By Anealia Kortkamp
The recent political redistricting has shuffled about quite a few existing seats, putting them in places with no geographical overlap with where they were before. This, combined with a wave of incumbents retiring across the state, leaves the door wide open for newcomers to make a name for themselves at a larger level. Such is the case of California State Assembly Seat 69. It’s a geographically strategic seat, centrally representing the powerful city of Long Beach, as well as Carson and Signal Hill. Along with San Pedro’s seat 65, it’s key in representing harbor interests, and it’s keenly positioned as a staircase into higher offices. Two candidates made it past the primaries and into the November general election: Al Austin and Josh Lowenthal.
The primary wasn’t close. Only Austin and Lowenthal secured more than 20% of the vote, with Lowenthal nearly winning it outright with 45% of the vote He needed 50% to avoid a runoff ― unsurprising considering Lowenthal’s endorsement and financial advantages. The other two candidates were left in a metaphorical desert for resources. Janet Foster to the best of what can be found had not a single endorsement nor cent raised for her run, and fellow candidate Merry Taheri had only Doctors of Nursing Practice and California Bicycle Coalition backing her run. Taheri had managed to raise $21,000, an impressive feat for someone with little institutional connections or political history. In sharp contrast, Austin had a total of $236,000 and Lowenthal, a whopping $1.2 million. With disproportions that vast it’s no wonder why Austin and Lowenthal made it to the second round. Moreover, the resource discrepancies between the two front runners have overshadowed the slim ideological differences the two have, and have been the main sticking point between them. Still, when elected it is your policies by which you govern, even if who sponsors you can have a heavy impact on the earnestness of those priorities.
Al Austin is a former aerospace worker and legislative staffer; more relevantly, he was a city councilman for Long Beach for a decade. While both have progressive words tied to their name, Austin’s hallmark legislative acts are tied to an increase in green space in his district, and advocacy for youth, the unhoused and the elderly. While his biggest donor at $9,800 is Long Beach Police PAC, at least as a councilman there seems to be little to indicate him as a law and order type, more seeming to push minor changes to the status quo such as civilian oversight commissions. A much stronger bonafide of his is his history with organized labor, currently working for AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, as well as having a working relationship with the LB Firefighters and their union. Outside of individuals, unions make up nearly all contributions to his campaign. Austin is, at the end of the day, a reliably somewhat progressive liberal, one of the two main fixtures of the single-party LA politics, contrasted with their natural opposite, the corporate liberal. In a few words, his political career is best described as reliable and inoffensive.
Josh Lowenthal is a bit of a hard read when it comes to his personal history, a former staff member of Mike Feuer’s 5th district office, as a grad student he says he worked with the Colombian government, and later a business owner of an unnamed telecom startup, the fact he has never been elected into a public office being a sore spot for him in the campaign.
“We need more people that have real-life experience that want to be involved in policy making and want to run for office, they are representative of the broader electorate,” he said to me over the phone.
According to Lowenthal’s statement of economic interest, he had a 2021 income in excess of $200,000 a year derived from ownership stakes in four different investment firms. This is on top of being a former student body president at Ivy League Cornell University. This is not to mention that he comes from an, admittedly self-made, political family. Father Alan was in the Federal House of Representatives, mother Bonnie in the State Assembly, and brother Daniel a superior court judge. Contributions to his campaign come from a vast coalition of unions, PACs, and individuals. To name just a few donors, $9,800 from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association PAC, $4,900 from PG&E Corporation and Affiliated Entities, $4,900 from Electing Climate Champions Fund and more than $40,000 combined from members of the Lowenthal household. None of this is to say Josh Lowenthal is unqualified, simply that Lowenthal is correct that we need those who are representative of the broader electorate.
On policy, Josh is, much like his father, a progressive if his words are to be believed, but it remains to be seen. The environment seems to be high in his priorities, specifically air quality, noting specifically the intersection of poor air quality and COVID-19 mortality share, specifically calling out the Marathon refinery and support for a ban on neighborhood oil drilling. Housing is interesting, he says Long Beach is complying with state standards to make it more affordable, and those other cities nearby aren’t, so it must be considered at a regional level. Yet when AB 2053, the social housing act, was brought up, Lowenthal was entirely unfamiliar with it. On single-payer, he is an unabashed agreement of its need. Following the AB 2053 trend, when I brought up AB 1400, the benched Guaranteed Health Care for All bill, things got bumpy again, he supports single-payer, but says he can’t conclusively give his thoughts on AB 1400 until how it would be paid for Is hashed out. Digital privacy is an interesting policy that Josh advocates for, putting asterisks on big tech mass collection of data and greater protections for victims of cyberbullying. All that said, on policing there is little to speak about, he, like many Democrats, wants to get the large glut of firearms out of our communities, but policing itself has very little in the way of policy that differs from the status quo.
It is unfortunate when conversations on what a politician will do get replaced with the shallower, who they are, or where they come from. Identity and personal history can be strong indicators of how a political figure will behave, but it is more important to look at the actual behavior itself. In the case of 2022’s State Assembly seat 69, setting names aside, we have two modestly progressive individuals, who outside the race align incredibly closely in the one party of Los Angeles. While their progressive chops wane slightly on some issues, pound for pound you’ll be getting the same taste with a different brand name.