The young guns
Jeff MILLMAN looked like he was trying to keep a low profile. The 23-year-old campaign aide to Mayor James K. Hahn was lurking quietly behind a row of television cameras as challenger Antonio Villaraigosa made yet another campaign stop at a charter school.
But one person was watching him carefully.
Nathan James, the 25-year-old spokesman for Villaraigosa, sidled up to his nemesis, eyebrows raised.
"Jeff, do you have an all-access pass today?" he asked, before quickly slipping off to another task.
Millman, his cover blown, went affably about his intelligence-gathering mission on rival turf.
It was one of many mildly sarcastic exchanges between these two adversaries who, in some ways, have more in common with each other than they do with almost anyone else in Los Angeles.
The twentysomething political operative is common to the Potomac Basin, where it's not considered bizarre to talk Social Security reform over a backyard keg. In Los Angeles -- where hipsters, screenwriters and pop-culturistas have cornered the market on cool -- the junior politico is an exotic species.
"The great thing about being involved in politics in L.A. is you get to totally fly under the radar," said Millman, who has a lot of friends from high school trying to make it in the city's entertainment industry. "But then you get to walk around with pride knowing what you do is far more important. That's just your little secret."
Behind the media events and endorsements, the school stops and church visits, the attack e-mails and snide news releases are these sleep-deprived young men who could pass for college students. They prepare talking points. They monitor the opposition. And they summon reporters to events.
Often they attend the rival campaign's events, enduring hostility as they quietly hand out hit pieces.
Kam Kuwata, a longtime strategist for Hahn who hired Millman, said that he identifies the next-generation Kam Kuwatas by posing this scenario:
"Think of the woman or man you have wanted to date for your entire life. You have a date, and it is 5:55 and you are going to pick them up." Your cellphone rings just as you approach the dream date's home. It's Kuwata.
"Cancel everything. We've got to put together a press conference."
The correct response: Sure. No problem. Right away.
