John Duran is styling himself as a law-and-order candidate for West Hollywood City Council, posing in front of sheriff’s cruisers on his campaign website and touting his endorsement by the deputies’ union.
It’s a stark contrast from the Duran of the early 1990s when as a 30-something activist attorney, he helped sue the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department for alleged discrimination against a gay deputy and for withholding medication from a gay jail inmate with AIDS.
Duran, 63, spent two decades on the West Hollywood City Council and is now considered part of the political old guard of this famously liberal, famously gay city, as many younger residents embrace a brand of progressivism far to the left of its founding fathers.
Duran and two other former councilmen are hoping to recapture their seats and influence a council they say has veered too far to the left because of its economic policies and decision to scale back sheriff’s staffing. In 2020, the balance of power shifted in the City Council. John Heilman, who had been on the council since the city’s founding, lost their at-large seats to two younger, more liberal candidates. Twelve people are competing for the three at-large seats held by Mayor Lauren Meister, Lindsey Horvath, and John D’Amico.
Ben Savage, the actor best known for his role in “Boy Meets World,” is another political newcomer aiming to join the council. #theusaview
