At one time, Solvang resident Jordan Mo, 75,
was on the front lines of liberal politics, rubbing elbows with state and
federal politicians.
Today this former foot soldier of the Women’s
Movement works quietly in her spacious Solvang garden, plays tennis and teaches
Mommy and Me swimming classes at the YMCA, a job she cherishes. It’s a life
much different from her early days in Los Angeles.
Since 2004, she has lived in a two-story
home she shares two with Scottish terriers and Jan Hines, a former college friend
who, after becoming widowed, became Mo’s housemate.
“There is an ease to living here in the
valley that I really appreciate,” Mo says. “I am quite happy gardening and
playing with the dogs.”
Joan Davidson, who serves on the Santa
Barbara County Arts Commission, has known Mo for 15 years. She says she counts
herself as one of Mo’s many admirers.
“She’s a good friend and one of the unsung
heroes of the Women’s Movement,” Davidson says. “She has quite a life’s
history.”
Mo, of Norwegian descent (thus the
interesting last name), graduated from Whittier High School and received her
bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles —
back when it was about $100 a semester to attend.
Life in politics
In 1960, and after college, the man she was
dating was the law partner of Warren Christopher, who introduced her to a
former CIA agent, Tom Braden, an introduction that started her life in
politics.
The young Mo went to work for Braden,
helping him behind the scenes for the group Citizens for Kennedy. She was in
her late 20s and earning more in experience than actual dollars.
(One day not too long ago, she was watching “Antiques
Roadshow” on TV, and she saw that an autographed photo of Kennedy was being
assessed in the thousands of dollars. So she googled “autographed Kennedy
photograph” and discovered the one she had could bring her almost $4,000.
“I call it delayed compensation,” she says
of the photo she still has.)
After Kennedy was elected, she followed a
boyfriend, who worked for Time Life, to Washington, D.C. She was young —“footloose
and fancy free,” she says — and because of her interest in politics, she
wanted to explore her options there. It didn’t take long for her to determine
the capital city was not for her.
Women’s Movement
She returned to California, and in 1966 she
went to work for Braden a second time, this time on his campaign for the office
of lieutenant governor.
After Braden lost the election, Mo was hired
by Western Federal Savings to head up its in-house advertising agency. Not long
after, her political life caught the attention of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Southern California and she was invited to be on its board of
directors.
Then, in 1972, while still creating and
placing advertising for Western Federal, she went to a presentation given by a
woman who was trying to drum up some business from Los Angeles advertisers for
her new publication.
The woman was Gloria Steinem and the
publication was Ms. Magazine.
After the presentation, Mo introduced herself
to Steinem and offered her a place to stay the night, since Ms. Magazine didn’t
have much of a budget for expenses at that early time.
The two went on to form a long-time
association.
“She remains a valued friend to this day,”
Mo says. “She is really something.” Mo became the unofficial West Coast office
of the publication. “Those were heady days, the beginning of the women’s
movement.”
The proposition
After leaving Western Federal, Mo freelanced
for a few years until “I needed income.” A mutual friend introduced her to Alex
Pope, the assessor for Los Angeles County, and he asked her to work for him.
The year was 1978, “when Howard Jarvis and
Paul Gann were gearing up for the most volcanic change in California’s tax
system,” she says. “I was getting involved at a time that was most
extraordinary.”
Indeed, the legislature had failed to act to
control home valuations and rates, and home prices shot up. People were being
taxed out of their homes.
Then, in a move some say was the last straw for
tax reformists, Pope reassessed the tax values of homes in Palos Verdes and
released those valuations just before the election.
“That’s when it hit the fan big time,” she
says, “People got the new valuations shortly after they were made —
before the June election when Prop. 13 was on the ballot — and found
their homes’ values had gone way up. They screamed loud and clear, furious over
the tax burden they would have.”
It was the protest heard ’round the state.
Proposition 13 passed, with 65 percent of those voting approving the measure,
and even more remarkable, 70 percent of California registered voters showing up
at the polls.
No parking
Mo worked for the assessor’s office for six
years, but “what I really wanted was to live somewhere I didn’t have to pay for
parking,” she says.
So, after a brief stay in Santa Barbara for
a few years, she moved to Solvang in 2004.
Today, instead of politicians, she rubs
elbows with swimming toddlers and Scottish terriers.
And it is clearly enough.
Reach Barbara Lanz-Mateo at bmateo@syvjournal.com.