The two candidates running for the contested seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are quite similar.
Bobby Shriver and Sheila Kuehl are both liberal Democrats. Both have Ivy League law degrees and are sometimes called activists. Both are concerned about transportation issues and the county’s foster care system. They’re even similar in that they’ve been in the limelight since their early years – he as a member of the Kennedy family and she as a TV actress in her teens and 20s.
But there’s at least one difference, and it’s an important one. Shriver is aware of the challenges facing business operators in Los Angeles and, in his visit with the Business Journal, he expressed at least some concern and support for the private sector. As for Kuehl, well, not so much. In her visit, she seemed unaware of any problems and, at times, dismissive.
When asked if there’s a message she may like to deliver to L.A. business operators, who often complain that they feel beleaguered by many regulations, lawsuits and taxes, Kuehl had little to offer. She said, “Lawsuits are how things get decided,” even though California currently ranks as the nation’s No. 1 “judicial hellhole” for businesses. And she flatly denied that businesses, overall, should complain about taxes. “They get a big break with Prop. 13,” she said.
At one point, she said of business operators: “The most enlightened among them want to help solve problems.” As if those benighted operators working 60-hour weeks to build a business – and who are paying their taxes – weren’t solving the problem of job and wealth creation.
Speaking of which, if you operate a business in Los Angeles, or if you’re just concerned about the local economy, you probably are keenly aware of the anemic level of job creation here.
Los Angeles County has not regained the jobs it lost in the recession; we had 104,000 fewer jobs at the end of the first quarter than we did at that time in 2008. No other big county in the United States was still down that many jobs. In fact, several other big counties gained jobs in that span. Dallas County in Texas was up 26,000 jobs; New York County (basically Manhattan) was up 77,000 and Houston’s Harris County was up 180,000.
The lack of job creation is well known here, at least in the business community. But Kuehl? News to her.
When similar figures were cited in our conversation with her, she immediately dismissed them as the product of some partisan survey. Even after she was told that the numbers are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, she persisted, saying that “small-business jobs aren’t always counted.” Actually, the Labor Department counts small-business jobs, too.
In general, Shriver gave better answers. If elected, he said, he’d have “a smart person” on his staff regularly visit companies, and he’d do so himself at times.
When asked if he had a message he’d like to deliver to local businesses, he shot back: “That I respect them.” He went on to say, “It’s hard to make money – I know that.”
Perhaps that’s owing to the fact that he’s had at least a few engagements with the private sector and worked for a venture capital firm in New York for a few years. Kuehl – who’s had a distinguished career and achieved impressive accomplishments – has spent her postacting career in academics, the law and politics, not in the business world.
Shriver, given his politics, is deeply concerned with social services; homeless veterans are a particular passion. But he also understands the symbiotic relationship between the private and public sectors and how each depends on the other. At one point, for example, he said that he imagines his typical constituent as a productive, creative person, a “wealth creator.” He paused and then added, “That’s how social service money is created.” Yes, exactly.
The decision for us was clear. The Business Journal endorses Bobby Shriver for county supervisor.
Matt Toledo, Publisher and Chief Executive
Charles Crumpley, Editor
