates were asked a range of pre-written questions from the Democratic club and oral questions from the audience. There were some differences among the answers of the three liberal Democrats who sat on the stage, although most of them were subtle.

One topic at the forum was Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment program, which involves moving state responsibilities to local governments. Butler, who is in the Assembly as a representative of the 53rd District in the South Bay, said she favors this policy. Bloom, the mayor of Santa Monica and a member of the California Coastal Commission, called it a great idea in theory, but noted there is a lack of funding to support it.

"So we will implement the policy, and then the funding will follow," Bloom said. "That's not the way to do business in California."

Butler said there have been attempts to deal with this issue through two legislative measures, but Brown was unwilling to let them go forward.

"So we were voted down … it's impossible to get things through a governor who does not want them to go through." She said Sacramento is "looking at a lot of different avenues" on how to go forward.

All three candidates said they support alternative transportation programs, but they differed on their enthusiasm for the bullet train proposed to take passengers from Los Angeles County to the Bay Area. It is a project, funded in part by a 2008 bond measure, that has tripled in cost to nearly $100 billion since the original estimate and has been plagued by various problems, leading to last week's resignation of the California High Speed Rail Authority's chief executive.

"Yes, public transportation is expensive, but this is exactly the kind of infrastructure—the kind of big, bold visionary plan that we need to start embracing again," said Osborn, a political veteran.

She blamed criticism of the project on Republicans in the federal and state legislatures who "just want Democrats to fail, and it makes me mad."

Bloom said the state needs to "step back, re-evaluate, get responsible about it and then move forward." He praised the project as an important plan that will create jobs and help with environmental sustainability, but he was concerned about its current state.

"We can't simply do it at any cost and open up a checkbook that has no limit," Bloom said.

Butler noted the project's problems, but she said that is why the governor is putting it high on his priority list and taking a more active role.

"It's costing more, however if you thought about redoing our freeway system right now, it would cost a heck of a lot more than it did 30 years ago, so we might as well begin to invest in [the bullet train] now," Butler said.

Regarding taxes, Butler said she would like California to institute what she called a "carbon market tax," which she said would make people pay for what they use.

"If you pay for what you use, you will live a cleaner, healthier lifestyle," Butler said. "I'm sorry, we're a little spoiled here. We turn on the lights, we turn on the water, and what you actually pay each month is a fraction of what it costs to get it to you."

Osborn said she supports reducing the sales tax rate, but expanding the tax to cover services. "It frankly makes no sense that you pay taxes on a doughnut, but not on a haircut," she said.

Both women said they support higher income taxes, at least temporarily, for the wealthiest Californians, which is part of Brown's plan for his initiative expected to appear on the November ballot.

Bloom said, "Taxing the rich is all well and good and I think there is a case that can be made for that, but I think we need to face facts here. Taxing the rich is not going to take us out of our revenue quagmire. We need an economy that is moving on all eight cylinders. We need to invest in that economy."

The three candidates said they support changes to Proposition 13, the landmark initiative approved by voters in 1978 that put a tight cap on California's property taxes and requires two-thirds support of the legislature to approve all new taxes. But they said this was not the time to make the changes.

"People are not ready to make this change, but I believe they will be by 2014 or 2016," said Osborn, who said she specifically wants to modify the portions of law regarding the two-thirds rule and property taxes for businesses.

The candidates will meet again Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the for a forum hosted by the Santa Monica Democratic Club.

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