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Jesse Creed
Jesse Max Creed is a Democrat and a former candidate for District 5 representative on the Los Angeles City Council in California. Creed was defeated in the primary election on March 7, 2017. This was Creed's first bid for elected office.[1]
Biography
Creed moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1991, following a bankruptcy that forced them to sell their house and car in Toronto. He graduated from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Creed then graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University; he earned his J.D. at Columbia Law School. He began his legal career by clerking for federal court judges.[2]
Creed is a member of the Jewish Federation's New Leaders Project. He was awarded the California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year Award for his work on a veteran's housing project in West Los Angeles.[2]
Creed is married to Mia Munro, a civil rights attorney.[2]
Elections
2017
The city of Los Angeles, California, held primary elections for mayor, eight city council seats, city attorney, and city controller on March 7, 2017. Three community college board of trustees seats were also up for general election on that date.
Most races where no candidate earned a majority (50% plus one) of the primary votes cast advanced to a general election on May 16, 2017. This rule did not apply to the community college board races, which were determined by a plurality winner in the March election.[3]
This election was the second impacted by Charter Amendment 1. Passed in March 2015, the amendment shifted city elections to even-numbered years beginning in 2020. As a result, officials elected in 2017 won special five-and-a-half year terms ending in 2022. Incumbent Paul Koretz defeated Jesse Creed and Mark Matthew Herd in the primary election for the District 5 seat on the Los Angeles City Council.[4]
| Los Angeles City Council, District 5 Primary Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Paul Koretz Incumbent |
65.88% | 25,914 |
| Jesse Creed | 30.47% | 11,986 |
| Mark Matthew Herd | 3.65% | 1,435 |
| Total Votes | 39,335 | |
| Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "March 7, 2017, Election Results: Statement of Votes Cast," accessed May 22, 2017 | ||
Campaign finance
2017
Creed had received $298,825.24 in contributions and had made $325,382.41 in expenditures, leaving the campaign with $81,534.38 on hand as of reports available from the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission on February 27, 2017.[5]
Campaign themes
2017
Creed submitted the description of his political philosophy to Ballotpedia:
| “ | Jesse Creed is running for Los Angeles City Council because Los Angeles deserves better. We deserve better at creating a city where people can live, work, and seek opportunity. We deserve better at creating affordable housing and reducing homelessness and its impacts on our neighborhoods. We deserve better at reducing traffic. We deserve better at government transparency and accountability. And we deserve better at job and wage growth. But in order to accomplish these things, we deserve leaders who can do better too.
Jesse will fight to make our neighborhoods safer, cleaner, greener, and more livable, because he knows we can do better. He believes that the greatest challenge of our time is to provide affordable housing to every family in LA, from the homeless living on our streets to working families struggling to survive. And, he believes that by addressing our housing crisis, we will also address many of the other challenges facing Los Angeles, including traffic, job creation, and pollution. Jesse will work with our communities to develop a housing policy for LA fit for the 21st century and will promise transparency and full and prompt disclosure to the community in the process.[6] |
” |
| —Jesse Creed (January 26, 2017)[1] | ||
He also added:
| “ | Jesse Creed has shown that with the right leadership, we can do better. An attorney with a successful public interest practice who represents people in need, Jesse has repeatedly shown that tough problems can be solved if we’re ambitious and set high standards. At a time when homelessness in LA is at unprecedented highs, Jesse is one of the key lawyers working to create more than a thousand homes for our homeless veterans on the 388-acre West Los Angeles VA campus. This historic project has earned broad community support through countless town halls and community meetings and has been endorsed by Westside community groups. For his work, Jesse was awarded the California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year Award. Veterans and their families recognized Jesse's leadership by electing him to LA's inaugural Community Veterans Engagement Board.
Jesse has experienced firsthand the challenges of economic hardship and economic opportunity. That’s why he believes so deeply in the potential of Los Angeles. In 1991, when a bank forced Jesse’s family to sell their home in Toronto and their car in a bankruptcy, his family had to look for something better out of necessity. With no job prospects in Toronto and after living in eight houses, his family moved to the Westside of Los Angeles in search of a new life. Jesse now resides in Beverly Grove neighborhood with his wife, Mia, and their rescue dog, Wayan. Mia is a civil rights attorney who has spent her entire career fighting for women’s rights in the workplace, including equal pay for equal work and the protection of pregnant women in the workplace.[6] |
” |
| —Jesse Creed (January 26, 2017)[1] | ||
Campaign website
On his campaign website, Creed listed five key issues. Below are the issue topics and selected excerpts from his statement on each matter:
- Development and land use:[7]
- "I have taken a pledge not to accept a cent from lobbyists or developers with projects in the city. I’m the only candidate in the race who has raised money to take the pledge."
- "The City Council must get out of the planning business and empower the Planning Department to actually do its job of planning our city."
- Traffic and mobility:[8]
- "I strongly support Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “Vision Zero” plan to reduce the number of traffic fatalities (including pedestrian cyclist fatalities) in Los Angeles to zero by 2025, and there is much more that we can do in the meantime."
- "I will take measures to increase crossing times, improve crosswalks, and establish slow zones near schools and will support walk-to-school and bike-to-school programs."
- Addressing homelessness:[9]
- "As your councilman, I would make sure that the City applies the best long term solutions, with a focus on permanent supportive housing that is given to people as quickly as possible and with no strings attached."
- Public safety and crime:[10]
- Creed stated three items he would pursue to affect what he described as a "crime surge": "[more] police," "[more] community policing," and "[better] use of police technology."
- " I will work hard to organize the community to be a stronger tool for the police through neighborhood watch programs, problem-specific task forces, and community groups to deal with our crime and homelessness surge."
- "Given the level of video surveillance in the community, we need to ensure LAPD has the resources to connect to these [video doorbells] directly and in real-time (with the owner’s consent, of course) to help deter and solve crime."
- Protecting the environment:[11]
- "I will create a public-private partnership program in Council District 5 to explore new, creative ways to create great park and recreational spaces. I will flat out oppose any efforts to reduce the total amount of park space in Council District 5."
- "While I see no clear solution at a local level to the rising sea levels, community leaders in Council District 5 need to see how we can better equip our transportation system and re-enforce our hillsides and other infrastructure for the pending changes to our coastline. I will also fight any effort by the federal government to encroach on the progress we’ve made on climate change."
See also
| Los Angeles, California | California | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ballotpedia, "Biographical submission form," January 26, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jesse Creed for L.A. City Council, "Because L.A. Can Do Better," accessed February 1, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles Daily News, "A dozen hopefuls step up to the starting line for Los Angeles mayoral race," November 11, 2016
- ↑ City of Los Angeles City Clerk, "2017 Primary Nominating Election Candidates," December 16, 2016
- ↑ Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, "2017 City and LAUSD Elections," accessed February 27, 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Jesse Creed for L.A. City Council, "Development & Land Use," accessed February 1, 2017
- ↑ Jesse Creed for L.A. City Council, "Traffic & Mobility," accessed February 1, 2017
- ↑ Jesse Creed for L.A. City Council, "Addressing Homelessness," accessed February 1, 2017
- ↑ Jesse Creed for L.A. City Council, "Public Safety and Crime," accessed February 1, 2017
- ↑ Jesse Creed for L.A. City Council, "Protecting the Environment," accessed February 1, 2017
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