02/26/2026
MY IDEAL CANDIDATE
My wife wrote the following letter and sent it to various candidates running for Governor of California, Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. I hope it is NOT too late. If you have any influence with anyone in California Politics and the Entertainment Industry Power Brokers, please share...
A Politically Winnable Plan to Restore LA’s Film/TV Economy — and the Small Businesses Behind It
Dear Candidate,
I am writing on behalf of myself and my husband, owner of a small business and founders of an educational nonprofit organization. Our work depends entirely on the entertainment ecosystem—writers, producers, working talent, and the thousands of businesses that support them. After almost 50 years, our business is now at risk, and our nonprofit is basically a labor of love. This is not unique to us. It’s happening across our local community, and many of our clients - high-income professionals who help keep the Los Angeles economy moving—have not worked consistently in years. This is a California and LA economic emergency!
Without a thriving Los Angeles, California’s standing as the fourth-largest economy in the world weakens. With strategic leadership, LA can lead again. LA’s crisis is bigger than production — it is an interconnected economic shock. Entire communities and income tiers have been disrupted at the same time — first by COVID, then by the Streaming Channels and AI, the Monopolization of the Studios, Networks Apps, etc., and most recently by devastating fires. The entertainment slowdown compounds that damage.
California sits on an economic fault line as well as a geological one. Strengthening Los Angeles’ production economy would reinforce the state’s foundation at a moment of vulnerability.
Los Angeles needs more than rebuilding. It needs revitalization. Just five miles north of my home there is usable infrastructure that feels worlds away from Hollywood — yet productions leave California for Texas, Georgia, Canada, and overseas due to tax structures, insurance costs, and regulatory hurdles. Meanwhile, strict per diem and radius rules increase local costs even when talent and producers would strongly prefer to remain near their homes and families.
The reality is this: creative professionals do not want to relocate. They want to work here. The workforce, talent pool, and infrastructure already exist. What is missing is coordinated state and local policy that makes staying competitive again.
Los Angeles County has approximately 6.7 million eligible voters. Many of us feel economically stranded. A comprehensive film and television revitalization strategy — expanded and restructured tax credits, streamlined permitting, insurance backstops, and targeted infrastructure development — would not only protect middle-class union jobs but could become a defining economic platform.
A proven U.S. model that worked quickly:
In the early 2000s, New York City experienced severe production flight. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, coordinated state and city action — expanded refundable tax credits, streamlined permitting, and investment in production infrastructure — helped reverse the trend within just a few years. I lived there during that period and witnessed the contraction after 9/11, followed by a rapid resurgence in television production. It was treated as an emergency economic strategy protecting middle-class jobs and the small businesses connected to them. NYC was handicapped because it lacked infrastructure. We already have that.
Los Angeles can do the same — quickly — if state and city leadership align.
There is a rare opportunity here to lead beyond traditional partisan framing. Los Angeles is not asking for grievance politics — it is asking for economic stability and a path forward. A bold, clearly articulated production competitiveness plan would unite union labor, small business owners, working families, and creative professionals across party lines. It would signal governing competence, not just campaign messaging. The candidate who champions this issue publicly and early will not simply win — they will win with a mandate.
