Sheila Kuehl to Run for Westside Board of Supervisors Seat

Former state lawmaker and Santa Monica resident Sheila Kuehl has announced her bid for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, KPCC confirmed Thursday.

"Honestly speaking, I probably made the decision several years ago" Kuehl told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

She seeks to replace Zev Yaroslavsky in the Third District, which spans from the valley to the Santa Monica Mountains to the Westside, when he leaves office in 2014. Yaroslavsky has not said if he will endorse her, the Times reported.

A Democrat, Kuehl, 71, served eight years in the Senate and six years in the Assembly starting in 1994. She was the first openly gay person elected to the California Legislature and the first woman in the state’s history to be named Speaker pro Tempore of the Assembly. She termed out in 2008.

In the 1960s, she was a child actress who had roles on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and the The Ed Sullivan Show. Now she owns her own consulting business and runs the Public Policy Institute at Santa Monica College.

Serving on the Board of Supervisors is "really the only place I can imagine using all the things that I learned in the Legislature in 14 years,” Kuehl told KPCC.

Kuehl told KPCC her priorities are the environment, health and human services and transportation.

Her website says she will begin to seek endorsements, launch a campaign website and look for donors.

Former Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver’s is also considered a possible candidate for the Third District. He opted not to run for reelection to the City Council in 2012.