TELLING CHAPTERS: THE CANDIDATES FOR L.A. MAYOR
The only Republican candidate has been voicing quite different opinions on some key issues from what he espoused as a conservative radio talk-show host.
Los Angeles mayoral candidates, from left, Kevin James, Wendy Greuel and… (Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles…)
First in a series of articles focusing on key periods in the lives of the mayoral hopefuls.
If it weren't for paparazzi shooting topless photographs of actress Jennifer Aniston, Kevin James might never have become a talk radio show host — or gone on to run for mayor of Los Angeles.
If it weren't for paparazzi shooting topless photographs of actress Jennifer Aniston, Kevin James might never have become a talk radio show host — or gone on to run for mayor of Los Angeles.
In
an only-in-Hollywood tale, James got his first taste of talk radio in
2002, when he was representing Aniston and then-husband Brad Pitt in a
lawsuit against adult magazine publishers who had run the racy photos.
When the case settled, he was invited on KABC-AM (790) in Los Angeles to
talk about it.
Immediately hooked, James over the next decade found himself doing more radio and less lawyering for Lavely & Singer, one of the city's top entertainment law firms. Then, last year, he traded his radio mic for the mayoral campaign.
"I call it my prior life,'' James said of his entertainment law days, recounting how he once escorted Farrah Fawcett to an awards show.
"I used to go to lots of movie premieres.... Now I go to lots of debates."
On the campaign trail, he has become the crowd-pleasing populist, thundering about corruption at City Hall and emphasizing his outsider status. But his record shows there are two Kevin Jameses: the conservative radio host on one hand and the far more moderate mayoral candidate on the other.
His positions today on key issues such as the environment, immigration and President Obama are at odds with his statements in the past.
In a recent televised debate on KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles, for instance, he lambasted his opponents for not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gases in the city — a signature issue for environmentalists who link an increase in carbon emissions with global climate change.
He accused fellow candidates Controller Wendy Greuel and council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry of failing to develop a "comprehensive environmental sustainability plan" during their years at City Hall. "We haven't made the progress that we should have made with current leadership,'' he said.
As recently as five years ago, however, James appeared to reject the entire idea of global warming. As a conservative talk show host, he wrote a column in Townhall.com calling Democrats "global warming wimps" who are exploiting the issue for political gain. The phrase "carbon footprint," he wrote, "is code for limitless government intrusion into every detail of your life. Nothing is beyond the reach of a government determined to reduce your carbon footprint in the name of the environment. To these people, nothing is sacred, nothing is private, nothing is truly yours."
His statements at that time could be incendiary. In a Townhall.com column in 2009, he wrote that Obama should choose Daffy Duck, the Warner Bros.' cartoon character, as his Supreme Court pick to replace the retiring David Souter. The reasons he cited: The duck is black, disabled (with a speech impediment) and a "professional victim."
In an on-air quarrel with MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews, James suggested that then-candidate Barack Obama was a foreign-policy appeaser comparable to Neville Chamberlain, the former British prime minister who made a deal with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to avoid war.
IS THIS A MAYOR of L.A., to represent the city, internationally?
"You're
BS-ing me," Matthews chided James, noting later that there is a
difference between talks and appeasement, which involves making
concessions to potential aggressors. "This is pathetic. He doesn't even
know what Chamberlain did at Munich.... We're talking to people with
blank slates about history."
Also in his radio days, James urged tea party supporters to reject any new taxes, voiced support for a juvenile death penalty and supported a 700-mile fence on the nation's southern border.
Even in recent years, he consistently opposed Democratic proposals for a "path to citizenship" — an issue of intense interest to Los Angeles' heavily Latino electorate.
Full article via LATimes.com
Immediately hooked, James over the next decade found himself doing more radio and less lawyering for Lavely & Singer, one of the city's top entertainment law firms. Then, last year, he traded his radio mic for the mayoral campaign.
"I call it my prior life,'' James said of his entertainment law days, recounting how he once escorted Farrah Fawcett to an awards show.
"I used to go to lots of movie premieres.... Now I go to lots of debates."
On the campaign trail, he has become the crowd-pleasing populist, thundering about corruption at City Hall and emphasizing his outsider status. But his record shows there are two Kevin Jameses: the conservative radio host on one hand and the far more moderate mayoral candidate on the other.
His positions today on key issues such as the environment, immigration and President Obama are at odds with his statements in the past.
In a recent televised debate on KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles, for instance, he lambasted his opponents for not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gases in the city — a signature issue for environmentalists who link an increase in carbon emissions with global climate change.
He accused fellow candidates Controller Wendy Greuel and council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry of failing to develop a "comprehensive environmental sustainability plan" during their years at City Hall. "We haven't made the progress that we should have made with current leadership,'' he said.
As recently as five years ago, however, James appeared to reject the entire idea of global warming. As a conservative talk show host, he wrote a column in Townhall.com calling Democrats "global warming wimps" who are exploiting the issue for political gain. The phrase "carbon footprint," he wrote, "is code for limitless government intrusion into every detail of your life. Nothing is beyond the reach of a government determined to reduce your carbon footprint in the name of the environment. To these people, nothing is sacred, nothing is private, nothing is truly yours."
His statements at that time could be incendiary. In a Townhall.com column in 2009, he wrote that Obama should choose Daffy Duck, the Warner Bros.' cartoon character, as his Supreme Court pick to replace the retiring David Souter. The reasons he cited: The duck is black, disabled (with a speech impediment) and a "professional victim."
In an on-air quarrel with MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews, James suggested that then-candidate Barack Obama was a foreign-policy appeaser comparable to Neville Chamberlain, the former British prime minister who made a deal with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to avoid war.
IS THIS A MAYOR of L.A., to represent the city, internationally?
Also in his radio days, James urged tea party supporters to reject any new taxes, voiced support for a juvenile death penalty and supported a 700-mile fence on the nation's southern border.
Even in recent years, he consistently opposed Democratic proposals for a "path to citizenship" — an issue of intense interest to Los Angeles' heavily Latino electorate.
Full article via LATimes.com
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