Ed J. Davenport and Harriett Davenport

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1945–59

Ed Davenport was elected in 1945 to fill the Los Angeles City Council District 12 seat vacated by John W. Baumgartner, who retired. At that time, the district included Bunker Hill and northwest downtown, with the east and north boundaries at Glendale Boulevard and at Sunset Boulevard. He was reelected in every succeeding primary vote thereafter, up to and including 1959. He died six days before he was to start his last term.

In a unanimous vote by the City Council, Harriett Davenport was appointed to the 6th District seat on September 1, 1953, two months after her husband's death, the term to last until June 30, 1955. There were two other leading contenders for the council vacancy, Ransom M. Callicott, restaurant executive, and Geraldine Hadsell, minute clerk for the State Assembly, but Mrs. Davenport gained a majority of City Council votes in a closed caucus, and the vote was made unanimous later the same day.[3] It was the first of two times that a wife succeeded her husband to a councilmanic seat, the second occurring in 1975, when Peggy Stevenson took over from Robert Stevenson after his death. Harriett Davenport was the third female council member, after Estelle Lawton Lindsey (elected 1915)[7] and Rosalind Wiener Wyman (elected May 1953).[3]

In 1954 she announced she would not run for election the next year because of the ill health of her sister.[8] She was later appointed by Mayor Norris Poulson to the city's Fire and Police Pension Commission.[9]

Ed Davenport was known as a "stormy petrel" of Los Angeles politics and was called "one of the most colorful figures in city legislative history and an active participant in every controversial issue brought before the Council." He was said to have introduced more resolutions, often controversial, than any other council member. He "took a prominent part in enactment of the city employees' loyalty oath program."[2] One of his resolutions would have required "all members of the Communist Party living here" to register with the chief of police.[10] He was "an ardent foe of public housing and of Communism in any form and was an equally ardent champion of a foreign trade zone for the Los Angeles Harbor."[11]

Other positions taken:

1945, Bowron. He refused to attend a meeting called by Mayor Fletcher Bowron with other City Council members because he believed that the press, as well as members of a taxpayers' group, should have been invited. He and the mayor quarreled in public for some ten minutes about the issue.[12]

1945–46, interracial. Davenport originally supported a proposal to establish an interracial committee devoted to the interests of minority groups but finally voted with an 8-6 majority to kill the ordinance, without prejudice.[13] The next year, though, he introduced an ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to "write, print or publish, or in any other way aid in the dissemination of any material 'which exposes any religious or racial group to ridicule, contempt or hatred, or which tends to disturb the public peace or endanger life or property.' " It was sent to a committee for study.[14]

1947, Communism. He introduced a resolution stating that "the Communist press has announced that Los Angeles is a key city for concentration of the Communist party and this is borne out by the candidacy of LaRue McCormick, a Communist Party member running as a Communist against Eleanor B. Allen, member of the Board of Education."[15]

1947, oil. Another resolution called for an end to gasoline and oil shipments from Los Angeles Harbor to the Soviet Union "to stop this Russian drain of American resources so vital to our national defense and domestic economy."[16]

1949, landmark. A resolution by Davenport was instrumental in halting the proposed destruction of the historic Lugo Adobe on the Los Angeles Plaza, as planned by the city Board of Public Works.[17] It was later destroyed anyway.

1953, employment. He opposed the establishment of a Fair Employment Practices Commission, which, he said, "does nothing except give an extra tool to the Communists."[18]

1953, campaign literature. One of his last resolutions, which was adopted by the City Council, asked the city attorney to research the law on outlawing "election campaign smear sheets."[19]

1953, policies. Asked by a reporter after her election what her stand on policies would be, she replied, "I stand where my husband stood, and I will check his voting record as a guide."[3]

1955, salaries. She urged passage of a charter amendment raising council pay, stating that the then-current salary of $600 a month was "nowhere near adequate, equitable or reasonable" and that "The pressure on the councilman never ends. His days consist of tensions, stormy sessions and forced decisions."[20]