Three candidates filed paperwork that allows them to begin fundraising, signaling their intention to run for the CD4 LA City Council seat that will be up for grabs when current Councilman Tom LaBonge is termed-out in March 2015. Among the three is LaBonge Chief of Staff and long-time Windsor Square resident Carolyn Ramsay.
Council District 4 includes all of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council neighborhoods (Hancock Park, Windsor Square, Windsor Village, Larchmont Village, Wilshire Park, Sycamore Square, Fremont Place, etc.), plus Miracle Mile, Hollywood, Los Feliz, Studio City and Sherman Oaks.
The window to start fundraising opened Tuesday. The election is 18 months away and will take place on March 3, 2015. At the end of his term, Councilman Tom LaBonge will have served in the role for nearly 14 years.
The three candidates are:
- Carolyn Ramsay – current CD4 Chief of Staff to Councilman Tom LaBonge; ran LA office of The Trust for Public Land; newspaper and magazine reporter; founded non-profit Olive Branches to raise funds to develop school gardens and landscape features; Windsor Square resident.Â
- Teddy Davis – an attorney born in Los Feliz who grew up there and in Sherman Oaks; served in the administrations of Mayor Villaragoisa as press secretary,  and as Special Assistant for Governor Gray Davis to create policies on education, health and environmental issues; worked on and off camera for ABC News in public affairs and politics; currently a fellow in University of Southern California’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. Â
- Tara Bannister – Vice President for National Apartment Assocation; worked as aide to Governor Gray Davis in 1999-2000; lives in Park LaBrea.
LA Times: Third Candidate Launches Bid to Replace LA Councilman Tom LaBonge
KPCC – They’re Lining Up Already, For 2015 LA City Council Race
Watch last week’s Streetblog.org interview with Carolyn Ramsay discussing Parks and Open Space:
Hopefully someone who’s not a career politician will throw their hat in the ring. All of these 3 are your typical government-worker types that have no sense of reality or amibition to fix a serverely broken city.
I’m most interested in Ms. Ramsey’s candidacy. She knows GWNC well so she qualifies on that front. She cares about the city. Potential there. What I’d like to know is if she would vote for fiscal sanity at the city, meaning aligning spending with revenue while reining in excessive employee compensation.
She’ll ignore the topic just like LaBonge did. She’ll focus on creating more HPOZ’s and building more medians – both of which cost, not save money, and give more control to the city versus the citizens.