Election season has officially begun in Culver City.

On Saturday, Bubba Fish became the first candidate to announce his campaign for one of the three Culver City Council seats up for grabs in November at a gathering held at Syd Kronenthal Park. Fish has served as the Vice President of the city’s Homelessness Committee and currently works at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

With over 100 people in attendance — ranging from former elected officials to city activists and friends of Fish — several prominent members of the Culver City community spoke in support of Fish’s candidacy as the political leanings of the council majority have strictly determined the policy stance that the city takes. 

Of the three members of the council that make up the current majority on most partisan issues, councilmember Göran Eriksson concludes his second and final term this December and former mayor Albert Vera is accepting online donations for a reelection campaign with his first term’s expiration coming at year’s end.

Champions of progressive movements in Culver City like former mayor Daniel Lee, who became the first African American mayor of the city in 2021, spoke of their faith in Fish to do the right thing for the entire community.

“I may not always agree with him,” Lee said, “But I fully trust Bubba.” “His sense of justice and duty is not limited to himself.” 

“He has shown up in many situations that he did not have to as a white man.”

Several current members of the council also came to speak in support of Fish. They talked glowingly of their time working with him to organize the first Pride ride — Culver City Pride — in the summer of 2021, which has since become a yearly occurrence.

“The first person I thought of to help organize that was Bubba,” councilmember Freddy Puza said of Culver City Pride. “He is a natural organizer.” 

“Bubba will have your itemized lists, your bullets, and he’s going to be following up,” Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin said. “That’s a man we need on the dais.”

This support of issues like improved bike infrastructure and decriminalizing homelessness has drawn many of those in attendance to support Fish. Local artist Jeff Morrical told Westside Voice that Fish’s progressive focus drew him to support him.

“I like Bubba’s involvement with the equality of mobility around the community,” Morrical said. “I think his advocacy for biking and public transit is in line with what Los Angeles and Culver City needs to be looking to in the future.”

Former Los Angeles Councilmember Mike Bonin was also among those who gave remarks to the crowd in support of Fish and emphasized that financial firepower would also be needed to help get Fish elected.

This concern stems from the November 2022 Election, in which the campaign for current Councilmember Dan O’Brien received significant contributions from real estate firm Hackman Capital Partners, which owns the Culver Studios in the city. A PAC that supported both O’Brien and candidate Denise Renteria, who finished the election in fourth place, grabbed headlines when they received a six-figure donation from Culver Studios to support them.

“There are right-wing forces in Culver City and in Los Angeles…they will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars against Bubba,” Bonin said. 

“They will spend…to stop a renter advocate from being on the city council.” 

Fish, who is from Houston originally, also had his parents and sister in attendance for the announcement. The younger Fish noted that his father Tom showed great conviction in his beliefs through many debates between the two, but Tom said that he is proud of what his son has done.

“I am glad that he has been a part of a community and has built up that community,” he told Westside Voice. “If there’s something he gets passionate about, that’s it.”

His mother Shari told the Voice that she never expected him to get into politics, but that he always dives headfirst into supporting the communities that he has lived in.

“It has been a beautiful road,” she said. “He is passion driven, his heart’s in the right place, and he is doing [this] for the right reasons, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Photo by the author