This San Fernando Valley state senate district is poised for a fresh face – Daily News

When Bob Hertzberg won the San Fernando Valley’s 18th State Senate seat in 2014, he came in with loads of legislative and private sector experience. Before becoming a state senator he served in the state Assembly beginning in 1996, and became Speaker four years later.

Come November, a generation of San Fernando Valley residents will elect a new  — and rare — kind of representative: a state senator who has no elected experience, to represent a vast, newly redrawn district from Burbank to Pacoima to San Fernando to Canoga Park.

The 20th State Senate district race has become about the candidates’ life experiences: There’s Dan Hertzberg, young son of Bob Hertzberg, seeking to celebrate his father’s legacy while trying to establish himself amid criticism that he’s running on his family name.

And there’s competition over who best relates to voters in the newly redrawn, majority-Latino, overwhelmingly Democratic district and its working-class enclaves. After the vast Valley’s explosive changes, many pockets reflect decades of social-economic disparities.

Enter Daniel Hertzberg and Caroline Menjivar, whose fundraising and endorsements have given them higher profiles. But that’s not to count out Democrat Seydi Alejandra Morales and Republican Ely De La Cruz Ayao. Both know the Valley well, and observers say wins among lesser-known candidates are not unprecedented. (The top two finishers in the June 7 primary will face each other in the general election in November.)

Hertzberg holds a big lead in fundraising, last year raking  in $509,235.00 in campaign contributions to Menjivar’s $63,961.49. This year Hertzberg has raised $137,205.00 to Menjivar’s $34,750.89 (Menjivar said her total number raised since last year is now closer to $120,000). He boasts endorsements including labor unions, the California Democratic Party, the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus; U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas, former Gov. Gray Davis and former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

But Menjivar has been building up key endorsements including state Sen. Connie Leyva,  L.A. County Supervisor Sheil Kuehl, East Valley Indivisibles, the California Latino Caucus and Equality California. (Equality California has also endorsed Hertzberg.)

Daniel Hertzberg, candidate for the 18th District State Senate seat, Photographed in Burbank on March 31, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The power of a name

The pile of lawmakers and unions lined up for Hertzberg, some suggest, is at least in part due to his name. Barring a major family scandal, a known name is a big plus, experts say.

“You always want the name recognition,” said Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State Los Angeles. “It’s usually a great advantage.”

In particular, he said, the “Hertzberg name resonates. It’s been out there for years.”

The younger Hertzberg has embraced the name while trying to distinguish himself.  He hasn’t been shy about touting early surveys that show him “well positioned to succeed his father.”

Critics have decried a potential legislative “hand-off” to what they say is an inexperienced next generation.

In November, Menjivar issued a scathing criticism of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus for “excluding her from their endorsement process,” adding that “their decision to endorse Daniel Hertzberg, who is the son of career politician Senator Bob Hertzberg, shows that they gave in to the culture of nepotism that pervades in the State Capitol.”

It was an opening salvo in a refrain among critics that the younger Hertzberg was ascending because of his last name rather than connecting with voters over shared “lived experience.”

It wasn’t long before Kate Karpilow, former director of the California Center for Research on Women and Families at the Public Health Institute, wrote in CalMatters that Hertzerg’s campaign was the epitome of  “politics gone wrong – a toxic blend of entitlement, influence wielding and misplaced collegiality” in a history of such campaigns ranging from the Calderons to the Ridley-Thomases.

But with the June 7 primary looming, the younger Hertzberg pushed back.

“Bob Hertzberg has an excellent record for fighting for the Valley. He goes to bat for the Valley. The Orange Line would not exist without him,” Daniel Hertzberg said.

But he and supporters said he is not a political clone of his father.

“I am half his age, a member of the LGBTQ community. I live in a wildly different world. I’ve gotten into political arguments with him since I was 16. A 30-year-old gay man does not share the same policies as his 60-plus year-old father.”

He acknowledged his relative youth, but said it should be a good thing in a democracy that ideally values diverse experiences.

Mary Ellen Early, president of Action Democrats of the San Fernando Valley, said the younger Hertzberg has worked hard to earn his endorsements, many from public labor unions.

“A lot of people may think his father arranged those. But Daniel had to make those calls. Sometimes he had to call them back,” said Early, a Valley Democratic activist who has  endorsed Hertzberg. “There’s always bound to be complaints about nepotism….. But he’s earning it. He didn’t just come in there and say ‘my dad’s a big shot…I know it all.’ He talked to people and asked for their opinions.”

Early and others say the elder Hertzberg’s mentorship of his son is a good thing, not a liability.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in announcing his endorsement in October, said of the senior Hertzberg, “I know his values, and how he relentlessly fights for the Valley. His son Daniel will take the mantle and continue this fight for the next generation.”

Caroline Menjivar is running for the state Senate 18th Senate district seat. Photo taken in Panorama City on April 4, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Menjivar and “lived experience”

But the race is also a tale of different “experiences” — and Menjivar believes she has an advantage when it comes to connecting with voters.

“I’m ready to go on day one,” Menjivar said, enjoying the morning air of Plaza Del Valle, a community space off of Van Nuys Boulevard in Panorama City, a 3.65-mile L.A. enclave and among the most densely populated neighborhoods in L.A. “I’ve had to make tough decisions before. .. There’s a difference between the academic world and actually doing it. I bring the best of both worlds.”

Menjivar tells a compelling story rooted in the working-class dynamics and disparities of the San Fernando Valley. The daughter of El Salvadoran immigrants — her mom a housekeeper in affluent local communities, her father who started as a busboy — her family lost its Tarzana home in the subprime mortgage crisis.

She grew up watching her mom clean homes, wondering why others couldn’t have the wealth of those who had hired her mom.

She enlisted in the Marines, but under “don’t ask don’t tell” was forced to conceal her relationship with her girlfriend. She became an EMT, graduated from CSUN, and got her master’s degree at UCLA  in social welfare — while working in mayor of L.A.’s Gender Equity Office. She became a field deputy for L.A. City Councilwoman Nury Martinez and an East Valley representative for Mayor Eric Garcetti.

It’s a life, she says, that has touched on many parts of the San Fernando Valley, but in particular in the poorest, which she noted need stronger representation in Sacramento. She points to her EMT experience, which gave her an up-close look at disparities in communities.

“I’m here because of the things that played a big role in my life,” she said. “I want to make sure those opportunities exist for people who live like me, love like me. Because there were so many of these barriers, it got to the point I was frustrated that there was no one who looks like me who’s looking to change these barriers — because they don’t really understand them.”

Hertzberg goes full circle; Menjivar lives it

Facing criticism, Hertzberg said his story goes far beyond the mentorship of his father.

His current work as a business manager in the hospitality industry followed volunteer tenures with Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns, and internships with then-California Senate President Pro-Tempore Darrell Steinberg and former US. Rep. Dennis Cordoza.

A self-professed policy wonk, he said at one point he became disillusioned with politics.

“I realized I wasn’t going to grow as a human being unless I broke out of the politics bubble. I did a very big one-eighty,” he said.

He started on the ground floor of the hospitality business, cleaning rooms but slowly climbing its management ladder.

“Politics and policy are fascinating, but it doesn’t really give you the whole picture until you see what people are going through,” he said. The pandemic sent his industry underwater. “It was terrifying,” he said, “because you could see how specific policies were affecting regular folks.”

But that kind of experience wasn’t enough for the East Valley Indivisibles, a grass-roots group that endorsed Menjivar after interviewing both candidates.

“She had a lot of lived experience,” said SuJu Vijayan, co-leader of the group, also noting her youth and energy for the job. “She felt like someone from our community who has done a lot and lived through a lot and wants to take that into the legislature.”

She noted that Hertzberg could someday make a good legislator, but for the Indivisible group Menjivar’s work as an EMT gave her an understanding of mental health, which has emerged as a key issue in this race.

Mary Ellen Early touted Hertzberg’s youth and mentoring by his father, saying that combination is needed in a diverse and relatively young district. She noted that Menjivar also has not held elected office.

Policy matters: environment, housing, police

Homelessness, affordable housing, crime, environmental concerns, and meat-and-potatoes quality-of-life issues have unique imprints in a district that includes the LADWP’s Valley Generating Plant and three airports, as well as three police departments. Some areas, such a the northeast Valley, have borne much of the brunt of COVID-19’s assault on communities of color.

“I am sick and tired of these certain communities, having to take on the burden of so many of these issues and not getting anything out of it,” said Menjivar.

For Menjivar, three airports is unacceptable in a district where communities like Pacoima — where Whiteman Airport is located — suffer from environmental pollution. She wants it closed, long on the wish-list of environmental justice groups who also want to shut the Pacoima generating plant.

“Residents of Santa Monica said that (their) airport had to be shut down because it was producing bad air and noise, but when you use that same reasoning here, it’s not good enough,” she said.

Hertzberg said change won’t be accomplished in one shot, but over time, to ensure that the electrical grid is ready.

He laments the lack of urban tree canopies and the “urban heat effect” in areas of the Valley that have “so little greenery.”

“It’s terrible for a million reasons,” he said recently, talking to me during a stroll on the grounds of Lincoln Park in Burbank.

Hertzberg aspires to form a “California Climate Corps” to enlist young people in something akin to the conservation corps to plant trees, clear brush and build urban gardens.

These two candidates who have raised the most money had different views on homelessness, housing and public safety.

They both discussed shorter and longer term solutions to meet immediate needs of the unhoused and broader based mental health treatment programs and affordable housing.

Hertzberg would double down on efforts such as tiny homes — like the villages in North Hollywood and Pacoima — where acutely homeless people also have treatment options. He supports the state Project RoomKey and Homekey initiatives to repurpose hotel and motel facilities for  transitional housing.

“California needs enough housing in a way that one’s not breaking the bank to do it,” he said, lamenting that low-income people are leaving California because the costs are so high.

He supports creative policy such as ramping up “adaptive re-use” to get people into more affordable housing in repurposed former office buildings, retail and office space.

“I think we’re looking at it through a very narrow lens,” he said, and supports policies that encourage more efficient transit that gets people from suburbs to the city quicker and cheaper.

Menjivar, too, supports the concept of tiny homes, as well as ADUs and efforts to allow single-family properties to subdivide, she said. But for Menjivar, homeless policy should be rooted in a cultural shift in thinking that values communities finding common ground, and a willingness to get past individual interests.

“We will never be able to accomplish everything if we continue this NIMBYism,” she said, reflecting on projects like the Orange Line, which met homeowner opposition before the transit line became successful.

“So often we fear change,” she said. “It’s not so much about policy. It’s about let’s come to the table and talk about this. It’s about demystifying. It’s about engaging people.”

On public safety, both candidates pushed back against the “defund the police label,” at a time when crime is rising. But they did stress accountability.

“If people are looking for me to be the candidate who says ‘let’s defund the police,’ that’s not the candidate they’d be getting,” Menjivar said. “But I am the candidate that is saying that we need to bring accountability for everyone. No one is above the law.”

And that’s where public safety connects with mental health and homelessness.

Menjivar supports state policies that invest in services that don’t put the onus on police dealing with mental health calls.

“We need cops. We’ll always need police officers,” he said. But if resources begin to go toward responding to mental health, unhoused and suicide situations with more people trained to deal, then police will “get to be the cops they are supposed to be,” he said.

In some ways, Hertzberg echoes Menjivar, adding, “It’s not about defunding the police, it’s about how can we support them to do the job they’re intended to do.

They shouldn’t be the addiction specialist. They shouldn’t be the mental health services expert. We expect too much from them.”

“We need to spend more on police — not in the sense we need more officers with guns on the street, but more social and mental health workers.

“My dream is every single cop car has a social worker in it.”

Hertzberg, who thinks the effort to recall George Gascon is “ridiculous,” said he wants policies that emphasize rehabilitation of inmates, in order to reduce crime and recidivism rates.

Hertzberg lamented that among the top things stolen from department stores are diapers and formula. “That says there’s something fundamentally wrong we’re doing.”

There are two other voices in this race, candidates with roots that also run deep in the San Fernando Valley, who have just as much hope about winning the seat.

Ely De La Cruz Ayao is running for the 20th District State Senate seat representing portions of the San Fernando Valley, Burbank and Angeles National Forest area. (photo by Ryan Carter)

Ely De La Cruz Ayao is a real estate broker who says he wants to bring back a semblance of party balance in a state legislature where Democrats control both houses by large numbers.

“It’s absolute,” he said of the Democrats’ supermajorities. “And absolute power corrupts absolutely. That brings up the question of OK, what can I do? Maybe today not much. But I want to educate Californians that they have a choice for a better life.”

For Ayao, a native of the Philippines who has run for the legislature twice before, a key motivating issue is his opposition to abortion, a stance he says is backed up by scripture.

“The Christian world is very opposed to abortion,” he said.

Whether it’s homelessness or affordable housing, he said what first must happen is to create a culture where people can find some common ground.

“I want to foster a meeting of the minds,” he said. “Let’s make a deal for what’s good for California.”

Seydi Alejandra Morales, candidate for state Senate District 20 in the San Fernando Valley. (Photo by Ryan Carter)

Seydi Alejandra Morales knows the Valley well, and she echoed what has long been a Valley rallying cry: “Fair share. We get oftentimes very forgotten here,” she said.

When the lines were redrawn in last year’s redistricting process, she was prompted to run. She has raised $57,944.72 from January to April this year.

“This was a call to action for me,” said Morales, an employment law attorney with a master’s degree in clinical psychology who worked her way though law school night classes. She grew up in Sylmar, left for college, then returned to the Valley where she is raising her daughter in Reseda.

“Ensuring that we have qualified representation is incredibly important, especially for communities that I think feel disenfranchised, detached and not involved in this process,” Morales said.

Morales noted that while Valley voters have long wanted “fair share,” certain areas such as the northeast have gotten “no share.”

At the top of her priority list is tackling homelessness. She emphasized the need to create a speedier pipeline that trains more mental health workers to treat the unhoused. And she wants better systems to more frequently assess the needs of those on the street.

She echoed Menjivar and Hertzberg on supporting legislation that seeks to treat mental health situations rather than treating the problems as a law enforcement issue.

She supports more accountability and equity in the criminal justice system and in dealing with environmental issues, particularly in frontline, northeast Valley communities.

Ultimately, this race is unique in that no matter who whoever is elected, they won’t have major experience in a public, elected position.

“It kind of humanizes the race,” said Regalado, the professor emeritus of political science at Cal State Los Angeles.

“There are going to be those voters who are chagrined that they don’t have a candidate with elected experience,” he said. “But then there will be others who are thrilled at that, and getting somebody new and raw … and who also doesn’t come with the trappings of institutional bureaucracies.

“There’s no ‘throw out the bum in this this race,’” he said.

Race at a glance

The District: The district includes three cities, Burbank, L.A. and San Fernando and the communities of Arleta, Canoga Park, Lake Balboa, Lakeview Terrace, Mission Hills, North Hills, North Hollywood, Northridge, Pacoima, Panorama City, Reseda, Shadow Hills, Sun Valley, Sunland, Sylmar, Tujunga, Van Nuys and Winnetka.

Voter Registration: 53.01% Democrat, 16.18% Republican

Voter Demographics: 50.2% Latino, 32.5% White, 11.1% Asian, 5.1% Black

Candidates: Democrats – Daniel Hertzberg, Caroline Menjivar, Seydi Alejandra Morales; Republican – Ely De La Cruz Ayao.

The Issues: Homelessness, affordable housing, law enforcement, mental health and environment are major issues in the district, including questions over critics of Whiteman Airport and the Valley Generating Plant.

The Race: A battle between four candidates who have not held any major elected offices, this is a contest over whose story resonates most. The two candidates who have raised the most money since the start of 2021 are Hertzberg and Menjivar, both progressives.