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Steve Soboroff for
Mayor of Los Angeles
15477 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 300
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Campaign Headquarters
Phone (818) 981-9317
Fax (818) 981-9550
Email
Fundraiser Info
Phone (818) 905-5420 |
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Top: Steve delivers a speech at at the Valley Radisson hotel during the second Soboroff for Mayor Volunteer Festival, which drew 300 participants.
Bottom: Steve with two members of the USA Gold Medal winning Women's World Cup Soccer Team. |
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Heritage Southwest Jewish Press: Audience Cheers Soboroff at Candidates Forum
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By Ari L. Noonan
Heritage Southwest Jewish Press
Friday, September 15, 2000
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Waiting for an elevator at the Skirball Cultural Center the other evening after a forum for mayoralty candidates, the smartly coifed, graying matron seemed disappointed.
"Now I am more confused than ever," she complained to her friend. "I don't know who I am for."
At the fourth forum of the L.A. mayoralty season -- sponsored by The Executives, the fundraising group of the Jewish Home for the Aging -- she was not the only one in the audience of 200 who was baffled.
For most of the two hours that they entertained a well-dressed crowd of significant Jewish community players, four of the five announced candidates sounded like an echo chamber.
Except for the acknowledged front-runner Steve Soboroff, who promptly positioned himself as the preeminent force at the table, the rest differed only in appearance, not conviction or response.
Ever so lightly, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D- Los Angeles), City Councilman Joel Wachs, Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D- Los Angeles) and City Atty. Jimmy Hahn took turns chiding Soboroff for his views.
Mostly, they did it good-naturedly. Each was on his gentlemanly best behavior, immaculate of dress and grooming, courtly of manner.
Wachs belted the hardest-hitting zinger of the night, tartly chiding Soboroff for complaining about the slow pace of public school construction when he was chair of the LAUSD construction committee.
The crowd, pointedly pro-Soboroff, was stunned, emitting a sudden "oooooh" sound.
Soboroff, as usual, was roundly prepared. He fired back that Wachs was wrong in his facts. Soboroff said he was not chair of the construction committee. He was chair of the oversight committee "responsible for protecting the taxpayers' money." To put a cherry on the top of his response, Soboroff quickly began listing corrective accomplishments for which he was responsible, down to precise statistics.
It was four (populists) against one (moderate) on most questions.
All agreed on the priorities of curing what is wrong with Los Angeles. The sad state of LAUSD is No. 1, they said, followed by the wobbling police department and the looming transportation strike.
They agreed on little else, although they were unanimous in opposing Prop. 38, the voucher initiative. After Councilman Wachs took credit for introducing the concept of neighborhood councils eight years ago, all fell in line behind him. They nodded that the sprawling city government needs to be shrink-wrapped.
With the respected cable television star Bill Rosendahl of Adelphia Communications moderating by staying out of the way, none of the five candidates suffered a major gaffe.
All candidates not named Soboroff were low-key, articulate, but not particularly detailed, clear or forceful about how they would respond as mayor.
Employing a well-timed, puckish sense of humor and an exceptional ability to recall impressive, sometimes arcane, statistics while showcasing his knockout work ethic. Soboroff played to the audience. He kept scoring points.
All evening, the commercial real estate broker hammered away at the mass of onsite background detail work he has done to prepare for his first mayoralty campaign, in contradiction to his rivals.
He kept emphasizing how he goes directly to the source to research his answers -- visiting exactly 437 schools, touring numerous Eastern cities with problems similar to L.A.'s, visiting a precise number of parks and playgrounds gaining face-to-face evidence, and meeting privately with hundreds of leaders.
The proposed Federal Government takeover of the scandal-scarred LAPD, via a consent decree, is one of the most disputed issues of the early campaign.
Soboroff was the only candidate who traveled firsthand to cities in the East where a Federal takeover was threatened. He met with civic leaders, reached conclusions, and Tuesday night he shared his findings.
The crowd loved it when Soboroff stood up alone against the government-imposed consent decree. They applauded time after time when he produced personally gathered statistics showing how the concept has failed -- with rising crime and diminishing arrests -- in big cities that have accepted such decrees.
Dozens of blue-and-white "Soboroff-for-Mayor" badges -- the only kind around -- turned up on lapels in the audience.
The night belonged to him.
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