This board endorses Sheila Kuehl for the 3rd District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors because of her experience in the California legislature and her dedication to advocacy.
Eight years as a state senator and six as a state assemblywoman will serve Kuehl well if she is elected this week. After managing a budget four times larger than she would in the supervisor seat, she is equipped to understand complex funding systems at the county level.
The UCLA alumna approaches her work with a profound understanding of the importance of standing up for marginalized communities and ensuring that the law protects the powerless. She learned this partially from firsthand experience with discrimination for being lesbian, even allegedly losing interviews because of it. At UCLA, she said she was kicked out of a sorority when her friends learned she loved a woman.
As a senator, she wrote laws to guarantee workers paid leave and to protect students and school staff from discrimination for their sexual orientations. She also co-founded the nonprofit California Women’s Law Center, which works to produce legislation to protect women from assault and discrimination.
On the job, Kuehl would have to oversee county prisons, the correctional system for youth and family welfare programs. A seat with this power requires a leader who knows what inmates and youth need. Her attention to mental health patients in jail and her strategy of diversion for low-level offenders make Kuehl right for the position. Her plans to offer additional support to foster care youth past the age of 18 and increase collaboration between child welfare programs will also benefit the county.
While her opponent Bobby Shriver also supports diverting mentally ill people from jails, Kuehl’s stronger background in advocacy work makes her the more qualified candidate for this task.
Like Shriver, she supports an incremental minimum wage increase to $15.37 an hour. While Kuehl plans to use her alliance with unions, Shriver has said he supports providing tax breaks for companies. Unlike Shriver, Kuehl is rightly skeptical that tax relief for companies will stimulate the economy.
L.A. County needs a leader who is dedicated to fighting discrimination and searching for ways to help the marginalized. Coupled with her history of advocacy, Kuehl’s experience helps ensure that county dollars and policies will be used and implemented with attention to groups who need the most care.