Larry Agran

Infobox Mayor
name = Larry Agran


imagesize =
caption =
order =
office = Mayor of Irvine, California
term_start = 1983
term_end = 1989
succeeding =
predecessor =
successor =
order2 =
office2 = Mayor of Irvine, California
term_start2 = 2001
term_end2 = 2005
succeeding2 =
predecessor2 =
successor2 =
birth_date = February 2, 1945
birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, USA
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = American
party = Democratic
alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley
Harvard University
profession = Politician, Lawyer and Legal scholar
cabinet =
committees =
religion = Jewish

Larry Agran (born 2 February 1945 in Chicago) is a former mayor of Irvine, California, Orange County's noted planned city.

Early life

Agran graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in both history and economics. He then earned a Juris Doctor (with honors) from Harvard Law School in 1969, specializing in public interest law.

Agran served as Legal Counsel to the California State Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, and taught legislation and public policy at the UCLA School of Law and the University of California, Irvine Graduate School of Management.

City government

Between 1979 and 1990 he served on the city council, including 6 years as Mayor (Irvine employs a council-manager government).

Presidential candidacy

In 1992, Agran unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for President. Agran was generally ignored by the media during his candidacy, a topic heavily covered in the 1995 documentary "Spin". The media did not report his polling numbers even as he met or exceeded the support of other candidates such as Jerry Brown. Party officials excluded him from most debates on various grounds, even having him arrested when he interrupted to ask to participate. Even when he managed to join the other candidates in a forum, his ideas went unreported.

A mayor of the largest planned city in the United States, he entered the race but he had little media coverage. Ironically, despite holding only a local office and being little known outside California in a poll on January 22, 1992 he tied with two well-known national politicians - Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and the former Governor of his home state Jerry Brown [http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/92/2/opinion.asp Lary Agran, the Press, by Joshua Meyrowitz - CJR, March/April 92 ] ] .

Some people, like ARG pollster Dick Bennett thought that, had that surprise strength in the polls been played up by news organizations the result might well have been a further rise in the polls. However, Bennett said, the press completely ignored the story, and he began to sink.

Because of lack of coverage, Agran's early success would not help his campaign, and he remained little known.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors led to the first significant mention of his campaign in "The New York Times". In a January 24 article, Richard Berke noted that, after listening to the candidates, "dozens of Mayors . . . seemed to agree on one thing: the single candidate who truly understands urban needs is Larry Agran". Some major candidates also participated. Despite the fact that Agran was awarded by his colleagues as the most experienced in the urban area themes, his performance did not meet a big response in media.

According to Carole Florman, organizer of the Global Warming Leadership Forum in Tallahassee in February (in which Agran participated), "the audience "was more enthusiastic about Larry Agran than about Bill Clinton" [ [http://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/council/bios/larry_agran.asp City of Irvine Website - Larry Agran ] ] .

Despite his success in these events, Agran performed poorly in the New Hampshire primary, but did pick up modest support in later primaries as a protest candidate with appeal to those unhappy with the other candidatesFact|date=October 2007. He received three votes at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

Agran was barred from every TV debate with some other minor candidates, such as Eugene McCarthy.

Mayor Agran and his bid was often viewed as an example of experienced candidate, which campaign was successfully stopped by the media and establishment [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8_M7VjAb-M YouTube - Broadcast Yourself ] ] .

Return to city government

In 1998, Agran re-entered public service as an Irvine City Council member. Agran was elected to serve as mayor once more on November 7, 2000, and was re-elected on November 5, 2002. The current mayor of Irvine is Beth Krom. Agran continues to serve on Irvine's City Council and exercise considerable influence over civic matters. Agran currently serves as position of Mayor Pro Tempore.

Electoral history

Race for Mayor of Irvine, 2002 [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=232396 Our Campaigns - Mayor - Irvine Race - Nov 05, 2002 ] ]
* Larry Agran (Nonpartisan) - 19,886 (53.39%)
* Mike House (Nonpartisan) - 17,358 (46.61%)

NOTE: Although Agran is a Democrat, offices in Irvine are formally nonpartisians

Race for Mayor of Irvine, 2000 [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=232397 Our Campaigns - Mayor - Irvine Race - Nov 07, 2000 ] ]
* Larry Agran (Nonpartisan) - 34,905 (100.00%) (unopposed)

1992 Democratic National Convention
* Bill Clinton - 3,372 (80.27%)
* Jerry Brown - 596 (14.19%)
* Paul Tsongas - 209 (4.98%)
* Robert P. Casey - 10 (0.24%)
* Patricia Schroeder - 8 (0.19%)
* Larry Agran - 3 (0.07%)
* Ron Daniels - 1 (0.02%)
* Al Gore - 1 (0.02%)
* Joe Simonetta 1 (0.02%)

United States presidential election, 1992 (Democratic primary) [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=55212 Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Feb 01, 1992 ] ]
* Bill Clinton - 10,482,411 (52.01%)
* Jerry Brown - 4,071,232 (20.20%)
* Paul Tsongas - 3,656,010 (18.14%)
* Unpledged - 750,873 (3.73%)
* Bob Kerrey - 318,457 (1.58%)
* Tom Harkin - 280,304 (1.39%)
* Lyndon LaRouche - 154,599 (0.77%)
* Eugene McCarthy - 108,678 (0.54%)
* Charles Woods - 88,948 (0.44%)
* Larry Agran - 58,611 (0.29%)
* Ross Perot - 54,755 (0.27%)
* Ralph Nader - 35,935 (0.18%)
* Louis Stokes - 29,983 (0.15%)
* Angus Wheeler McDonald - 9,900 (0.05%)
* J. Louis McAlpine - 7,911 (0.04%)
* George W. Benns - 7,887 (0.04%)
* Rufus T. Higginbotham - 7,705 (0.04%)
* Tom Howard Hawks - 7,434 (0.04%)
* Stephen Bruke - 5,261 (0.03%)
* Tom Laughin - 5,202 (0.03%)
* Tom Shiekman - 4,965 (0.03%)
* Jeffrey F. Marsh - 2,445 (0.01%)
* George Ballard - 2,067 (0.01%)
* Ray Rollinson - 1,206 (0.01%)
* Leonora Fulani - 402 (0.00%)
* Douglas Wilder - 240 (0.00%) Including write-in candidates.

References

External links

* [http://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/council/bios/larry_agran.asp City of Irvine biography]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/909/000166411/ NNDB profile]
* Joshua Meyrowitz (1 March, 1992), [http://archives.cjr.org/year/92/2/opinion.asp The press rejects a candidate. (coverage of presidential candidate Larry Agran)] . "Columbia Journalism Review".
* [http://illegal-art.org/video/popups/spin.html "Spin" (documentary)] by Brian Springer