LMU Hosts LA Mayoral and California Gubernatorial Candidates

This April, faculty, students, and staff gathered in Ahmanson Auditorium for a series of conversations with candidates for mayor of Los Angeles and governor of California, hosted by Larry Mantle of LAist's AirTalk.

The one-on-one conversations took place over three Monday afternoons, and the format allowed candidates the time and space to really delve into how they would address the city and state's most pressing issues, including homelessness, immigration, housing, and more. Students in Professor Fernando Guerra's "California Politics" course played a key role in shaping the series by advocating for a long-form conversation format and contributing questions for the candidates.

"I definitely feel like the individual conversations tell you a lot more about what a candidate does, and doesn't know, and who they really are outside of a stage with several other candidates," said Conor Boland '28, a finance and political science double major. "Especially with so many major candidates in the running for the gubernatorial race, traditional format debates I have watched have been chaotic, and do not always give each candidate enough time to talk about their policies."

These in-depth conversations provided the LMU community with a unique opportunity to engage directly with the candidates seeking to lead the state and the city. They also offered students in "California Politics" a valuable chance to see the real-world application of concepts discussed in the classroom. In the course, students examine the dynamics of California's political process, including the nuts and bolts of elections, the legislative process, recall procedures, and the historical context that shapes the state's current political landscape.

Larry Mantle, who has hosted AirTalk on LAist 89.3 for more than 40 years, brought deep experience from decades of living in and reporting on California. He posed questions to the candidates, which revealed their character, policy positions, and potential approach to governing. One of the most memorable questions that he asked each candidate: "What is it about you, and I'm not talking about your experience, your education, or about anything work-related, but you as a person, your characteristics, that you think make you particularly suited for this position?"

From Boland's perspective, one key trait he believes the next mayor or governor should possess is accountability. "I want to see a leader willing to take accountability for their actions and hold other officials accountable for their actions. I feel like Angelenos want to see more of that," he said.

Another highlight for students in Professor Guerra's "California Politics" course was the opportunity to write questions for the candidates, touching on issues important to them. Boland worked with Guerra to write a question for Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for re-election.

Conor Boland: Mayor Bass, you just released your budget. Many people are frustrated about infrastructure, including the streets and potholes. More specifically, how long it's taken Metro and LAX to build their projects.

We know that DWP has again closed the reservoir for repair in the Palisades too. Now my question for you is: what is the plan for the next four years taking from your current budget to plan for the building of infrastructure and prioritizing these services?

Bass: Absolutely. Thank you. I think that's a great question and believe it or not, one of the things that I found coming home and working as mayor is that there's so much of our city that is really out of date, meaning that the city is functioning still on paper. We did not have, in the nation's second largest city, a comprehensive infrastructure plan. Surprise, things like what you described happened.

Now Metro and the LAX, that's a whole different subject. So I have, for the last couple of years, worked on a comprehensive infrastructure plan, which we are ready to release and should be releasing in the next few days, that lays out a method, a timeline, a strategy for how to deal with our city's infrastructure, and that includes everything.

But let me give you one example because one thing you didn't mention was streetlights. And streetlights has been something that has really been a problem in all of our neighborhoods. So what the city did is we would replace copper lights.

Well, OK, we're going through this national crisis of copper theft.

So why do you replace copper lights when you can deal with your environmental goals, and there's nothing to steal if it's solar? And people, what they would say to me is, "It's cheaper to replace copper."

It isn't cheaper because two weeks later you're gonna have to replace it again. So I launched a program just a few weeks ago to install 60,000 solar lights around the city, and that is gonna deal with the entire backlog of streets being out.

The other thing that I did in early on was call on LAPD to do a copper wire task force, but that's whack-a-mole going after the people that steal copper. I wanna go after the people that buy copper.

The full conversations with all of the candidates were broadcast on AirTalk, extending their reach to LAists' broader audiences. Full interviews and transcripts are available for all the candidates for LA Mayor and CA Governor.

"I find it most insightful seeing not just candidates' personalities shown off, but I love seeing what the vision is with their policy," said Boland. "It's a really helpful way of applying what we learn in the classroom to the real world, and it gives us the tools to understand why elected officials and candidates make the choices they do. For people who really want to make a positive difference in their communities, this sort of real-world learning is an invaluable experience to have as an undergraduate student."