The Real House Candidates of Beverly Hills
Brent Roske lives on a 45-foot yacht off the coast of Marina del Rey, which is technically on the Pacific Ocean, but for jurisdictional purposes is considered part of the city of Los Angeles and, more to the point, the 33rd Congressional District of California. In January, Henry Waxman, the liberal stalwart who has represented the district with little resistance since the year after Roske was born, announced that he would not seek re-election. Now Roske, who is 39, is part of a field of 18 candidates hoping to represent the heartland of Beverly Hills, Malibu and Bel-Air in the United States Congress. . .
Roske describes Waxman as “an honorable man,” but one whose extended status in D.C. has meant that he “no longer really represents the people.” This raises the question of what it means to represent “the people” in America’s second-wealthiest congressional district. (It trails only the 12th District of New York, which includes parts of the East Side of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.) California 33 is, after all, home to what might be the highest per capita population of political dilettantes, “creative activists,” foreign-policy hobbyists and flush Democratic donors in the nation, not to mention large numbers of people who like to tell you about their good friends Bill and Hillary. (And how they were just talking to Bill the other day, in fact, and stay tuned for who they think Hillary’s running mate will be.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/magazine/the-real-house-candidates-of-beverly-hills.html?hp
