I am officially declaring, the City Council election season has begun in La Mirada.
I am not an expert on politics, elections or anything else really, but I can offer a unique perspective and why not?
This is the third campaign season La Mirada residents will be electing council members by district rather than city-wide after the city was threatened to be sued by MALDEF in 2016.
What does this mean? Well, from a candidate standpoint, generally speaking, you only need a few hundred votes to win rather than the couple of thousand you would need in an at-large election.
The city is made up of five districts and 2022 will feature an election for Districts 1 and 2.
Representatives were elected for Districts 3, 4 and 5 in 2020.
The District 1 & 2 election in 2017, the first conducted by district, was marred with mail pieces using strong language and then followed up by multiple, rambling fake stories from establishment pop-up "news" sources in La Mirada that really continue to this day, to a certain degree.
For interested candidates, the Nominations Documents Filing Period for 2022 began February 14th and the deadline is March 11 at 5:00 p.m.
I have not confirmed with city clerk Anne Haraksin who has officially filed and who hasn't, but I believe this is fairly accurate.
In District 2, there is an interesting race that has developed. Former Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District Board Member Chris Pflanzer has entered the race and kicked off his campaign this evening with a Casino Night at the VFW.
Reportedly, Dave Constantine has entered the race and two-term incumbent Andrew Sarega still has not indicated if he is running or not.
In District 1, incumbent John Lewis seems to be unchallenged so far. Diane Gramajo ran against him unsuccessfully in 2017, but had a strong showing with support from a Democrat Party alliance. However since then she has been appointed to the Community Services Commission (by Sarega), so now if she runs it would be upsetting the apple cart, which is not looked upon fondly by the Committee of 200 (the establishment). So, Lewis may go unchallenged, but there is still time.
City Council members have been publicly vehement over the years, maintaining that although the residents elect them now by district, council members still represent all of La Mirada in their decision making.
This, apparently, for the most part has continued to be true, unless it seems, it is election time, as you are now starting to see cracks in the ice.
When the new community garden opened in LM recently, John Lewis printed and posted on-line door hangars announcing the opening of the new garden. The hangars were apparently headlined by "District 1 John Lewis." Residents expressed concern the new garden was only available to residents who live in District 1.
There is a genuine and sincere base that votes in these local elections in every community, but that percentage is very small. The majority of eligible voters do not vote, let alone the registered peeps and those that do usually have some kind of direct or indirect interest-many times involving money.
Always follow the money!!