Richard Bloom, the mayor of Santa Monica, wants to move up and out to Sacramento. He’s running for the seat in the State Assembly vacated by Julia Brownley.
But what I can’t figure out is: why would anyone want this job?
The state budget is so far underwater that the job of state legislators seems to be about figuring out where to cut, not figuring out how to get new programs adopted.
I went to lunch with Bloom, 57, to ask the question.
“I like a challenge,” said Bloom, a mild-mannered lawyer who is completing his third term as Santa Monica mayor. “I relish the thought of something new and challenging.”
Bloom – who will run against Torie Osborn for the seat being vacated by Julia Brownley (she's termed out) – intends to focus on the same issues that he made his own in Santa Monica: education, the environment and “making sure there’s a safety net for our vulnerable population.”
Bloom held his first fundraiser on Sunday at the art center at the Santa Monica airport (see photo, by Yossi Govrin) and talked about these issues to a room full of early supporters.
As Santa Monica mayor he is – need we say it? – a Democrat who leans far to the left. He is most proud of having taken on homelessness, adopting a region-wide, engaged approach in 
quickly identifying homeless once they arrive in the city, and directing them back to their homes or local services in their own communities.
Santa Monica is doing well, he says. The new budget has increased its budget by $150 million over last year to $650 million. Most of it for new capital projects like a new library and a facelift to sports facilities at the Santa Monica high school.
Sacramento would surely be a much bigger challenge: higher stakes, more entrenched dysfunction.
Bloom seems aware of this. “How do you work within that system to create change in a place that badly needs it, but is structurally averse to change?” he asked me.
How indeed? Bloom, his dark hair flecked with gray, is a family lawyer by training, a member of the coastal commission.
While he was short on specifics for his plans in Sacramento, he favors a constitutional amendment to reform the initiative process.
“We passed ballot measures that didn’t have any funding mechanisms,” he lamented. “The intiative system has turned into a tool for anybody has a good idea and a lot of money to get a measure on the ballot.”
California’s problems are well-known and deeply entrenched: a soaring jobless rate that is the second highest in the country at 11.9 %, a $78 billion debt, a $15 billion budget deficit, steeply declining education standards, bursting prisons, uncompetitive tax rates and a political system that at times seems frozen.
Wow. That’s daunting to write down.
Bloom said he wants to support the entertainment industry by expanding the tax rebate initiative that was passed in the past two years. “I’d favor liberalizing the rules so that it covers more productions,” said Bloom.
Overall, “We need to make sure that California is a good place to do business,” he said. Clearly, a task easier said than done.
