Council Support Grows for Holden Runoff Opponent

Two Los Angeles City Council members said Tuesday that they will not only endorse challenger Madison Shockley in his bid for the 10th District council seat, but also actively campaign against the incumbent, their colleague Nate Holden.

Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rita Walters said they will walk Holden’s precincts, while Councilman Mike Feuer joined them in formally announcing support for Shockley at a Tuesday news conference. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg earlier said she will back the minister in the June 8 runoff.

The council members gathered on a sidewalk just blocks from Holden’s house to denounce what they characterized as Holden’s obstructive behavior on the council.

“Nate Holden has sown the seeds of disruption on the fallow ground and he shall reap the consequences,” said Walters, drawing on scripture. “He has sown the wind and he shall reap the whirlwind.”

Feuer said voters face “a stark choice between the inclusiveness that Madison Shockley represents or going back to the division that often characterized the worst moments of the city.”

Even retired Councilman Marvin Braude emerged at the event, saying that “when I asked colleagues how to improve the council, how to make it more civil, they always said, ‘Gee, if only Holden weren’t on the council.’ He interfered with the process, and made it mean and uncomfortable,” Braude said.

First elected to the council in 1987, Holden has been criticized for holding up votes with cumbersome objections and championing hopeless, personal causes. He describes his behavior as simply the consequence of his desire to “tell it like it is.”

In addition to antipathy to Holden, the rare public stand against a colleague also reflects the growing influence of Ridley-Thomas, according to City Council observers. Ridley-Thomas’ stock has risen with his successful courting of an NFL franchise to play in the Coliseum, while Holden--who at best can serve only one more term due to term limits--is believed to have little political capital remaining.

“You have to look at the political dynamics of 2001, that’s what this is all about,” said Rick Taylor, a longtime local political consultant.

Ridley-Thomas does not conceal his interest in defeating Holden, who represents an adjoining district in the central city.

“I can’t deny the fact that I feel it is very important for us to embrace credible leadership, which is conspicuously absent in the 10th District,” Ridley-Thomas said.

Feuer denied that Ridley-Thomas coordinated the council members’ endorsements of Shockley, but others familiar with the race, including Holden, have said Ridley-Thomas marshaled the support.

Walters said she would have endorsed Shockley anyway, but that Ridley-Thomas convinced her to do so now.