FURUTANI TOUTS EXPERIENCE IN LA. CITY COUNCIL BID (TUES., JAN. 17, 2012)

By George Toshio Johnston

LOS ANGELES — Tuesday marks the special election for the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated by Janice Hahn. Running to fill the vacancy are California Assemblyman Warren Furutani, who represents the 55th Assembly District, and Los Angeles police officer Joe Buscaino, a novice who has never held any political office.

The following is the transcript of a Q&A conversation between Nikkei Nation and Furutani as the election looms.

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Nikkei Nation: Speaking with California Assemblyman Warren Furutani, who represents the 55th Assembly District. He is a Democrat, he’s 64, Japanese American, born and raised in Los Angeles County. Assemblyman Furutani’s past service includes stints with the Los Angeles Unified School District and on the Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees.

Right now, Assemblyman Furutani is in a tight race in a special election for a vacant seat on the Los Angeles City Council, representing L.A.’s Harbor Area, which is close to his hometown of San Pedro.

His opponent is fellow Democrat, Los Angeles police officer Joe Buscaino, who was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, despite having never held any political office.

First Question: Assemblyman Furutani, why are you running for L.A. City Council and why is Warren Furutani the best-qualified individual between you and your opponent?

Warren Furutani: You know, George, this is a great opportunity with the incumbent leaving, because Janice Hahn was elected to Congress, and where I am in terms of my political experience — I’ve worked locally on school boards, a community college board and in the last four years, I’ve been in the state legislature

As I finish out my career I just prefer doing grass-roots organizing, face-to-face kind of impact politics rather than this legislative work, which is pretty aloof and about 30,000 feet in the air kind of ceiling.

When this opening came up in the area where I was born, where I grew up, where my sons were born, where they grew up, where we live, it was just a great opportunity to do the kind of community organizing and political representation where you can have an impact on people’s lives.

NN: Now you did mention you have experience and there was a quote about not needing “training wheels.” Expand on that a little bit perhaps.

WF: Well, that is the difference. The L.A. Times endorsement, they were talking about this guy’s potential, and what he could do and become. Apparently they don’t think much of what I’ve done so far, but I’ve done a lot in terms of just experience around education and service work and all kinds of different things legislative. 

Just recently I got bills signed by the governor about career technical education. I’ve helped build schools, community colleges, but it’s a body work. I think what people must realize is that — and it’s reflected in my endorsements as well — that I’m going to hit the road running.

I know how to make the government work as best we can and we’ve been fighting this issue, the whole time I’ve been on the different elected offices, of cuts in the budgets and playing a lot of defense, but I have the experience. I have the toughness. I can make the tough decisions and and get about the challenges of the City Council.

This other guy’s from San Pedro, where they always elect the City Council person. But I’m running in the whole district, not just San Pedro, where I was born and where my dad was born. I want to represent Watts, Wilmington, Harbor Gateway, Harbor City and take on all the challenges and make sure everybody gets their fair share and what they should get in terms of resources.

NN: Now I know I kind of already get the drift of what you thought about the L.A. Times endorsement of your opponent. But what about your endorsements. Tell us about that.

WF: Well you know, I’m endorsed from congresspeople like Judy Chu, Maxine Waters, Karen Bass, Laura Richardson, Mike Honda.

We have all the local congresspeople’s endorsements, we have the state Senate, all of the Assembly. I have all of the African American/Black Caucus in the Legislature’s endorsements, have local endorsements, but that’s sort of been used against me from the standpoint of that I represent, I guess, the system and the new guy, now, though in the general election, has gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars —$400,000 to be pretty close to perfect on the number — from independent expenditures from the Chamber of Commerce and the Police Protective League, and the IBEW Dept. of Water and Power Workers, they’re pretty invested in trying to defeat me, and we have the more grass-roots labor unions, the L.A. County of Federation of Labor, education unions, domestic workers, in-home care workers.

So, it’s sort of lining up as the classic battle of the traditional keepers of the interests of downtown Los Angeles, vs. sort of, even though I have the experience, I’m sort of the upstart rebel in this because we’re trying to do it a different way — and that’s sort of how it’s working out.

NN: Assemblyman, with all due respect, I don’t want to be insulting here but — you’re 64, you’ve achieved much and served the public well. For example, without you, many California Nisei who were denied college diplomas because of the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans during WWII by the federal government, might have never received those degrees in recent years had it not been for you. I doubt your honorable opponent would have ever thought to do something like that if he had been in a position to do so. That said, why not take it easy and wind down your career and head off into the sunset of retirement? And like I said, not trying to be insulting, just kind of a devil’s advocate type of question, Warren. 

WF: Sure I understand George and I know there’s no disrespect intended at all.

You know, one thing and maybe its Asian culture, I don’t know, sometimes the American culture talks so much about young people and youth. You know, you have someone with wisdom and experience in the track record — something that the L.A. Times didn’t think too much about I guess. Or, Jan. 30, we’re going to have a first-ever celebration of the Fred Korematsu Day, an educational piece around civil liberties and the Constitution. I got high school diplomas for Nisei as well. I will also be the first Japanese American ever elected to the L.A.A City Council, only the second Asian American in the last 20 years. I would be only the second. So those kinds of things.

But for me being able to contribute to the community, and having the energy and the creativity and experience to do the job, it’s reflected in my endorsements. You know, I have African Americans, Latinos, Whites, Asians of every stripe and that’s what I think I can do in terms of making a good contribution to people’s quality of life before I go to hopefully being a grandparent and retiring but I’m not ready for that yet.

NN: One final question.  At this late date, what can be done to get voters out on Tuesday to vote, whether it’s for you or your opponent, but hopefully for you. What are your suggestions for people to get their friends and neighbors who are qualified to vote, and are living in the proper areas, what can we do to get them out?

WF: The bottom line question is just as you said George, getting them out to vote. We’ve been communicating with our voters in the way possible. We’ve identified plenty of support to win this election but the big question is who is going to get the vote out. My opponent is using mail and television commercials because he’s got all this extra money.

We are using people. We had over 300 people walk on Saturday, we had people walking Sunday, they are walking today and tomorrow we are expecting over 400 people.

So we are doing it the old way, door to door. It’s called walking, talking and knocking and on Tuesday it’s called walking, talking, knocking and dragging people to the polls to get them to vote

Anybody within earshot of your program or on the blog with Nikkei Nation, any folks you know living the 15th City Council District from San Pedro to Watts, please give them a call first thing to call and urge them to vote. Tuesday is election day and that’s where it’s going to be won or lost. Who gets out the vote.

NN: Thank you. That was Assemblyman Warren Furutani, who is running for the Los Angeles City Council, the election for which is Tuesday, Jan. 17. Good luck to you Warren and thank you for taking time to talk with me. For Nikkei Nation, this is George Toshio Johnston. Thank you very much, Warren.

WF: Thank you, brother.