California Assemblymember Laura Friedman is nearly certain to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 5. The Glendale Democrat is running to replace Rep. Adam Schiff in the deeply blue 30th Congressional District race against a little-known Republican physician.
Nevertheless, there’s still reason for voters to be excited about supporting her to become the next representative of the district that stretches from West Hollywood to the western edge of Pasadena, including Glendale, Burbank and several L.A. city neighborhoods.
Friedman has been an innovative, courageous and effective state legislator in Sacramento, particularly on the environment, housing and transportation. Her record in Sacramento shows that she is more interested in building support for smart legislation than trolling rivals or participating in the polarizing, asinine culture wars. Those are terrific qualities for a member of Congress to have in these politically fraught times.
She’s not afraid to tackle controversial topics. Friedman has authored important legislation on a wide variety of important issues facing Californians. Just to name a few of the more groundbreaking — and often controversial — bills she pushed until they passed: restrictions on the use of potable water on purely ornamental landscaping; a pilot program to legalize speed cameras; a ban on the use of “forever chemicals” in baby products and another on toxic chemicals in cosmetics, and lifting parking mandates in new housing developments near transit.
Her final year as a legislator was no exception. Even as she was running for Congress, she pushed important bills such as one that’s on the governor’s desk at the moment to protect the state’s wetlands.
Friedman is one of the too-rare lawmakers motivated by principles rather than politics. She is undaunted by opposition to legislation she believes in, and will spend years building support needed to get bills passed, including from Republican colleagues — not an easy feat in today’s hyperpartisan political landscape.
Her background in Hollywood will also be a boon for this district, which includes many content creators. Before she pivoted to politics by getting elected to the Glendale City Council, Friedman was a film and television executive. In Washington, she wants to work on issues to protect the long-term health of the industry such as copyright law and artificial intelligence, and on issues that threaten democracy such as the use of deepfake audio and video in election advertising and misinformation.
She’s also a strong champion of women (including for those running for president. She endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2020 presidential primary) and was a leader in the #MeToo movement in Sacramento. We expect she will become a strong voice in the fight in Congress to protect reproductive rights.
Her experience and track record far eclipse what the other candidate, pulmonologist Alex Balekian, has to offer. He’s campaigning on the slogan “Progressive isn’t working.” His misleading personal attacks (one mailer falsely accused Friedman of making bike lanes mandatory “in every California city”) and focus on culture war issues such as so-called parental rights seem straight out of the MAGA playbook.
Friedman is not just the likely successor to Schiff, who is most likely going to be elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 5, but a worthy one.
