Betsy Butler Says She Represents 'Politics of the Westside'

California State Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, D-Marina del Rey, told Patch on Tuesday that she would move from her longtime Marina del Rey home to run in another Assembly district up the coast.

Butler said that she'll be running in the 50th Assembly district that includes Santa Monica, Agoura Hills and West Hollywood.

Marina del Rey, where Butler currently resides, was lumped in the redistricting process into the 62nd Assembly district that runs along the coast from Venice to El Segundo and inland to Inglewood and Lawndale.

A bid for the 62nd district would be difficult because it has been carved out as a majority-minority district and Assemblyman Steven Bradford, D-Inglewood, already represents a large swath of it under his current 51st district. Bradford is widely considered to have a lock on the race.

"I've lived on the Westside for 23 years," Buter said, saying she represents "the politics of the Westside." She told Patch she likely will move to Santa Monica to run in the 50th district.

The newly drawn boundaries were created by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission based on new population data from the 2010 U.S. Census.

Butler won her 53rd District Assembly seat in November in a tight race against tea party candidate Nathan Mintz. She said in a statement that the 50th Assembly District provides "a real opportunity for a candidate with a progressive agenda who wants to advance California’s laws for fairness and justice, equal access to education for all, environmental and consumer protection and good jobs for working families."

Butler, who has lived in Marina del Rey for 20 years, says she already represents 1.7 percent of the constituents in the 50th Assembly District, in light of the new district's boundaries.

Butler, who is vying against liberal activist Torie Osborn and Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom for the seat, has already amassed a slew of endorsements. They include Assembly Speaker John Pérez, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel, California Democratic Party Vice Chair Alex Rooker and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. Organizations backing Butler include the Legislative LGBT Caucus and the Legislative Women’s Caucus.

Many of Butler's supporters wanted her to run in the new 66th Assembly district that follows the coast from south of El Segundo to Rancho Palos Verdes. More than 200 people signed an online petition, created by Venice activist Marta Evry, pledging campaign support for Butler if she went to the 66th district.

"I wanted to find a positive, proactive way to demonstrate to our assemblywoman that she has significant grassroots support in the South Bay," Evry told Patch last week. "The bottom line is there's no Democratic Assembly candidate right now who has the name recognition Betsy Butler does in the South Bay. If she leaves, the district will very likely be represented by [tea party candidate] Nathan Mintz."

Butler disagreed.

"I'm not concerned," she told Patch. "There are great candidates down there."

The 50th district, though, already has a strong Democratic candidate in Osborn, who has been endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and former state Sen. Sheila Kuehl.

Rosendahl refered to the match-up between Osborn and Butler as "unfortunate" at a public meeting Monday night.

Osborn told Patch she had been planning to run for the past two years and was not concerned about Butler entering the race.

"I think it would be better for the people of California if she had moved to the 66th," Osborn said.

The candidates will face off in a June 2012 primary. If no one gets a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face each other in the November general election, regardless of political party.

Patch editor Samantha Page contributed to this report.

Editors' Note: This article was updated to add comments from Assemblywoman Betsy Butler.