Palo Alto Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims, who drew attention for her affair with a student while she was a dean at Stanford, announced tonight (May 11) that she will not seek re-election after one term.
Lythcott-Haims said while she loves the job, due to the amount of preparation she must do for council meetings, she has little time to “do the work that pays my bills.”
Lythcott-Haims has published three books and earns much of her income from publishing and speaking tours related to her books about parenting and youth development.
“As the developers say, I just can’t make it pencil,” Lythcott-Haims said.
Lythcott-Haims said she will not be a lame duck while finishing out her term, and in fact, plans to finish strong.
FPPC ruling impacted income
In 2024, the Fair Political Practices Commission told her to reign in her income that comes from public speaking to avoid violating an anti-corruption law.
The FPPC enforces a state ban on elected officials making more than half their income from paid speaking gigs. Lythcott-Haims had 37 promotional book talks and workshops in 2022, and about 85% of them were paid, her lawyer Gary Winuk told the FPPC in April 2023.
Lythcott-Haims also received book royalties, and she was paid to write weekly for Meta and to do a book review for the Washington Post, Winuk said.
Lythcott-Haims won’t accept any income from anyone located in Palo Alto, and all of her paid activities are solely related to her published work, Winuk said.
Her business, Love Over Time LLC, is worth between $100,001 and $1 million, and paid her more than $100,000 in a year, she said in a statement of economic interests during her campaign.
Lythcott-Haims announced last June that she was working on a book about multi-generational housing.
The affair
In July, former Stanford student Olivia Swanson Haas revealed that she had an affair with Lythcott-Haims while Lythcott-Haims was a dean at Stanford in 2011 and 2012.
Haas was 22 at the time. She said her parents complained to Stanford, alleging manipulation and abuse of power. Lythcott-Haims left the university and pursued her career as a writer.
After Haas revealed the affair, Lythcott-Haims paused her paid newsletter and resigned from three council committees to counter calls for her resignation.
Didn’t seek vice mayor seat
Lythcott-Haims’ announcement comes after she decided in December not to seek the vice mayor position.
Lythcott-Haims said in her newsletter at the time that she believes “others are better suited to the task” and doesn’t want the role.
“In the normal flow of things it would seem that it’s ‘my turn’ for the latter role given that the people alongside whom I was elected have already served as vice mayor,” Lythcott-Haims wrote at the time.
Lythcott-Haims said she was making her announcement now so others in town can decide whether to step up to the plate. Filing for the position doesn’t begin until July, but some, such as Planning Commissioner Bryna Chang, have filed campaign finance forms to begin fundraising.
The Post reported last month that text messages between Lythcott-Haims and her school district friends show that the councilwoman voted against a volunteer for a city commission because of the volunteer’s views on Gaza and math.
Worst council member I can remember. Won’t miss her virtue signaling or playing the race card. Goodbye.
She should’ve been honest and admitted she’s not running because she would have suffered a humiliating loss.
Re the FPPC hearings on outside income, remember that JLH is a Harvard-educated lawyer and was well aware of the income limits when she first started fund-raising and campaigning. It was only later sued to overturn those limits.
Which means she ran under false pretenses — just as she was less than honest about why she left Stanford, just as she was less than honest about so much else — the text of the Paly students’ petition and her personal prejudices and willingness to lie about her political opponents and to act as a spoiler in the Simitian/Licardo congressional race.
“Now it’s time to say good bye to…”