“I don’t think being the incumbent is as much of a winning strategy as it has been in the past,”

Entrepreneur Kevin Dalton said.

Dalton is running as an Independent in District 1 for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

[Glazed stares, and perhaps some yawns]

The problem with running as David against Board of Supervisors Goliath incumbent Hilda Solis is that no one even knows (or cares) what a Board of Supervisors position entails or the power they have over our lives. It is time that we all paid attention.

Having lived in Los Angeles County for over 30 years, and having done work on a few initiatives of the L.A. Board of Supervisors, I can tell you that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors likes it that way, and they deliberately keep themselves under the radar in order to avoid scrutiny.

Dalton had no idea who the Board of Supervisors were either, until 2020, when the pandemic happened.

“I never really thought about running for Board of Supervisors. I mean, full disclosure, two and a half years ago I would have probably been hard pressed to tell you what the Board of Supervisors even was.

“Then you know, of course, the pandemic hit and then all of a sudden our businesses were closed, kids schools were closed, beaches were closed, skate parks were filled with sand, and then all of a sudden it was like OK, STOP. What’s what’s going on here?

So what exactly is the Board of Supervisors and what do they do?

Unlike the separation of powers that characterizes the federal and state governments, the Board of Supervisors is both the legislative and the executive authority of the county. It also has quasi-judicial authorities.

To put it in simpler terms, the Board of Supervisors is the President, Congress, and The Supreme Court rolled into one. If your jaw has dropped, imagine Kevin Dalton’s reaction.

“Then I learned about the Board of Supervisors and started joining some of their their Zoom conferences, call meetings and seeing some of the unmitigated power that they have over 10 million people.

“It was… it was shocking.”

Unmitigated power over the full number of 10,170,292 residents who populate 88 cities which covers the 4,084 square miles of incorporated and unincorporated Los Angeles County.

The Board of Supervisors oversees a 28 billion dollar budget.

That’s Billion, with a “B.”

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has used those powers and that budget to hire Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Dr. Barbara Ferrer, who rakes in, with benefits, close to half a million dollars annually. As RedState has reported, she’s not that kind of doctor. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare and a Masters in Public Health.

All those school shutdowns, mask and vaccinate diktats, and business closures? You can thank the “Crypt Keeper” Dr. Ferrer, backed by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors for all of it.

Dalton decided he needed to get in the fight, and he did. Despite this, much of legacy media from the Los Angeles Times to the Los Angeles Daily News are rubber stamping the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors races instead of reporting on the two competitive District 1 and District 3 battles, and impartially covering all of the candidates involved.

From the Los Angeles Daily News:

Trying to foil Solis’ re-election are David E. Argudo, 51, a La Puente City Council member; Brian Smith of Asuza, 43, an LA. County Sheriff’s deputy; Kevin Dalton of Pomona, 45, a father, yoga instructor and entrepreneur; and Tammy Solis, 47, a businesswoman from West Covina.

Argudo and Smith are getting some coverage. The similarly-named candidate Tammy Solis doesn’t even have a campaign website. When other publications mention her, it usually says she was not available for an interview. Is Solis II pulling a Joe Biden? Or is she an invented entity to split the vote even further so that Solis I gets over 50 percent?

I put nothing past Democrats, but it remains to be seen. The Tuesday, June 7 primary will reveal the rest.

Dalton’s pitch on why District 1 voters should choose him over the others is fairly simple and straightforward:

“The first thing I tell them [voters] is I’m not a politician, so I’ve got no special interests. I’ve got no big corporations, I am beholden to two million people in my county.

“That’s it.

“That’s my job. I I have no no desire to ever run for reelection. If you get me for four years, you get me for four years; not three years, and then I go campaign for a year to try to get the job done. Again, I think that’s incredibly disingenuous.

“My job is to serve the people and then inspire them to do the same thing.

“I want someone else from District 1 to step up and go, I’m going to do that! Because the more people, the more engaged citizens we can get on boards or any elected office the better our communities are going to be.

“I’m just an average guy trying to help my community.”

Here is our 30 minute conversation. Give it a listen: