Silly Season Arrives In The Race To Be LA Mayor

Jan Perry attacks Wendy Greuel for not being an in-utero Democrat,  Greuel attacks Eric Garcetti for making  $1.25 off an oil-lease that's never been used, Garcetti attacks Greuel for fudging her numbers, Gruel attacks Perry for fudging her personal finances, the lone Republican candidate Kevin James accuses both Garcetti and Greuel for being grave robbers and long-shot candidate Emanuel Pleitez is literally running around like a chicken with his head cut off.

With 5 days to go until the March 5th election, silly season has officially arrived in the race to be Los Angeles' next mayor.

Although conventional wisdom says it'll be Garcetti and Greuel in the runoff, the candidate's behavior this week indicates they think the race may be more of a tossup than is being reported. So with independent expenditures reaching into the stratosphere and voter turnout descending into the basement, candidates are clawing for any advantage they can get.

So far, independent groups and SuperPACs have poured more than $3 million into the LA mayor's race, $2.5 million of that in support of Wendy Greuel - with the lion's share coming from Working Californians, a SuperPAC formed by IBEW local 18, the union which represents over 8,000 employees for the Department of Water and Power.

What has all that money bought? TV ads. Lots and lots of TV ads. Including this one, which shows footage of Garcetti singing an off-key version of "White Christmas" while a narrator hits the councilman for staying at “five-star hotels,” having “seven city cars” and for taking “money from neighborhood streets for more personal staff.”

Watch it:




Pretty funny stuff. Garcetti may have a musical background, but a great singer, not so much. The added mic feedback is an especially nice touch.

And it would be a pretty standard attack ad - except for one thing -  the footage of Garcetti came from a 2011 charity event at the Garden Crest Rehabilitation Center in Silver Lake.

He was singing to Alzheimer's patients.

Garden Crest is (Pay It Forward Volunteer Band founder) Gary Gamponia's model nursing home. The staff cares. The schedule is varied and full. They welcome outsiders, and on this day, even L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti pays a visit to take a turn on the keyboards and sing.

Garcetti's grandparents were musicians, he says, and with his grandmother, "I just remember some of the last ways we ever connected were through music.".....
 
A few years back, Gamponia, who has mostly earned a living selling insurance, tried to create a cooperative that would help musicians out and then have them return the favor by performing at community events.

He lent equipment, negotiated deep discounts on instrument repair and drove people to gigs when their cars broke down. But the giving was one-way, he says.

Then, around Christmas 2009, he had a simpler notion: Why not just form a band to bring music to the places that could use it most?

He called the office of his councilman, Garcetti, for ideas and got the names of several nursing homes. And he enlisted a ragtag band of old friends and new acquaintances made on Craigslist.

Here's an excerpt of that performance here, put up by Garden Crest:




So welcome to silly season in the LA Mayor's race. Where anything can and will be held against a candidate to be used in the court of public opinion - even singing to elderly Alzheimer's patients at Christmas.

Endorsements For March 5th: VOTE NAKED!

That's right, you heard me, vote naked. As in fill out your absentee ballot in the comfort of your own living room and mail that sucker in before Friday, March 1st.

Don't have an absentee ballot? Can't make get it to the mail box in time? No problem! Polls are open Tuesday, March 5th from 7am-8pm.

If you don't know where your polling place is, go to http://www.lavote.net/LOCATOR/ and type in your address to find out.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, here are the Venice For Change endorsements for the March 5th Los Angeles Municipal elections!





LOS ANGELES MAYOR
Eric Garcetti or Wendy Greuel

I find it very telling that whenever a supporter of Greuel or Garcetti tries to sell me on the virtues of their chosen candidate, the first thing they say is how much they like the other candidate. There's a reason for this - either would provide far better leadership for the next eight years than Los Angeles has had for the past eight. If elected, Wendy Greuel would be the first woman mayor of Los Angeles, no small thing when you consider we may end up with NO women on the LA City Council come June. Her resume goes back decades to Tom Bradley. She's competent, knowledgeable, ambitious, a great manager, and from everyone I've talked to, works harder than just about anyone in LA City government. She has the backing of many who already serve in City Hall. Conventional wisdom says Greuel is more business friendly than Garcetti - she's arguably more conservative when it comes to issues such as tenant rights.

Greuel has been endorsed by the LA Daily News.

Of the two, Eric Garcetti is considered the "vision candidate", with ambitious plans for developing a greener, more public transportation and tech-sector-friendly economy for Los Angeles. But as president of the LA City Council, Garcetti has had deal with a harsher reality, steering our city through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Doing so meant successfully renegotiating contracts with labor unions which serve our city - a difficult task that's cost him politically (IBEW Local 18 - the union which represents 8,000 employees of the LA Department of Water and Power - is reported to have spent over $750K in support of Wendy Greuel).

After sitting on the LA City council for a dozen years, Garcetti is hardly an outsider, but without the support of LA's Political Class, he's relying on the same kind of grassroots organizing perfected by the Obama presidential campaigns to make the difference in his own campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. As an early supporter of President Obama (he signed on in 2007, and was active in Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns), Garcetti has the support of many (although not all) of Los Angeles' grassroots Obama organizers. If elected, I expect Garcetti will continue to harness the power of community organizing in governing Los Angeles.

Garcetti has been endorsed by the LA Times. and La Opinion



LOS ANGELES CITY ATTORNEY
Mike Feuer

LOS ANGELES CITY CONTROLLER
Ron Galperin

LA CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 11
Mike Bonin

LA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT - 4th District
No Endorsement

LA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 
Seat 2: Mike Eng
Seat 4: No Endorsement
Seat 6: David Vela

BALLOT MEASURE A
NO
A quick word on Measure A - while I'm normally a proponent of increasing revenue, Measure A is an ill-conceived regressive sales tax which would disproportionally burden those in the lowest income brackets. Worse, it's being proposed as candidates running for Mayor are promising to eliminate the city's gross receipts tax for businesses. So if Measure A passes, it would essentially shift a $200 million tax burden from businesses to the backs of lower and middle-income Angelenos.

This is not a smart way to close Los Angeles' budget gap. Once a new Mayor is elected, he or she will have a year to renegotiate contracts with the City's service employees as well as evaluate alternative revenue streams. Then, and only then, should the city consider coming to tax payers for additional help.


BALLOT MEASURE B
No Endorsement
 

Behind The Scenes At ABC-TV "Castle"

And now for something completely different from my "day job"........

Ever wonder what goes into all the quality entertainment you've come to expect week after week from ABC-TV's "Castle"?

Well, director Rob Bowman provides a sneak peak from tonight's episode of "Hunt"



Castle Movie Magic! from Marta Evry on Vimeo.

Mike Bonin For LA City Council - The Best Candidate To Get Us Through The Zombie Apocalypse!

A few weeks ago, at a house party for LA City Council candidate Mike Bonin, a friend asked me why I was supporting Mike over the three other candidates running to replace Bill Rosendahl.

"That's easy," I told him. "He's the best candidate to get us through the Zombie Apocalypse."

Before you think I've lost my mind, let me explain :)

I've known Mike since I first became active in local politics in 2003. Back then our relationship was cordial, if distant - sometimes we weren't always on the same side of issues.

All that changed in 2008 when we became co-regional field organizers for the Obama campaign. Together we managed hundreds of volunteers who made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to voters all over the country. It was a massive operation unlike anything either of us had experienced - it took everything we had and then some to get through it.

Then election night happened. As the rest of us celebrated Barack Obama's victory, I'll never forget the look on Mike's face when he realized Proposition 8 had passed, and with it his rights to marry.

It would have been easy for Mike to give in to despair and cynicism, but that's not what happened. What happened was this - Mike organized.

First, Mike helped create and run Camp Courage - workshops teaching activists how to talk about and organize for marriage equality. Then he took the show on the road - to Fresno and Sacramento, San Diego and Oakland, East LA and Washington DC. Activists trained in these workshops organized their own networks, taking the fight for marriage equality to states all over the country.

Then another election night happened. This time, in 2012, and for the first time, voters in four states affirmed the rights of same-sex couples to marry. In California, the state court had already overturned Proposition 8. And finally, after much pressure from activists - many of them trained at Camp Courage - Barack Obama "evolved" on marriage equality.

So yes, I'm voting for Mike Bonin because he's the most experienced and has the best positions on public transportation, the environment, development, and job creation - but mostly I'm voting for him because he's the best person to get us through the Zombie Apocalypse.

Because if you're talking about someone who won't give up and won't give in no matter the odds, who'll fight for what he knows is right, and who'll empower others to create real and lasting change, Mike Bonin is that person.

LA City Council District 11 Election Debate Schedule: Be There Or Be Square

Although you wouldn't know it if  you get your news from Los Angeles' mainstream media, there is a primary election this March 5th.

Besides choosing our next Mayor, Angelenos will also be choosing who'll represent them on the City Council. Here in CD11, that means choosing  between Mike Bonin, Odysseus Bostick, Tina Hess and Fred Sutton to represent us when Bill Rosendahl retires in June. 

So far there are three candidate debates scheduled to help give you the information you'll need to make up your minds. 




Tuesday, February 7th 7-9pm
The Brentwood News and the Westside Regional Alliance of Council's host "Meet the Candidates"
University Synagogue, 11960 Sunset Blvd,  Brentwood
Seating is limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.   
RSVP to: Suzanne@BrentwoodNewsOnline.com or call 310-476-6397. 


Thursday, February 14th 7-9pm
Celebrate Valentines Day with the candidates!
Palisades Branch Library  - 861 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades


Thursday, February 28th (time TBA)
Mar Vista Community Council (tentative)
Mar Vista Recreation Center Auditorium - 11430 Woodbine Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90066

The Creators Of "Demon Sheep" Bring Giant Mutant Foxes To The Los Angeles Mayoral Race

So the same Republican Super-PAC that brought you Demon Sheep in 2010 for the California Senate race now brings you......errrr.......Giant Mutant Foxes for the 2013 LA Mayor's race.




Funded by Better Way LA, a GOP super-pack committee which has raised nearly $500,000 on behalf of lone Republican candidate Kevin James,  and created by GOP campaign strategist Fred Davis, the ad uses a disturbingly taxidermy-like stuffed fox from Davis' taxidermy collection and unflattering imagery to attack the three Democratic candidates for Los Angeles Mayor - Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and Jan Perry - with a litany of never-changing GOP talking points (fat-cat bureaucrats, beholden to public-sector unions, out of control government, yadayadayadayada........)

The deliberately amateurish video is clearly angling for the same kind of earned media buzz Davis generated in 2010 for the equally weird "Demon Sheep" video on behalf of Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina against Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.

Several Republican strategists who have worked with Davis on past campaigns criticized the ad man for sometimes valuing the attention an ad gets over how it might help a candidate's campaign. "He goes for anything that will go viral, whether it's extreme or not, whether it helps the campaign or not," one strategist, who declined to be named talking about Davis, told Yahoo News. "He just wants eyeballs and has to have adult supervision around the clock."

What's less clear is how Davis' latest effort will help James, who's running far behind his three Democratic opponents both in fundraising and name recognition.

Most campaign strategists I've talked with believe James' best shot at being LA's next mayor rests in his ability to knock Wendy Greuel out of the primary by appealing to many of the same conservative valley voters Greuel hopes to woo between now and March 5th.

And, indeed, James has repeatedly gone after Greuel in every debate and candidate forum they've jointly attended, making increasingly outlandish and largely unsubstantiated claims against her - the latest an attempt to tie Greuel tangentially to disgraced LA County Assessor John Noguez, who remains behind bars on corruption charges.

Asking in a press release whether Noguez might have been “a pseudo-advisor to Controller Greuel on how to manage city funds”,  James offered as "proof" a single entry on Greuel's office calendar showing a meeting between Greuel and Noguez when Noguez was still just a candidate for County Assessor.

Better Way LA has pledged to raise at least $3.5 million on behalf of James. Forgive the metaphor, but that kind of dough can buy a lot of cheese in the race for Los Angeles Mayor. If the latest efforts from Fred Davis and Kevin James are any indication, both have an endless supply to give.

Leaked Internal Poll Shows Matt Szabo Leads In CD13 Race

A new internal poll leaked this morning by Matt Szabo's campaign shows the candidate leading the crowded CD13 race to replace outgoing Councilman Eric Garcetti by as much as 12 percentage points.

Goodwin Simon Strategic Research surveyed 301 likely voters for the March 5 primary race, initially giving voters only the names and official ballot titles of five of the leading candidates. Based only his name and title of Deputy Mayor, Szabo led nearest competitor, Mitch O'Ferrell, by 5 points.

According to the leaked memo, Szabo's lead widened to 12 points after researchers read voters positive paragraphs about the candidates.

We told them about Choi’s excellent record delivering quality services to millions of residents and his labor background. We told them about O’Farrell’s close ties to this district as senior advisor to Councilman Garcetti. And we told them about Szabo’s experience working with and for Mayors Riordan and Villaragosa and the City Attorney. The result: a 12 point lead over O’Farrell and a 15 point lead over Choi.

Goodwin Simon conducted their survey between January 13 and January 15, 2013, using English-speaking and Spanish-speaking interviewers and both land line and wireless numbers.

They claim a margin of error of about plus or minus 5.8%

As always, such leaked internal polls should be taken with a grain of salt (campaigns don't leak polls that aren't favorable), and with up to a third of likely voters still undecided, such an early poll isn't necessarily predictive of a final outcome. However, with a whopping 12 candidates vying for the seat, this poll does give us a snapshot time as to who the most competitive candidates will be going forward in the March 5 primary.


Full disclosure: I was hired by the Szabo campaign to take photographs for the candidate last year. CD13 is not my home district, nor have I endorsed a candidate in the race.

2012 - A Year In Photos

2012 was the I year discovered there is indeed a landmass east of England, my husband Warren formed a deep, personal relationship with Paris baguettes, we met Clint Eastwood when he was still just famous for making movies, and we witnessed the space shuttle Endeavour make its final journey through the streets of Los Angeles.

2012 was the year I saw two friends - Torie Osborn and Mike Bonin - run for public office for the first time, the band of merry organizers we call "Venice For Change" registered over 400 new voters in California, and we found out that YES WE CAN reelect an African-American for a second term as President.

2012 was the year we celebrated my cousin Cassie Greenfield’s bat-mitzvah as well as the 80th birthday of Warren’s mother, Elinor Bowman, and we both tried not to feel too old when our nephew Trey Griffing turned 18.

2012 was also the year Warren played his ukulele in front of the Louvre in Paris (and on the canals in Amsterdam and on the beach in Stavanger, Norway), Marta played a zombie in Castle, and both of us played ourselves at a “Castle-Con” put on by enthusiastic fans.

But most of all, 2012 was the year for gratitude. Gratitude for our friends, our family, our great jobs, and our health.

This is my photo diary of 2012.  Sometimes personal, sometimes political, sometimes just because, this is how I saw the world last year............

Click on the "read more" link below to see the photos.

God Forbid We Talk About Gun Control

Young children wait outside Sandy Hook Elementary School after a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin

As I write this, AP is reporting 27 people were killed - 18 of them children - by one or more heavily armed gunmen who entered their Newtown, Connecticut Elementary school and began firing at students and school facilty.

But God forbid we talk about gun control.

If these reports hold, twice as many will have died today than in Columbine 13 years ago. In the interim, Americans now own over 300 million guns - one for nearly every man, woman, child and baby in this country.

But God forbid we talk about gun control. 

Eight states now allow firearms in bars. In Missouri it's even legal to carry a gun while intoxicated, and fire it, if acting in "self-defense." Kansas lets you carry concealed weapons in grade schools, and Louisiana allows them in houses of worship. Virginia repealed a law requiring handgun vendors to submit sales records and ordered the records they already had destroyed.

But God forbid we talk about gun control.

What's it going to take folks? What's it going to take to make our cowardly politicians stand up to the NRA and to gun manufacturers who profit off the death of young children?

If a classroom full of dead kids won't shock our country into action, I don't know what will. Or does a gunman have to shove a semi-automatic pistol up the uterus of a pregnant woman and pull the trigger before that happens?

The President responds.

Protesters Deliver Over 21K Signatures Demanding Villaraigosa Resign From Fix the Debt

In a sign that progressive push-back against Los Angeles Mayor Villariagosa's membership in the right-wing "Fix The Debt" lobbying group isn't abating, activists from MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee delivered over 21,000 signatures to LA City Hall this afternoon demanding Villariagosa resign from the group's steering committee.

"They call themselves bipartisan because they're able to buy members of both parties," said Richard Eskow, a blogger for the Campaign for America's Future.

"The primary agenda for these folks is to lower taxes for millionaires, billionaires and corporations," he said.

In a scathing Huffington Post article about the Campaign To Fix the Debt's agenda, Eskow was even more blunt, "Let's be clear: This crowd doesn't really care about deficits. It never has. It's an anti-tax group which pursues its goals by fighting to downsize government programs and "reform" the Internal Revenue code.  Its natural allies are the Republican Party, the nation's mega-corporations, and billionaires."

Angela Garcia Combs with petitions

Besides MoveOn.org and the PCCC, the Calfornia-based Courage Campaign has also called on Villaraigosa to resign from the group.

"The so-called 'Campaign to Fix the Debt' is nothing more than a front group to protect tax cuts for the wealthy while balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and elderly," said founder Rick Jacobs.  "The fact that Mayor Villaragosa, or any other Democrat that claims to want to protect Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, would join this effort is nothing short of shameful....Mayor Villaragosa should resign immediately."

Last week, Villaraigosa defended his decision to join fix the debt. "I am a Democrat and a progressive, but you know what? The country is evenly divided.  They won too," Villaraigosa told CNN, referring to Republican lawmakers.

Angela Garcia Combs, a native Angeleno and former volunteer for the Mayor who started the petition, said she decided to deliver the signatures today after staff from Villaraigosa's office told her it would take at least three months to schedule an appointment.

She promised today's action wouldn't be the end of it. "Any Politician that calls themselves a Democrat, Progressive, Centrist, Bipartisan, we are putting you on notice too. We are coming after you if you join this group," said Combs.

"Joining the Steering committee of Fix the Debt is like saying I'm joining the steering committee of the Titanic to help all those poor people in the water."

On Facebook, Villaraigosa again defended his membership in Fix the Debt, attempting to clarify his position on so-called 'entitlement reform'.

"Let me be very clear: I oppose the privatization of Social Security. I oppose turning Medicare into voucher care," said Villaraigosa. "I oppose dismantling Medicaid. I support letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the top 2%."

However, a spokesman for the Mayor's office told KPCC Villaraigosa was open to raising the retirement age for Social Security and other federal benefits.



More photos from today's action below the fold.

Courage Campaign Calls On Villaraigosa To Resign From Fix The Debt

As the petition calling on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to resign from Fix the Debt approaches 13,000 signatures, progressive organizations in California are starting to weigh in.

Most notably, the 750,000-member California Courage Campaign announced this afternoon they would be joining in the effort to pressure Villaraigosa to distance himself from the right-wing lobbying group.

"The so-called 'Campaign to Fix the Debt' is nothing more than a front group to protect tax cuts for the wealthy while balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and elderly," said founder Rick Jacobs in a press release this afternoon.  "The fact that Mayor Villaragosa, or any other Democrat that claims to want to protect Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, would join this effort is nothing short of shameful. Villaragosa should spend his time focusing on the needs of Los Angeles not working as a front man for corporate CEOs looking to protect their tax cuts. Mayor Villaragosa should resign immediately."

Despite intense media scrutiny, Villaraigosa seemed unfazed by the efforts.

"I am a Democrat and a progressive, but you know what? The country is evenly divided.  They won too," Villaraigosa told CNN, referring to Republican lawmakers

Watch the video.

CA Teetering On the Edge of The Fiscal Cliff: Garamendi and Villaraigosa Offer Starkly Different Visions

When it comes to the co-called Fiscal Cliff, the approach of two California Progressive Politicians couldn't be more different.

While Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa continues to defend his association with the right-wing lobbying group Campaign To Fix the Debt, CA Congressman John Garamendi had a far stronger message for our most vulnerable Californians.

"I'm not willing to solve the fiscal cliff by throwing seniors over the cliff."

In an op-ed published at Calitics, Garamendi strongly defended the social safety net and made no bones about how it's Republicans who want to use the current budget negotiations in DC to shred it.

I want to vote for a comprehensive bipartisan plan to address the fiscal cliff. I'm willing to take a tough vote. I'm willing to make sacrifices. I'm willing to feel the heat. But I'm not willing to solve the fiscal cliff by throwing seniors over the cliff. I draw the line at cutting benefits in Medicare and Social Security.

This week, House Republicans unveiled their fiscal cliff counter-proposal. While they continue to call for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, they propose offsetting this cost by gutting Medicare benefits, including raising the age of Medicare eligibility to 67. I won't go there. As California's Insurance Commissioner for eight years, I know this would be horrible policy, throwing millions of seniors into the rapacious hands of an insurance industry interested only in profits for its shareholders.

Medicare is a promise we made to seniors more than four decades ago. When President Johnson signed Medicare into law, one in three seniors lived in poverty. Half of seniors had no health coverage at all. Today, less than one in ten seniors live in poverty and almost all have guaranteed access to affordable coverage. With medical expenses as high as they are, that's a remarkable improvement, and we have Medicare and Social Security principally to thank for it.

Contrast this with Villaraigosa, who told CNN "I am a Democrat and a progressive, but you know what? The country is evenly divided. They won too," Villaraigosa said. "We've got to work together."

The petition to demand Villaraigosa step down from the Campaign to Fix The Debt is up to 11, 545 signatures as of noon today. If you haven't already signed it, go to this link.