In Partnership with 74

After a run for UTLA chief, Mottus now trying for Congress

Vanessa Romo | March 28, 2014



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Kevin Mottus

Kevin Mottus

Fresh off a run for UTLA president, where he secured 53 votes to finish eighth among 10 candidates, Kevin Mottus is moving on: He’s now running for US Congress.

Mottus is one of 21– count ’em, 21! — lining up to take Henry Waxman’s seat in the 33rd Congressional District, which covers some of LA’s swankiest neighborhoods along the coast –  from Malibu through the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Waxman has held the seat since 1975.

Mottus’s competition includes such political heavy hitters as California state senator Ted Lieu and Wendy Greul, who has had 10 months to recover from her loss in the mayor’s race. There’s also journalist and radio co-host Matt Miller and spiritual teacher and author, Marianne Williamson. On her website announcing her bid, Williamson says, “Anyone who thinks religion doesn’t have anything to do with politics doesn’t understand religion.”

Mottus told LA School Report his platform will be based on broad environmental issues, though he will be returning to a familiar refrain:

“I’ll still be talking about the dangers of Wifi,” he said earlier this week. “People just don’t know that it’s causing cancer and people are dying. We have to get the word out.”

An attempt to get UTLA’s endorsement in the congressional race failed Wednesday night. A  motion to endorse Mottus was voted down, 91 to 17.

Mottus is not the first UTLA presidential hopeful to dabble with Congress. His colleague and former opponent, Innocent Osunwa, was a write-in candidate for California’s 32nd Congressional District in 2008. He lost to Democrat Hilda Solis, 130,042 to 8. Osunwa finished seventh in the UTLA race, with 60 votes.

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