Endorsement: Send Mike Levin back to Congress


Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) was first elected to Congress in 2018 as a part of the blue wave that flipped management of the U.S. Home to Democrats. He changed Republican Darrell Issa, who determined to not search reelection after the politics of the district, which incorporates elements of Orange and San Diego counties, shifted left. (Two years later, Issa returned to Congress by successful in a neighboring district that also had a conservative majority.)

Levin, an environmental legal professional and Southern California native, is in search of a 3rd time period representing the forty ninth District, which stretches from Laguna Nigel to Del Mar. And it’s in the most effective curiosity of the voters on this coastal district to ship him again to Congress.

Levin has proved to be an efficient champion and protector of the pure sources that make this district one of the fascinating locations to reside within the nation, if not the world. As a member of the Progressive Democratic Caucus, he’s among the many vanguard pushing for extra strong federal motion to fight local weather change, however he has nonetheless discovered alternatives to work on laws with Republican colleagues on veterans points and coastal habitat, amongst different issues. He’s led the hassle to ban offshore drilling and to scrub up air pollution within the Tijuana River Valley that has dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of sewage into the ocean. Levin additionally helps defending abortion entry.

His challenger within the Nov. 8 election is Republican Brian Maryott, a monetary planner who served on the San Juan Capistrano Metropolis Council from 2016 to 2020. That is his third time difficult Levin for the congressional seat. Maryott declined an interview with the Los Angeles Occasions’ editorial board, so we have been unable to ask him immediately about his place on necessary points equivalent to reproductive rights and whether or not he believes Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president. From his public statements, it’s clear he needs to curtail federal spending and doesn’t assist reproductive rights, having celebrated in a tweet when the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe vs. Wade in June.

The 2 even have totally different views a few very native downside: the nuclear waste sitting on the sting of the Pacific Ocean on the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Producing Station. Levin has led an effort to restart the method of relocating nuclear waste by advocating for interim storage options. Maryott favors “deep mountain” storage, which refers back to the Yucca Mountain waste repository within the jap Nevada wilderness that the federal government has spent billions of {dollars} on however by no means accomplished due to native opposition. Each choices should be pursued, however Levin is true that the highest precedence now could be to maneuver the waste away from lively fault traces and hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Voters within the forty ninth District have a professional and efficient consultant in Levin. They need to reelect him.