Second of two parts
Re “The Finer Side of Judging Value of Legislators”
[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]Third-year City Councilman Jim Clarke’s challenge was, how should informed hometown voters evaluate their representatives in Sacramento and Washington when they are running for re-election?
How can you tell if state Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Culver City) and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City) deserve to be returned to office?
Mr. Clarke, unlike his Council colleagues, brings the unique perspective of having served as a senior staff member to Sacramento and Washington delegates as well as former Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa.
“It is more than just, ‘Did they vote the right way?,’” Mr. Clarke said. “We developed positions. The League of California Cities has a set of positions, and they come at issues from the perspective of local control.”
A crucial question is:
“Is the proposed legislation taking away the ability of cities to be able to conduct their own affairs?”
The League, said Mr. Clarke, “ends up scoring officials on that basis. They give us their grades or scores based on that. That gives you some indication.
“I would say there are three elements in judging our legislators.
“One would be legislative.
“One would be their ability to facilitate meetings and help bring parties together.
“The third,” Mr. Clarke said, “is their openness to just being available, to be able to listen to us when we come up there to Sacramento or Washington,D.C.”
