Del Mar, CA (special) -- Before betting on the horses at the Del Mar Racetrack, members of the American Jewish Committee's L3 young professional group received some advice on how they can jockey for positions of influence in the neighboring City of San Diego's political structure.

Louis Wolfsheimer, a member of the Del Mar Fair board and father of L3 ('Live, Learn and Lead") member Marc Wolfsheimer, recommended at a gathering on Sunday, Aug. 15, that the young professionals consider volunteering on behalf of a political candidate, promoting a ballot issue, or becoming involved in their neighborhood planning groups "It is very easy to get involved in San Diego," he said. "Volunteerism winds up with paid positions with politicians or political consultants, and things like that." As for the neighborhood planning route, "if you live in North Park, say, and you wanted to get involved, see if you can get on the North Park Planning Board because those planning boards are recognized by the city government down at city hall."

Louis Wolfsheimer

Members of the planning groups appear before the City Council on a monthly, and sometimes even weekly, basis, and "the Council tends to push them onto (other) boards and commissions," Wolfsheimer said. 

"There are lots of boards and commissions in the city and the county which need people," he added. "There are library boards, all kinds of planning boards; it just is not difficult to get involved if you want to."

Wolfsheimer, an attorney, had served at various times in his career as chairman of the San Diego City Planning Commission, a member of the San Diego Port Commission, and an alternate member of the state Coastal Commission before being appointed to the Del Mar Fair Board.

Although a Republican, Wolfsheimer said he got started in politics during the 1960s by contributing to the campaign of a Democrat running in a non partisan San Diego City Council race. Floyd Morrow, who once had been a colleague of Wolfsheimer's in the San Diego City Attorney's Office, went on to win the race. When a vacancy occurred on the City Planning Commission, Morrow asked Wolfsheimer if he would like to fill it.

"I talked with my partner (in private law practice, Jim Milch) and he said that was a good idea, so I went on the planning commission," recalled the attorney, who today, along with Milch, specializes in land use cases.

Shortly after Pete Wilson was elected as mayor of San Diego in 1971, he tapped Wolfsheimer for the planning commission's chairmanship. Wilson (who would go on to a career as a United States senator and governor of California) had been a law school classmate of Wolfsheimer's partner, Jim Milch.

"I was the chair (of the Planning Commission) from about '71 to '80, which was the great growth spurt of this community," Wolfsheimer said. "When my term expired, he (Wilson) sent me over to the Port Commission as one of San Diego's representatives on the Port and I served there for 10 years until 1989. 

"I am happy to say that the convention center...has my name on it. It's not named after me, but my name is on a plaque because I was chairman when it was dedicated."

Wolfsheimer's current assignment is "a position that a lot of the socialites in town like to have because they get a huge box (overlooking the race track), and they get to go to the fair, and so I decided I probably should do that," Wolfsheimer said.

"I was appointed six years ago as one of the nine members of the board of directors, which owns this racetrack. The board puts on the fair, the ninth largest in America, with over 1.5 million people coming to the fair every year," he said. Also the board operates the race track which he described as being "one of the two prime summer race tracks" in the world. He identified Saratoga, New York, as the other one. 

"We have the finest jockeys, largest purses, largest on-track betting, and largest on-track attendance of all the major tracks," he said. "We have double the amount of people, more than double, coming here than to Santa Anita in Los Angeles or to Hollywood Park. 

"The trainers love to come here because it is a real vacation. They can bring their families down here. They rent houses, take their kids to the beach, so it is really a wonderful place to have racing for the summer." Wolfsheimer said the Del Mar Fair Board realizes approximately $5 million each year from the 21-day fair, $4.5 million from the Del Mar horseracing season and $4.5 million from other events staged at the fairgrounds during other parts of the year. "We have tons of bar mitzvahs and weddings here," he told the group. Asked how he became involved with the American Jewish Committee, on which he serves on the regional board, Wolfsheimer said that his family in

Jodi Litvinoff  counts her track winnings

Baltimore were long-time AJC members. More importantly, he said, "my ex-wife's family -- her father was on the national board of the American Jewish Committee."

Wolfsheimer's ex-wife (and mother of Marc Wolfsheimer) is former San Diego City Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz, whose parents Irving and Cecile Salomon had been major philanthropists in San Diego.