The race to succeed Sheila Kuehl as the 3^rd District County Supervisor (Westside, the Valley) has taken a nasty turn with a hit piece landing in mailboxes sent from supporters of State Senator Bob Hertzberg. The mailer tries to tie his opponent, West Hollywood Councilmember Lindsey Horvath, to her Republican past as a teen, prior to her political conversion.

The piece, paid for by big realtor interests and the landlord lobby, specifically tries to sow doubts about Horvath’s pro-choice credentials. Horvath was at one time apparently opposed to abortion but is now the only candidate in the race endorsed by Planned Parenthood, a fact which clearly irks Hertzberg and his supporters. The piece also features an image of a very fired-up Horvath speaking from a podium at what appears to be a rally. The message intended is clearly, look out for this angry woman!

Horvath is fighting back. She took to the airwaves to talk with Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson and Marla Tellez, and told them, “I find those mailers absolutely disgusting.” She added, “I am 100 percent pro-choice. Not only in my voting record, but in the work that I have done. This man is attacking me just saying words based on political calculations.”

Horvath was also forthcoming about her own personal decision on abortion, saying, “I’ve had to make this decision when I found out I was pregnant, and I had to decide what I was going to do. These are not issues that should be taken lightly. These are not issues that should be weaponized against people. He knows what my record is, and he’s just hoping that by lying to people, through his special interest funding, that he’s going to confuse enough voters so he wins this seat.”

She also knows why she’s a target of the landlord lobby. “I’m a renter. I would be the only renter on the Board of Supervisors. That’s why they’re funding that.”

She also reminded the Fox 11 anchors that she is the only candidate endorsed by the Democratic Party and most local Democratic clubs. She also struck at Hertzberg on homelessness. When Ms. Tellez asked Horvath what the biggest difference is between her and Hertzberg’s plans on solving homelessness, Horvath was quick to say, “I have a plan and he doesn’t. We’ve been able to get about 80 percent of folks off the streets [in West Hollywood] and into housing, services, or both. We have a variety of street teams that go out every day of the week to meet people where they are, connect them with the services that we fund in our city or services funded by the county.” She also pointed out that the city then follows people they’ve served through the system of services, and doesn’t just abandon them once they’ve been delivered to mental health or addiction services.

We twice reached out to Bob Hertzberg’s campaign for comment on the hit piece but received no response.

To be fair, though, Horvath’s campaign supporters, through their own outside independent expenditure, did go after Hertzberg’s own penchant for supporting Republican ideals. Their mail piece, which declares “there’s an elephant in the room,” draws a caricature of Hertzberg with an elephant trunk for a nose and makes him look quite cartoonish. The piece contrasts a few of what the Horvath campaign characterizes as Hertzberg’s loyalties to oil and gas interests with Horvath’s reliably liberal endorsements.

Westside Voice has strongly endorsed Horvath, which you should read about here: https://bit.ly/3zsx9fc