Attorney Mike Newhouse is running for a seat on the California State Senate to represent District 24, which encompasses Beverly Hills, Agoura Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes and more. The seat is currently held by Sen. Ben Allen, who will term out this year.
Newhouse has served in various elected positions, including on the Los Angeles Planning Commission and, previously, as President of the Venice Neighborhood Council.
Newhouse is endorsed by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, Speaker Pro Tempore of the California State Assembly Josh Lowenthal, Inglewood City Council Member Alex Padilla, the Gardena Police Officers Association, the Redondo Beach Police Officers’ Association, the LA Airport Peace Officers Association, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 47, the California Fraternal Order of Police, the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association and more.
The Courier spoke with Newhouse in an exclusive interview about issues facing Beverly Hills and SD 24.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BHC: You are a long-time Venice resident. What’s your connection to Beverly Hills?
Newhouse: I grew up just east out in the Diamond Bar, Walnut area, and I’ve been in Venice for 30 years. But my law office — I’m a small, eight-attorney law firm — was in Century City, right on the border with Beverly Hills for close to 20 years. I spent a lot of time in Beverly Hills; I represent a lot of clients in Beverly Hills.
BHC: What is your opinion on large-scale development, such as One Beverly Hills, and what is Sacramento’s role in its governance?
Newhouse: Sacramento’s role in facilitating is, I think, based upon a carrot approach—if you develop a certain kind of development, you will get these benefits. Offering incentives like additional funds, additional infrastructure funds, the state subsidizing additional work on roads, can make development attractive to a city and attractive to voters.
Local control isn’t just the ability to approve or to deny a project. Local control means the state actually working with the locality on what the solution is that everybody can live with.
BHC: Some residents and businesses in the Southeast neighborhood of the city have safety concerns about the new Metro station opening at La Cienega. Is there a role for the state there?
Newhouse: People are rightfully concerned about transportation safety, especially Metro, because of how poorly it’s been managed in the past. I think most people acknowledge that when you have people who are mentally ill in an obvious way and they’re on public transportation, most people feel uncomfortable using it.
So, the answer is that again, it’s not a top-down approach from Sacramento. But a big part of it is having a Senator who is willing to say to constituents, we want you to use Metro. We want you to be comfortable about it, and that’s why we’re going to have turnstiles. That’s why it’s not going to be a free-for-all. We have to make it really clear that it’s okay that you don’t feel safe based on what has happened in the past, and say, we hear you, we’re working on that.
BHC: BHPD has the Real Time Watch Center and is looking at other high-tech upgrades, including AI. What is your opinion about the use of those products in law enforcement, and what kind of oversight, if any, is necessary?
Newhouse: AI is potentially extremely detrimental in a lot of ways. I have a lot of reservations. I’m a professor of intellectual property at the USC law school teaching AI issues. Obviously, we want to make sure AI doesn’t take away jobs unnecessarily or unnecessarily quickly.
But what I am a big fan of AI for is safety. So, I really like that the BHPD has been really on the cutting edge of that in terms of appropriate placement of cameras and appropriate drone use. But of course, this has to be balanced. People’s privacy rights have to be always at the forefront.
I do think it’s a really important part of the future of policing. We just have to make sure that we’re constantly monitoring it and making sure that it’s that it’s not being abused.
BHC: What would you do as State Senator to address rising insurance costs—or denial of insurance altogether—for homeowners in high fire severity zones?
Newhouse: We have to get the insurance companies and fire experts in the same room to figure out exactly what level of practical fire prevention we can require on homes, and then once that is done, require coverage to be offered at reasonable rates.
In short, what is a reasonable and practical level of fire prevention to trigger an obligation to offer reasonable priced policies.
BHC: AB715 has been facing some backlash. Where do you stand on that legislation?
Newhouse: I am a big supporter. I’m a proud supporter of Democrats for Israel. I’m Catholic. My wife is Jewish. My sons are Jewish, and so we’re sort of an interesting example of the families out there. We’ve got to make sure that we as a state have absolute freedom to teach and talk and to discuss all the issues that are out there, even if they’re uncomfortable, even if opinions are unpopular. It’s one thing to say that you take issue with the way a certain foreign government or foreign leader is doing business, or way something’s being taught in schools. We can have that discussion.
But when you see dangerous trends happening, I do think it’s the responsible thing to step in and put up more reasonable parameters for that. And I was proud to support it.
