Issue July 10, 2014 - July 16, 2014

briefs Board of Education shakes

up BHUSD school administration Page 3

briefs Government Affairs Committee

to host Allen and Fluke Page 5

Straight talk with the Congressional candidate in a

Weekly exclusive

BHPOA President Detective David Williams discusses their

new board

Who is

Elan Carr? Rank and File

guest column Jonathan

Prince on the Board Page 5

Page 6 Beverly Hills Weekly

coverstory

WHO IS ELAN CARR?

By Nancy Yeang

The Weekly sat down with 33rd

Congressional district candidate Elan Carr

and his wife Dr. Dahlia Lainer Carr.

Dahlia, you are a 1991 Beverly High

graduate. Tell us about that and being a

Madrigal Singer.

Dahlia: Beverly Hills High School is a

very special place. I came to Beverly from

an orthodox Jewish based school [also in

Beverly Hills], so it was a bit of a shock.

I graduated [from] Hillel [Hebrew

Academy] in eighth grade. In ninth grade I

started at Beverly [High]. It was very new,

I didn’t know very many students there, but

it’s a great school [and] a great community.

Beverly Hills is wonderful. It’s a small town

in the middle of a large metropolis. Beverly

High has that feeling of a small community

high school but with the resources, the won-

derful teachers and wonderful academics in

a large urban center. I loved it.

I found my niche when I was part of the

[performing arts] department; drama, choir,

[and the] Madrigals. I was very fortunate to

work with [the late] Joel Pressman and he

was a great teacher [and] a great mentor. It

was a very special place to go to high school.

Elan: It’s a special place for me as well

even though I didn’t go to school there

because a Beverly [High] classmate of

Dahlia’s introduced us. That’s how we met.

So I have loyalty to Beverly [High].

Dahlia, your mom Esther Lainer runs the

Olympic Pharmacy in Beverly Hills.

Dahlia: My mom is a pharmacist. For

many years she was the head pharmacist

at the Thrifty, which is now Rite Aid on

Canon [Drive]. In about 1987, one of her

co-pharmacists, Vida [Hakimfar], [and she]

decided that they wanted to open up a phar-

macy together and they did on the corner of

Olympic and La Peer.

Elan: They didn’t take over a different

pharmacy.

Dahlia: They did not. They started it from

scratch and they’re one of the last remain-

ing, small, community pharmacies that we

have around. She has quite a loyal following.

She’s been a fixture in that strip mall for over

30 years. It’s pretty amazing.

Elan: She’s an old school pharmacist in

the way that she treats.

Dahlia: She’s a chemist. I’m a doctor and

I will often find myself calling her [with]

certain questions about certain medications

or concoctions that she knows better than I.

She’s really an invaluable resource for not

only her patients but to other people in the

health care profession. She’s really a very

special lady.

My brother [Arik Lainer] is also a doctor.

My brother and I would say that our mother

was our doctor growing up. We saw her as

an example of a health care professional who

was very passionate about helping people.

That was absolutely who she is and what

she’s about. My brother and I both saw that

in her and wanted to really emulate her and

be like her.

Dahlia, you mentioned that you’re a

physician. Do you ever talk about health

care policy with Elan?

Dahlia: Of course.

Elan: I always say that Dahlia is my secret

weapon in this campaign. These anecdotes

we hear in the news, she sees it every day.

Patients come in and their health plans are

canceled or they say, “My primary doctor

doesn’t take insurance,” so now it’s gone to

a cash practice. [Dahlia] really lives these

issues.

How do these conversations come up?

Dahlia: Often, I’ll tell him, “Guess what?

A patient of mine came in today and they are

on one of the California Choice plans and

this is what they were complaining about and

this is the issue.”

Elan: This was before I entered the race

by the way.

Dahlia: It’s a problem we talk about a lot.

Our health care system has been problematic

for some time. It has been in need of repair

and we’ve been seeing this build up. We’ve

been discussing this for years.

Elan, how do you respond to people who

say, “Great candidate, wrong party,”

since the district is overwhelmingly

Democratic?

Elan: I think it’s a different time. I think

people today are far more inclined to look

at issues and to look at candidates. My cam-

paign is about issues and it’s about solutions.

It’s not about labels.

Now, some people invariably say, “I vote

X,” or “I vote Y,” because some people will.

But I think the majority of voters today [are

frustrated], and the frustration stems from

the hyper partisanship we see in Washington

where people are unwilling to compromise,

reach across the aisle, work with others

and move the country forward. I share that

frustration, a lot of voters do. I know Dahlia

does.

My campaign is about solutions and I say,

without any hesitation, I’m about reaching

across the aisle and working with others to

fashion real solutions to the real problems

affecting us. That’s getting a lot of traction.

We’re seeing a good number of crossover

voters.

In what ways do you feel voters are

reaching out to you without considering

party affiliation?

Elan: Every event I attend [is] not [a]

Republican [event]. Every event I attend,

whether it’s a fundraiser event or simply

a community event, is well attended by

Democrats. Not an event goes by where

Democrats don’t come up to me and say,

“You’re our guy.” Sometimes they’re institu-

tional type Democrats, not just, “Well, I hap-

pen to be a Democrat.” They’re people who

are involved in the Democratic Party. One of

the people who got me to run for this office

is a Democrat who’s a Democratic election

lawyer. I’m being endorsed by Democrats.

People are more ready than ever before to

look at the candidates and to look at solu-

tions. That’s how it should be. I don’t want

people voting for me simply because of party

affiliation. I want people to say, “I care about

solutions,” or, “I want to move the county

forward.” That’s how we should vote in

every election.

We’re very excited about the climate.

It’s unfortunate that there’s so much well

deserved frustration with Washington D.C.

You’ve said in a previous interview with

the Weekly in Issue #750 that Washington

D.C. is in a state of gridlock and

dysfunction. Tell us about what you will

do differently.

Elan: Push the issues that we care about.

It’s not a mystery. We care about the flight

of businesses and jobs in California. People

care about schools and education. The fact

that our schools, by and large, [are] not

worthy of our children, that’s unaccept-

able in this country and in this state. People

are concerned about safety about protecting

American families.

The way to make a difference is to say,

“This is what I was elected to do [and] this

is what I’m going to do,” and to reach across

the aisle and compromise and say, “Let’s put

labels, party and blame aside.”

I was interviewed by a reporter [who]

was baiting me and said, “Are you running

against the President?” I said, “I’m not run-

ning against anybody.” I’m running for a

better future. There’s plenty of blame to go

around. If we want to portion blame both

sides can do that with quite some justifica-

tion, but I’m not interested in doing that.

However, we got into the mess that we’re

in. Fine, let’s now talk about a better future,

about moving the country forward. I think

that’s what voters want, that’s what voters

deserve; moving the country forward, and

that’s what our elected leaders should be

doing.

Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) was

recently named as House Majority

Leader. Do you feel this is good for

California?

Elan: I think it is. He’s a good guy, I

know him. He’s very conscientious and I

think he’ll do a terrific job. I’m actually very

excited about it.

You mentioned that the education system

is not worthy of our children. What

would you specifically do to improve the

education system?

Elan: I’m a gang prosecutor. I prosecute

17, 18, 19-year-old kids. I get to know my

defendants, I see where they come from and

it’s heart wrenching. They come from ruined

communities [and] ruined schools.

Classrooms need to be safe, disciplined

[and] nurturing places for our children. When

class gets out, there needs to be after school

programs so that our kids don’t have to

define themselves and derive self-worth from

criminal street gangs. That’s why they go to

street gangs. Gangs offer them peer support.

Gangs offer them a feeling of importance, of

power, and of self-actualization. Everyone

wants to feel important [and] everyone wants Hannah, Dahlia Lainer, Sam, Elan, and Rachelle Carr

July 10-July 16, 2014 Page 7

to feel that they’re doing something. Shame

on us for not giving them healthy, safe vehi-

cles for doing that and they have to derive

this sustenance from criminal street gangs.

A classroom is a place of structure and

discipline. You can’t learn if a teacher is

not invested, passionate and competent. It

doesn’t create a safe learning environment.

I’m not saying all [classrooms are like that].

I’m a product of a public education. I went to

a public high school, Dahlia went to a pub-

lic high school, and we both went to public

universities. We know that public school can

work. I’m not in any way suggesting that

there aren’t wonderful examples, we’re prod-

ucts of it. But that shouldn’t be the exception.

That should be the rule. In far too many

cases, especially in the inner cities, schools

are a place of total chaos and gang activity.

I’m very proud to have the endorsement of

a very publicly involved Democrat; he was

president of Harvard Democrats. He grew up

in an El Salvadorian neighborhood [in a Los

Angeles inner-city] who had to tutor gang

members for protection. That’s crazy that we

have schools like that. [He] is an example of

a terrific kid who worked hard and ended up

getting a scholarship to Brentwood School,

then a scholarship to Harvard University and

became president of Harvard Democrats.

Now, he’s an inner-city teacher [and] came

back to L.A. to try to fix the problems that he

grew up with. I’m so proud leaders like that

are endorsing me.

Now, how would I do that? Federal appro-

priations. We appropriate a lot of money

[and] a lot of it’s wasted. We need to be

smarter in the way we appropriate money.

When the federal government appropriates

money for education there has to be targets

[for] after school programs and job training

in the schools. We all know about targets that

exist now, [such as] the common core, but

what about teachers [being] paid at a certain

level that’s indexed to the average salary in

a community? That would overnight elevate

the teaching profession to the place it should

be. How about federal appropriate conditions

that have to do with teacher accountability

and that teachers have to be evaluated and

be [held] accountable for their performance?

These are things that can be done right away

that would work immediate changes and I

think we need to do it.

[There have been] decades and decades of

too much talk and not enough action. Our

kids are desperate for the kind of classrooms

and schools that they deserve to have.

Along the lines of party splits, the

Republican Party is split between the

Tea Party wing and the Establishment

Republicans. What do you think about

that?

Elan: I think that there are always splits.

There are always differences everywhere

you look. There are plenty of differences of

opinion in the Democratic Party. There’s the

left and the centrist. I think all of us need to

be focused on solutions, not about labels. If

I believe it’s not about Democrat/Republican

labels, it shouldn’t be about Tea Party and

left and all of these labels.

It should be about what works and what

doesn’t work. The truth is there’s so much

common ground that brings us together when

you look at some [of] the disputes. Never

mind Congress, Congress is especially polar-

ized, but look at America. Look at the

polarization in our country today. We need

to come together and find common ground.

There are always differences, and that’s nor-

mal. But if we obsess about the differences

that set us apart, we’ll ignore the vast major-

ity of issues and areas where we do have

common ground. Our future as a country

depends on us focusing on common ground.

Everyone wants safe schools. Everyone

wants a good economy. Everyone wants

clean air and clean water. Rather than obsess

about distinctions and differences, we need to

come together and move the country forward

together. We’re all in the same boat.

[Dahlia is a Democrat]. We don’t just talk

the talk, we live that way, and we agree on

practically everything we [discuss].

Tell us about how the both of you met.

Dahlia: One of my friends from high

school was throwing these parties for Jewish

singles and he invited me. I went because my

high school friends were going and I wanted

to see them. It turns out that [my friend’s]

older brother is a fraternity brother of Elan’s.

Darren invited Elan, and Steve invited me,

and that is where we met.

Elan: The rest is history. It was love at first

sight for me. Dahlia barely remembers our

conversation.

Dahlia: I know, it’s so embarrassing. But I

do remember that I definitely liked him, and

as I was leaving I had spoken to other high

school people.

Elan: We knew people there, so Dahlia

knew people, I knew people. We had a great

conversation but then we were also talking to

our friends and mingling.

Dahlia: So I left, and the person I was with

said, “Oh did you get that guy’s phone num-

ber or did he get your phone number?” and I

said, “Oh no, I didn’t.” But I can’t walk back

in to this party.

[Elan] was going to Israel the next day.

There’s a tradition where you give them

money for charity to give in Israel, and it’s

supposed to protect them. Like God would

protect them because they’re on a mission

to do good. That’s why I went in there and I

said, “I’m going to give him this dollar.” But

it turns out that he had already asked for my

phone number.

Elan: She had left because her friends

had left and I said, “Oh no, I didn’t get her

number.” I went up to [Steve] and said, “Hey

Steve, that girl Dahlia I was talking to,” and

he says, “Oh yah, she’s a classmate of mine.”

And I said, “She left, I didn’t get her num-

ber,” and he says, “No problem, I’ll get you

her number.”

At that point I knew I could get her num-

ber, so I was mingling with others. and then

she was trying to figure out the same thing.

She ended up coming back and said, “Didn’t

you say you were going to Israel? Here’s a

dollar for charity.” I said, “Oh that’s so nice,

and by the way, I don’t think I ever got your

number.”

Was this when you were still serving in

the military?

Elan: I was, but I wasn’t deployed yet. We

were dating for about a year before I was

mobilized for deployment. That was difficult.

These deployments are far more difficult for

the families who stay back. We’re so busy.

[When] you’re on deployments, [there’s] a

million things to do, but [for] the families,

it’s tough.

How were you able to keep in touch?

Elan: We weren’t engaged yet [and] it

wasn’t clear yet at that point what the future

was.

Dahlia: We decided that we were going

to…

Elan: …stay together…

Dahlia: …and see what happens. Thank

goodness that worked out.

Elan: She didn’t date anyone here in West

L.A. I didn’t date anyone in Iraq. I got the

better end of the deal.

Dahlia: Thank goodness for technology.

He was able to use a phone every now and

then to call me and we were able to e-mail.

We were able to stay in contact and com-

municate.

Elan: It’s not easy to go to war, but it made

me appreciate how much easier it is today

than in previous generations. We have com-

puters [and] we have phones. I was thinking

[about] World War II [and] these kids went

away [for] three years or two years [and] a

letter takes weeks.

Dahlia: It’s funny, Elan has this tradition.

He calls everybody on their birthday. Every

day he has a few birthday calls to make. He

was able to keep [the tradition] up when he

was in Iraq and many people say, “I will

never forget the birthday call I received from

Baghdad.” He was very diligent about that.

Elan: We got engaged a few months after

I got back.

Dahlia: It was worth it.

Do you still have that dollar Dahlia gave

you?

Elan: No, I gave it away to charity at the

Western Wall.

Dahlia: In fact he e-mailed me when

he was there and said, “I just want you to

know…”

Elan: …I just gave your dollar away.

Tell us about your family.

Dahlia: We just had a baby two months

ago, [Sam]. He’s so sweet. We have two

daughters; six and a half [year old] Hannah

and three and half [year old] Rachelle.

They’re wonderful, they’re very sweet. They

have us wrapped around their little fingers.

They’re very special. Of course every parent

thinks that their kids are special, so we think

that ours are very special.

Elan: [Hannah] is at Pressman [Academy]

day school. [Rachelle] will be joining her

next year.

Dahlia, it seems like politics is new for

you.

Dahlia: Elan was eleven years old when he

became politically aware. I’ve been aware of

politics, and since marrying him, [even] more

so, but this experience has been very eye

opening about this world that I’ve never been

a part of, and eye-opening for Elan as well.

In what ways has it been interesting and

eye-opening?

Dahlia: We’ve gotten to meet a lot of very

interesting, passionate people who care so

deeply about this country, this district [and]

these cities and it’s been wonderful to see.

Elan: That’s the greatest pleasure. Meeting

wonderful people who you admire and

believe in you. It’s overwhelming.

Dahlia: It’s a wonderful experience. We’re

busy [and] we get pulled from all sides, but

he takes it all with great aplomb. He handles

that kind of pressure and stress very well.

[Elan] as a [Distric Attorney]. There’s a con-

stant juggle, especially when you’re on trial

there’s constant juggling, and he handles it

very well.

How do you balance everything with your

careers and family life?

Elan: We make it work [and] we’re very

attentive parents. We spend a lot of time

together on date nights and we’re there for

each other and for our kids. Not everyone is

like that and for us it’s very important.

Dahlia: We have an incredible support

system. Elan’s mom and stepdad live in

Westwood [and] my parents live very close

by. They are very involved and they help a

lot.

Elan: It’s great for them and it’s great for

our kids who adore their grandparents. For

kids to have grandparents in their lives, it’s

wonderful.

Dahlia: I grew up living next door to my

grandparents for a long time, and I had a very

close relationship with them. If you can have

that, it’s a wonderful gift to give to your chil-

dren. We’re very lucky to be able to do that.

Elan: Mine were very much in my life as

well. [Though] they were not next door, they

were in Israel, but very close [to me] as well.

Tell voters why you’re a better candidate

than your opponent Ted Lieu.

Elan: I have a track record of service.

Every opportunity I’ve had to stand up, help

people and keep people safe, I’ve done it. I

joined the army before 9/11 because I wanted

to serve. I volunteer[ed] to deploy to Iraq. In

Iraq I led an anti-terrorism team. I saw the

war on terrorism up close and personal. I was

shot at, I was in the presence of car bombs

and then I prosecuted terrorists in Iraq. When

it comes to keeping people safe overseas I’ve

got a great track record.

Then I came back here as a gang prosecu-

tor. I deal with the most challenging issues

that we can deal with. Those issues aren’t

just punishing criminals because it’s not just

about putting them in jail. It’s about stopping

crime before it starts and that means fixing

our schools [and] taking care of our kids. As

a gang prosecutor I know what it takes to take

care of our kids so that they don’t go to crime

in the first place. I think that makes my track

record different and very much relevant to

what we’re doing today.

Schools need to be taken care of, jobs

need to be brought back to California so that

when our kids graduate from schools [they]

will have economic opportunity and a place

to work. That’s critical. I think those are the

issues that voters want to hear and want to

talk about and those are the issues my cam-

paign is about. I think we’re going to be able

to gain a lot of traction with the voters on that

from both parties.