The City of Redondo Beach covers 6.2 square miles of land, and Mike Gin has knocked on most every door in town. Famously, he was known for wearing holes in his shoes during his canvassing campaign for City Council in the late 1990s.
Los Angeles County’s Fourth District covers 458 square miles, from Marina Del Rey, winding through the South Bay, and stretching northeast from San Pedro to Diamond Bar.
If he tries walking to meet the Fourth District’s nearly two million residents, he’s going to need more than a few pairs of new shoes.
Gin began his political career in earnest in 1995 with election to the Redondo Beach’s District 3 City Council. That year saw a “wide-eyed, naive” Gin competing against three other candidates, all were planning for a runoff election.
On the strength of his door-to-door campaigning, Gin won outright, taking 62.5 percent of the vote.
He took the Mayor’s race eight years later, beating fellow councilman Gerard Bisignano by a similarly overwhelming margin, 61 to 39 percent. In that race, he enjoyed an endorsement from his then-boss, current Fourth District Supervisor Don Knabe. At the time, Gin was a deputy for Knabe, representing the Supervisor in San Pedro.
He has no such advantage this round; Knabe has endorsed his senior deputy, former Manhattan Beach councilman Steve Napolitano, in this race.
Gin is also facing Congresswoman Janice Hahn. The two competed against each other in a crowded field to fill the Jane Harman’s vacated 36th District Congressional seat in 2011. Gin finished fifth in the primary stage, and the election was ultimately won by Hahn. She’s giving up her seat in Congress, now California’s 44th District, to run for County Supervisor.
Hahn is running as a Democrat; Gin and Napolitano are, like Knabe, Republicans.
“No other candidate in this race, in my opinion, can bring my type of experience from my personal and professional background,” Gin said. It’s his belief that his tenure as Redondo’s mayor during the Great Recession gives him an edge that Hahn and Napolitano can’t match.
“I made sure we had a strong economic development program, and once the recession ended, we could take advantage of the rebound,” Gin said, noting that deals with Shade Redondo, the South Bay Marketplace and, ultimately, the Redondo waterfront, all took place on his watch.
Moreover, he feels he understands the situations of smaller cities and communities better than his opponents. “Smaller communities have unique characteristics, history and culture of their own; Cerritos is very different than Whittier, and each of the cities in the district is very unique,” he said. Further, Gin said that Redondo Beach “is a microcosm” of the Fourth District.
“We have a harbor waterfront, a pier, leases to deal with; there are county resources to deal with on a regular basis; Section Eight housing; a strong social service network; and a diverse community, as well,” he said. “I think these types of issues matter to voters in the Fourth District.”
Gin is the first Asian-American to run for this seat, and believes that acknowledging the diversity of his district is among the keys to success — as well as refraining from the descent into partisan politics. His membership with the G.O.P. might not help him outside of the Palos Verdes Peninsula; save for a few exceptions, much of the Fourth District leans Democrat.
But, he says, “if Redondo is any example, I think my messages and the way I’ve conducted myself has been very nonpartisan…I believe local and county politics must be free of that disease. The Supervisor’s race should be about ideas, experiences, track records and accountability.”
Gin feels he has those, in spades. What he doesn’t have, relative to his opponents, is money. Recent filings have shown Hahn winning the fundraising battle, taking $646,832 last year; Napolitano raised $228,909. Gin, in comparison, has $162,994.
“We have aggressive programs, targeting a lot of different people throughout the area…the key is strategy, and how that money is spent,” Gin said, “because I can’t walk the whole district.”
