Come June 7, There Can Only Be Two
By Anealia Kortkamp, Editorial Intern
Joe Buscaino looms large in the political imaginations of Los Angeles’ southernmost point. Having served 10 years, it would be impressive if he did not leave an impression, for good or for ill. This impression is coming to an end, however, as the former councilman yields running this year in favor of a mayoral bid.
The ticket to replace him is packed, with nine competitors all jockeying for the position and multiple contenders, like Shannon Ross and Christian Guzman, having already dropped out. Random Lengths News has thus compiled an as-of-now up-to-date short guide to the who-is-who in this packed face-off. All of these candidates will have to turn in their nomination petitions by March 9 in order to qualify for the ballot. Any registered voter in the district can sign a petition for one or more candidates.
Danielle Sandoval
Danielle Sandoval has served in multiple neighborhood councils throughout Council District 15. She is also a businesswoman and paralegal operating services centered around intellectual property, family law, and civil litigation.
Sandoval prides herself as a coalition builder and for the grassroots nature of her campaign, specifically, the rate at which she goes out to meet directly with constituents and how she self-educates on what needs to be done and where money is allocated.
In the built environment, Sandoval is very outspoken. She is against increasing the density in District 15, citing that they would increase crowding, that they are often awarded via officials giving the proposals to friends, and that the majority rental market they create is temporary and does not serve to create any generational wealth.
To address houselessness and to help create homeownership, instead of density, Sandoval keeps on her an array of other tools. She pushes against the Airbnb market that consumes housing stock and is a proponent of a vacancy tax both for business and residential buildings. Supporting this, she says, is how buildings are often simply abandoned by their owners and that the district’s residents are “being priced out of our community.”
Specifically for the unhoused, her program lines up with much of what is being done at first. She is in favor of the container housing, tiny home villages, and micro-housing projects that are springing up throughout LA county. In addition, she seeks expansions and reopenings of mental health facilities and assistance for the unhoused in gaining skills and expungement of tickets.
She says she will address governmental structures both like a business and like a family. On city budgets she said, “The city is a business, I know the business. I started with looking at city budgets and realized it was upside down,” stating further that the current lack of transparency has resulted in major misallocation of departmental resources.
Parks and the 15th District’s youth population are a crucial point of her platform. “I am a mom and I grew up in a high-risk area,” Sandoval said. “We need to create buffer zones around our schools and create green spaces.”
Sandoval talks about bringing affordability to youth recreation programs and fulfilling the promise of skate parks after-school programs and youth sports. She says that these build relationships and create a sense of community, which seems to be the focal point of her entire candidacy.
Anthony D. Santich
A lifelong San Pedran, Anthony Santich has deep Croatian and Italian roots in the Los Angeles Harbor Area. His grandfather, Andy Trutanich, managed the Starkist Foods cannery that employed 4,000 residents. Santich says role models like his grandfather and parents shaped his sense of civic duty and appreciation for community involvement, engagement and advocacy.
A graduate of San Pedro High School and an All-Marine League athlete, he attended Idaho State University on an athletic scholarship. Upon graduation, he took up the professions of sales and marketing in the Los Angeles area. He later joined the business development and marketing group at the Port of Los Angeles. He held several roles and responsibilities at the port, including liaison to the Port Community Advisory Committee where he worked with Harbor Area stakeholders, and port marketing manager — in regards to container and liquid bulk terminals.
Santich volunteers for the Harbor Area Pilots Youth Organization, a football program for at-risk youth in Wilmington. He raised $50,000 for new helmets, uniforms and scholarships for financially disadvantaged student athletes who wanted to be on the team.
For more than 10 years, Santich has been a volunteer with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which includes local, state and federal law enforcement agencies dedicated to investigating, prosecuting and developing effective responses to internet crimes against children. As a volunteer, Santich raised funds for the ICAC.
Describing the politics and institutions that animate the Los Angeles City Hall and the Port of Los Angeles as an elitist system that doesn’t work for the people, Santich has been a witness to unethical backroom deals, dubious lobbyist relationships, and systemic resistance to an open and fair process. He says these practices have led to wasteful spending of public funds, a lack of community benefits, and insider corruption. Santich says his unique qualifications have given him an understanding of how to prevent the misuse of funds and fund employment opportunities, affordable housing, public safety and port pollution mitigation efforts.
Tim McOsker
Tim McOsker is the former chief of staff to ex-mayor James Hahn and a police union lobbyist. Lately he has served as executive officer of AltaSea, an as-of-yet unbuilt institute for oceanic research, and sits on the board of a number of local non-governmental organizations.
McOsker has deep pockets in the Los Angeles political scene and is close to former CD 15 Councilwoman Janice Hahn. His entering the race to succeed Joe Buscaino is a no-brainer. As of now, he has raised the most of any candidates, leaning heavily on corporate and large union donations and paying out half of all his campaign expenditures and twice that of the total expenditures of the nearest campaign, roughly $50,000 to consulting groups Avila LLC and J&Z Strategies, ensuring that McOsker has a lot of skin in the game.
As a candidate, McOsker has five tent pole issues surrounding his campaign, houselessness, jobs, crime, climate change and transparency.
McOsker on unhoused Angelenos says he is an advocate of supportive housing and embraces such solutions as shipping containers to housing conversions, tiny homes, and renovation of existing facilities, without discerning between public or private operations.
On economic opportunities in CD 15, he proposes an emphasis firstly on local businesses and secondly on the perpetuation of well-paying union jobs.
Interestingly, McOsker’s website discusses the uptick in crime and calls for additional police funding. While true in the most micro of sense, violent crime is up roughly 0.4% statewide, he fails to mention that even with a marginal uptick we sit at historic lows since the 1970s, according to the yearly report put out by the California Attorney General’s office. This claim of his is then extrapolated to raise concerns of a lack of enforcement regarding gun laws.
In regards to climate and the dangers of climate change, he talks about ensuring a balance of greening our local industries without sacrificing the retention of workers.
His statements on transparency trend towards the confusing. He champions efficiency and transparency yet nowhere does he seem to outline how he seeks to achieve this.
McOsker himself could not be reached for public comment, however, his campaign team did get back to us, outlining his positions and informing us on much of this piece. Still, McOsker proves a candidate with a slew of resources and a long history of public service.
Bryant Odega
Bryant Odega is a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, renter, son of Nigerian immigrants, a community organizer for climate justice, and a former member of the Harbor Gateway Neighborhood Council. Aligned with Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter, Bryant affiliates himself with the politically progressive wing of American politics.
His campaign runs on a platform of grassroots activism, housing, economic and environmental justice. In his words, his campaign is “rooted in his love of humanity and sense of purpose.”
The goals of his city council bid include addressing the 25% poverty rate in the district wanting to help mitigate the environmental and health impact of the massive port and urban oilfield in the Harbor Area. Odega prides himself on being a candidate that refuses both corporate and big money donations, emphasizing an urge to get these sorts of interests out of politics.
“My theory of change in politics is building people power and mobilizing everyday people into having an impact on the political process,” Odega said in an interview. “In my district 60% of people are renters and they pay on average a third of their income on rent. I want to fight for all people, regardless of where they come from.”
Odega says that it was these issues that convinced him to run and that his district “has been struggling for far too long. Because our district has been one of the most hard-hit districts in the city when it comes to these issues, we must have the boldest fighter for justice, who is accountable — not to big money interests — but to the people.”
Rick Thomas
Rick Thomas describes himself as a citizen advocate with a background in both marketing and business.
Both in conversations with Random Lengths and on any site he can be found, Thomas emphasizes his mission statement of “Clean streets, Safe streets.” He puts a major focus on illegal dumping and walkability in Council District 15. Walking for 15, Thomas’ campaign can often border on a single-issue campaign in its focus on walkability. He highlights any factor contributing to the contrary and has accordingly fought against them all. Such issues can range from lack of curb cuts and stop signs at street crossings, large haul trucks being routed through residential neighborhoods, and illegal dumping.
Thomas has seen some success in his citizen activism, having successfully gotten stop signs and signage preventing large haul trucks installed in his neighborhood.
While talking to Random Lengths, Thomas describes himself as solutions-oriented, saying the central question of his philosophy is “how can we be proactive about our problems before they become unmanageable?” He also says that he “plans to do this in one term, no re-election. I want to get this place back where it needs to be and go.”
In addition to walkability, his campaign also intends to address a lack of awareness and access to mental health services, COVID-19 resources for low-income communities, and consistent street cleaning to all of CD 15.
Andrew M. Bak-Boychuk
Hailing from Coastal San Pedro, Andrew M. Bak-Boychuk prides himself on the work he does as an educator to special education youth. A recent entrant to this race, Andrew joined out of general frustration with politics as status quo and claims to be in it for a single term, with no aspirations of higher office or any sort of career in politics. When Random Lengths reached out to him about who he was and the reason for his campaign he had this to say:
“I always find myself coming back to San Pedro no matter where life takes me. This place has great potential,” said Bak-Boychuk. “We need open-minded people, and we should expect more of our politicians. Not magic.”
Bak-Boychuk sees his lack of political connections and lack of history in any sort of political machine as a boon to himself, and a reason a potential constituent might pick him. He describes himself as authentic first and foremost. Positioned as an anti-corruption candidate, he also proudly labels himself a man of brutal honesty, willing to speak frankly on issues other candidates may not.
“I’m more than willing to call a spade a spade,” said Bak-Boychuk in our conversation.
To temper this, however, he says that he is at the end of the day a compassionate man, citing his work in special education to prove that he is here for the benefit of others over any sort of prestige to be found in the position.
LaMar Lyons
A resident of Los Angeles of 25 years, LaMar enters the race with a multitude of credentials under his belt. After graduating from Howard University School of Law, he served on the staffs of Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsey, Assemblyman Elihu Harris, California Senator Alan Cranston, California Assembly Clerk Dotson Wilson. In the private sector, Lyons has worked as the administrator for two nonprofits focused on assisting disabled children and the elderly, respectively. In addition to this, he has worked as an investment banker and underwriter of bonds for Morgan Stanley, Rothschild & Co. and his firm I.C. Rideau Lyons.
When asked about his reasoning for running, he spoke about his wife’s passing and having to raise his children alone. Due to this and his own working-class roots, he has gained respect for bread and butter issues.
Lyons calls specific attention to what he calls the unequal resource development in the district, stating that “I have a format that creates a more equitable distribution to the neighborhoods and their councils.”
Crucially, he focuses on three main issues, crime, pollution and homelessness. On the crime front, he seeks an increase in the budget of the Los Angeles Police Department, but only insofar as that the money allocated is allotted to non-uniformed, preventative methods, specifically highlighting mental health professionals in conversation.
For housing, he says, “When you look at San Pedro there is not a format to provide housing for the middle class,” noting favorably to both mixed-use and mixed-income developments. He specifically spoke of wanting a public-private partnership and wanting to create a 70, 20 and 10 split in housing, with the split being for those seeking market rate, affordable and fixed income housing respectively.
In addressing pollution he cites Flint, Michigan-like conditions in Watts with tap water coming out in light brown hue, pipes in need of replacement, and pesticides being present in the water supply, all needing a firmer hand when being dealt with. This includes the issue of air pollution coming from the various vehicles both on the streets and at the port.
On all these fronts Lyons has set himself up as both a coalition builder and someone willing to overturn entrenched power structures. In an interview with Random Lengths, he said “These issues should be top priority, but in the 15th [District] we have vested interests where they have no incentive to solve these issues. [For example] you have a conflict of interest between the port and [the residents of] San Pedro, it’s money-driven.”
Mark Contreras, youth and senior advocate
No response and no information available.
Robert M. Miller, artist and environmental activist
No response and no information were found.
Check out Random Lengths News’ YouTube channel to see interviews with each candidate and their statements on why they are running, https://tinyurl.com/RLN-YouTube