Former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer on Thursday became the latest Democrat to join next year’s packed top-two primary to replace Senate candidate Adam Schiff in California’s safely blue 30th Congressional District, which includes part of L.A. as well as all of Burbank and Glendale. Feuer launched his campaign with an endorsement from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose city is home to just over one-half of the 30th’s denizens.
Feuer is a longtime local office holder who got his start back in 1995 when he was elected to the City Council, and he later won races for the state Assembly and city attorney. He went on to campaign for mayor last year, but his effort was hindered by allegations that his office concealed evidence in a long-running criminal investigation involving over-billing by the Department of Water and Power, a scandal that resulted in a guilty plea for one of Feuer’s former top deputies.
Feuer, who struggled to raise money, ended up dropping out ahead of the nonpartisan primary and endorsing Bass. Feuer got some welcome news in August, though, when federal authorities announced that the city attorney was not a target in their probe.
Feuer joins a field of Democratic congressional candidates that already included:
- Tech businessman Joshua Bocanegra
- Assemblywoman Laura Friedman
- 2022 candidate Maebe A. Girl
- Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education member Nick Melvoin
- State Sen. Anthony Portantino
Actor Ben Savage, the former “Boy Meets World” star who unsuccessfully ran for West Hollywood City Council in 2022, has also filed with the FEC, though he has not yet announced he’s in. Joe Biden carried this seat by a 72-20 margin, so there’s a very good chance that two Democrats could advance out of the top-two primary.
There’s no obvious frontrunner in this field, which still has plenty of time to expand, though Primary School notes that Bocanegra stands out as the contender who has tried to bring back the dead. Popular Science interviewed Bocanegra in 2015 about his company’s efforts, and he explained:
“We’ll first collect extensive data on our members for years prior to their death via various apps we’re developing. After death we’ll freeze the brain using cryonics technology. When the technology is fully developed we’ll implant the brain into an artificial body. The artificial body functions will be controlled with your thoughts by measuring brain waves. As the brain ages we’ll use nanotechnology to repair and improve cells. Cloning technology is going to help with this too.”
Bocanegra further predicted, “We believe we can resurrect the first human within 30 years,” so we have another 22 years to see if he was right. His campaign website, though, does not mention anything about resurrection: Instead, he writes that he started “a med-tech startup where I assembled a team of scientists and researchers to extend human life through advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and medical nanotechnology.”