The Los Angeles Times has endorsed John Duran for the 3rd District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
In its endorsement, published on its website tonight, the Times said that the West Hollywood City Council member “offers nuts-and-bolts know-how and a firm grasp of local government’s possibilities and limitations.”
The Times also praised another candidate, Sheila Kuehl, a former state senator. But it said “the edge goes to Duran for a fresh perspective badly needed in county government. He combines a progressive bent on social issues with a pragmatic outlook. His self-description as slightly right of center appears to be more political marketing than anything else. But he does demonstrate a willingness to try innovative methods to deliver services by working with the private sector, and his tenure in West Hollywood has been marked by a spirited independence that elevates results over fealty to political supporters or ideologies.”
The Times, Los Angeles County’s leading daily newspaper, also said that “the impatience Duran has shown in making sure West Hollywood is on the cutting edge of information technology” would be useful to Los Angeles County, which still lags in using digital technology to promptly report such things as political contributions to candidates.
Duran is one of eight candidates running to to succeed Zev Yaroslavsky. In addition to Kuehl, the other leading candidates are former Santa Monica Mayor Bobby Shriver and former Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich. The primary election is June 3.
The Times went out of its way to criticize Shriver, saying his approach “can be unnerving. While pursuing the admirable goals of serving veterans or ending homelessness, Shrive has too often gotten in his own way, needlessly antagonizing colleagues, city workers and others. His prescriptions for county government too often come in the form of blurts that show too little evidence that he understands the complexity of the county’s challenges and possible solutions.”
West Hollywood Mayor, John D’Amico, has also endorsed John Duran for the Supervisor seat.
My only question is – with all that was revealed about his pathetic personal life after the Deputygate scandal (in which it was revealed he trolls on Grindr during City Council meetings, hires the tricks he picks-up there, is accused of sexual harassment, cost the City and its insurer hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend itself and him in lawsuits, and is basically a perpetual adolescent), how did John Duran ever get re-elected to the City Council two months ago? WeHo residents know what he is, and we feel (or should feel) embarrassed; yet we re-elected him. I don’t… Read more »
Everybody commenting above should donate the maximum amount to John Duran’s Supervisor campaign. That’s your solution to your grievances! Simple logic. Get started!
DJK and Shawn Thompson and SaveWeho: Right ON! Duran is a useless shill for developers. The Times cares nothing about these things. They are too. As for the hopes of a new city council: the race is purposely overcrowded (can someone uncover some “deals” for vote splitting?) and the candidates paid for by the developers will again win. Fringe people need to pull out so we can restore sanity to this place.
I agree with DJK and Shawn Thompson. John Duran has dramatically changed West Hollywood during his time in office from a pro-LGBT community to one that is ashamed to hang the Pride flag on City Hall, he has agreed and sided with big businesses and the wealthy to overdevelop our city and then he found a way to pay for it all: with parking fees, tickets and absurd parking regulations that you will see will deter people from visiting. We now have a mini Century City with the PDC which is practically empty. He’s done nothing for mass transit in… Read more »
You summed it up SaveWeHo. Hermosa Beach allows residents to park at designated meters for free — would any of the out-of-touch millionaires on City Council ever think of doing something like that. They’re only interested in 1) heavy-handed nanny-state gestures like plastic bag bans and fur bans, as if they have the right to tell residents what to wear and 2) making parking as difficult as possible so residents and visitors are hassled with as many tickets as possible, so that they have money to waste on pet projects that have no benefit for anybody outside of City Hall.… Read more »
Mr Duran trying to climb the political ladder and the legacy his service to the weho community has been as we all sit in traffic, dodge the ticket gotcha team and had to battle his back hoes out of plummer park and his efforts to demo great hall a national historic place when he side stepped John D’Amicos efforts to get the building back online with 5A at council and Mr Duran out of no where even after public comments full of support to leave the building alone, decided he wanted it demo’s and the residents present wishes didn’t matter… Read more »
@DJK I agree 100% percent! Good observations!
Why? What has John Duran done to make lives easier for West Hollywood residents? His idea of governance is to intrude as far as possible into the lives of struggling people. He is responsible for the impossible parking situation in West Hollywood. He is the reason WeHo residents are towed from in front of their own homes. John Duran hurt businesses in West Hollywood by insisting on extended meter hours, so that he and his corrupt city council colleagues could hassle and burden residents and visitors with tickets and fees. West Hollywood residents can’t park in their own neighborhood without… Read more »
Shame on the LA Times!!
This a big get for Duran. It may help him get on the November ballot in a run off. It’s a shame that the LA Times didn’t endorse Jeff Prang for LA County Assessor. While they thought he would be a good administrator, they went for a candidate not associated with the disgraced Noguez.
It would be a very interesting 2015 if Duran and Prang win their respective elections and the other three members of the City Council stand for re-election – all 5 seats would be in play for the first time since WeHo became a city.