In February, the Palos Verdes Democrats is honored to host the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa is a lifelong Democrat and proven public servant with a distinguished record of leadership rooted in working-class advocacy, civil rights, and effective government. His career spans labor and civil-rights organizations—including the American Federation of Government Employees, SEIU, United Teachers Los Angeles, and the ACLU—followed by service in the California State Assembly, where he rose to become Speaker, and later as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles. In the Assembly, Villaraigosa brought together labor, environmental, and business leaders to deliver major progressive victories: passage of a $2 billion park bond—the largest in California history at the time—authoring the Healthy Families program to provide health coverage for nearly three-quarters of a million uninsured children, and leading approval of a $9 billion school bond, then the largest ever enacted.
As Mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa demonstrated that progressive values and fiscal discipline can go hand in hand—balancing the city’s budget while investing in public safety, infrastructure, and core services. He helped make Los Angeles one of the safest big cities in America while building a 21st-century transportation system, advancing meaningful education reform, expanding economic opportunity by cutting bureaucratic red tape, and positioning Los Angeles as a national leader in sustainability and green growth.
Today, Antonio Villaraigosa is a candidate for Governor of the State of California, with an expressed commitment to affordability and fighting to lower costs, expanding opportunity, strengthening public institutions, and delivering results that reflect Democratic values of equity, inclusion, and shared prosperity. His live presentation will be followed by a Q&A with PVP Democratic Club membership.
Next, the Palos Verdes Democrats is honored to host Dr. Paul D’Anieri, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on Ukraine. Dr. D’Anieri, who is in Ukraine at the time of this writing, will join us via Zoom, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Dr. D’Anieri is currently a Professor of International Relations and formerly served as Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Riverside. A Fulbright Scholar, he earned his BA in International Relations from Michigan State University and his MA and PhD from Cornell University.
Dr. D’Anieri’s research focuses on Ukrainian domestic politics and Ukraine’s relationship with Russia. In the fall of 2017, he served as a Shklar Research Fellow at Harvard University, where his work centered on Ukrainian politics. He is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles, including the acclaimed Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War.
As early as 2013, Dr. D’Anieri was among the first researchers to examine the corrupt activities of longtime Republican operative Paul Manafort in Ukraine. Manafort—who later became Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chair—was working in Ukraine for President Viktor Yanukovych, a leader aligned with and supported by Vladimir Putin. Manafort’s orchestration of Yanukovych’s reelection campaign was awash in Russian money intended to distort Ukraine’s democratic process in Putin’s favor.
As his extensive corruption was about to culminate in arrest and imprisonment, Yanukovych—assisted by Putin—fled Ukraine for Russia, abandoning his lavish presidential compound. He was later convicted in absentia by a Ukrainian court on charges of treason.
Although Manafort’s activities in Ukraine largely predated Donald Trump’s attempted extortion of Ukraine in 2019, Manafort’s history there formed the essential backdrop to Trump’s first impeachment. Following his return to the United States, Manafort was convicted on multiple felony charges, including bank fraud and tax fraud, arising from his Ukraine-related activities. He received prison sentences in both Virginia and Washington, D.C., served time in federal prison, and later had his sentences commuted by Donald Trump.
There are few, if any, scholars who combine Dr. D’Anieri’s depth of academic expertise on Ukraine with his extensive personal experience of the country and its people. He is an eyewitness to Ukraine’s courageous struggle for independence and freedom from the domination Vladimir Putin seeks to impose. At a moment when democratic norms face challenges both abroad and at home, Dr. D’Anieri is uniquely positioned to illuminate both the parallels and the distinctions between these struggles.
Prepare for eye-opening insights into what may come to be regarded as one of the most pivotal and far-reaching conflicts of the modern era.