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Harbor area city council member Joe Buscaino announced at a luncheon today — and posted on Facebook tonight — that he will not be running for the House seat that Janice Hahn is vacating next year. Hahn will be seeking the Board of Supervisors post currently held by Don Knabe, who is being termed out. I guess there was some rampant speculation about Buscaino, so he pinched it off with an announcement. From Facebook:
After careful consideration, soul searching and long discussions with Jay, my wife, and my kids, Matteo and Gia, I have decided that it is NOT worth trading everything I have spent a lifetime building here in the Harbor Area to run for Congress.
From the Daily Breeze, which covered Buscaino's speech today in San Pedro:
“It’s not worth it to me and I will not run for Congress,” Buscaino said. “My future is here in Los Angeles, not 3,000 miles away. ... You’re my family and, because of that, I’m staying put.”
A bid for higher office so early in his political career would not have been easy for Buscaino, considering well-funded — and politically well-connected — state Sen. Isadore Hall already had announced he’s running for the 44th Congressional District seat being vacated by Hahn.Buscaino, a former Los Angeles police officer, was elected to Hahn’s council seat in 2012, then won re-election to a full four-year term in 2013.
In his 20-minute talk about the status of the city’s southernmost territory, the San Pedro native said opportunities for improving local communities abound — but so do many problems in the 15th District that stretches from Watts to San Pedro.
“Our community is our home and our home needs some fixing,” he said.
Among the major issues he said was on everyone’s list: burglaries, homelessness, graffiti, trash, illegal marijuana dispensaries, and buckling streets and sidewalks.
