Mark Ridley-Thomas v. Bernard Parks: Running for the Most Important Office You May Know Nothing About

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By David Dayen
d-day

Yesterday I spent some time at an often contentious debate in the race for the 2nd District of the LA County Board of Supervisors. The two most high-profile candidates for the seat, State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas and former LAPD Chief and current City Councilman Bernard Parks, squared off in a pretty lively debate which featured a lot of sniping and criticism.

Why the heated exchanges in a county Board of Supervisors race? Why is a state Senator and a very highly recognized City Councilman running in this race? Why is Sheila Kuehl planning to run for the Board of Supes when Zev Yaroslavsky's term is up in the near future?

Because these are unbelievably powerful positions.

Los Angeles County has 10.3 million residents, over a quarter of the whole state. The county covers 88 cities and multiple unincorporated areas. Ridiculously enough, there are only five seats on the county Board, meaning that each Supervisor represents over two MILLION people, more than 15 states and the District of Columbia. I have to assume that these are the biggest districts in terms of population anywhere in the country. Right now, seats on the board are held by Gloria Molina, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Zev Yaroslavsky, Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich. LA County is immense and rich in diversity, the most in the nation according to the last US Census. Burke, Knabe and Antonovich's seats are up for re-election this year, but a sitting Supervisor actually getting challenged in a race is a rare event indeed. Before term limits (now 3 terms or 12 years), the seat was practically a lifetime position. The winner of the Parks/Ridley-Thomas race in the 2nd District will yield only the third Supervisor to hold that seat since 1952.

Given all this, what exactly does the Board of Supervisors do? Well, the Board is the largest public employer in the state of California, serving 102,000 employees, including control of the pension funds. They also provide services for the entire county, managing county lockups, county hospitals and a host of social services. It's a mammoth job and I can't for the life of me imagine why it still contains only a 5-member board other than the fact that it increases incumbency protection. When these seats are contested, the dollar sums are outrageous. Parks and Ridley-Thomas raised well over six figures in the first quarter of 2008, and labor is spending immense amounts in favor of the state Senator.

Using a political tool that sidesteps campaign financing limits, Los Angeles labor unions have raised an unprecedented $2.5 million to elect state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas to the county Board of Supervisors.

Before voters head to the polls in June, union officials say they will add an additional $1.5 million to the "independent expenditure committee" pot.