This is a race to watch. It is between a moderate Republican and a “moderate” Democrat. As the author explains, there is very little difference between the two candidates. The big question is how enthusiastic will the GOP grassroots be in helping the re-election of Barger?
“That’s why I have to tell you honestly that when I read that Barger will be challenged in the 2024 election by our area’s longtime state assemblyman, Chris Holden, I was chagrined. Perhaps I should instead be pleased, as he is an excellent politician whose campaign will make this all exciting. But, well, see my opening sentence. I wish, maybe eccentrically, that I didn’t have to make the choice.
My guess is that conservative activists will spend time on other races.
Barger, Holden supervisor race creates an…
Barger, Holden supervisor race creates an Angeleno conundrum
By LARRY WILSON, Pasadena Star News, 3/1/23
There’s democracy and then there’s people. And sometimes I wish we could separate the two.
I don’t quite know what that would mean — having us choose between robots running for elective office, instead?
Perhaps it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. From what we read, ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot, thinks a lot of itself — tries to convince humanoids to leave their partners for its cool cyber-wiles, for instance — and thus might be a very successful politician indeed.
What I’m after, back here in the real world, though, is the conundrum created when two good candidates face off for the same office. It’s asking us voters to choose between … well, not lovers or ‘bots, but pols vying to represent us. And sometimes I don’t want to have to choose.
This is the situation I as a voter in the northern San Gabriel Valley, along with voters from Burbank in the west to Claremont in the east and up over those snow-capped peaks to Palmdale, are faced with in an upcoming Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors District 5 race.
Incumbent Kathryn Barger, the San Marino Republican, has done an excellent job since first being elected to the wildly powerful post in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Unlike her former boss, retired Supe Mike Antonovich, whose top aide she was, she has, somewhat miraculously in these divisive times, gained the support of essentially the entire Democratic establishment in Pasadena, where I live. I realize it’s nominally a non-partisan position — but, get real, these things matter. And Barger, by being moderate in all things, practical, extremely hard-working and easy to contact when matters go awry, has become a model officeholder for the 2 million residents in the district and the 10 million in the county as a whole.
And I would wager that I am not the only district resident who finds it impossible to vote for so many GOP candidates these days — now that fringe factions have taken over the party — who kind of likes the fact that Barger’s fiscal moderation serves as a kind of governor on any big-spending proclivities of her four Democratic colleagues.
I am probably not the only Angeleno as well who finds it pretty cool that after a century-plus of being represented by the former Five Kings, we now have elected the Five Queens. Nationally, and even statewide, we have not come nearly as far as we ought to have in electing women to office.
That’s why I have to tell you honestly that when I read that Barger will be challenged in the 2024 election by our area’s longtime state assemblyman, Chris Holden, I was chagrined. Perhaps I should instead be pleased, as he is an excellent politician whose campaign will make this all exciting. But, well, see my opening sentence. I wish, maybe eccentrically, that I didn’t have to make the choice.
As I’ve written recently, I know Chris so well that I simply can’t call him “Holden.” To me, that would be his dad, longtime L.A. politico Nate. I’ve covered him since he was first elected to the Pasadena City Council in the late 1980s. He was in his late 20s then, and I was a still-young editor in my early 30s. We’re both in our 60s now. Long time. He’s a super-honest, super hard-working, super-good guy. He has an interesting life story; not all of it has been easy. Chris would be an excellent supervisor.
But he would not be anything like a governor on his colleagues’ spending proclivities. He would be a fifth progressive on a county board that is now 80% progressive anyway. “I’ve advanced progressive policies that have impacted Californians’ lives such as expanding educational equity, improving workplace conditions, protecting reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, and delivering millions in state funding for the Metro Gold Line, public libraries, hiking trails, and our beloved Rose Bowl and Pasadena Playhouse,” Chris said in announcing for office.
Whereas Kathryn — right; she’s not “Barger” to me, either — in announcing her bid for her third and final term in office, said: “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished challenging the status quo on homelessness, supporting public safety and expanding mental health care for our communities — more needs be done.” She has union endorsements as well as that of the most moderate of her board colleagues, Janice Hahn. She is really good at what she does. She is also running in a district that is 46% registered Democrats, 24% Republicans and 23% independents. The March 2024 election is going to be between two really interesting human beings. It would be easier for someone like me who admires and likes them both if they would just stand aside in favor of some robots.
