Wasting Tax Payer Dollars

One of the traits a strong campaign team has is the ability to look at past campaigns and distill out those ideas that worked and those that didn't. The good ideas tend to get recycled over and over until they have outlived their usefulness. The bad ideas should be buried and left for dead.

One would think that people would learn from some very stupid errors that thoroughly piss off the general voting public and add those to the list to be buried. But alas, this is LA, the land of movies, and we wouldn't be living up to our reputation if we didn't continue to remake a bad idea over and over again. This weeks blunder is the use of public funds for campaign purposes. Why don't we look at the current candidates in their run for Mayor:

Richard Alarcon: Alarcon has a built in advantage of being the only candidate serving at the state level. Besides having a built in team of staff surrounding him, he can call a press conference at anytime on any state issue and have the stage all to himself. Up until now it has been difficult to get an accurate picture of state offices and their use of personal budgets, but thanks to prop 59, that should all be changing soon.

Bernard Parks: Parks again shares the advantage of having a built in staff surrounding him paid for with tax funds, but his latest blunder appears to be one straight out of Greig Smith's playbook. He's using city funds to thank donors to his campaign (Thanks to tipster for pointing out this article). Is a stamp really that expensive?

Jim Hahn: I could probably write an entire novel about the misuses of tax payer dollars that this mayor has wasted away, but his newest screw-up just occurred last week. As Patrick McGreevy pointed out in today's LA Times, he's now toting city staff with him to campaign events. Brilliant maneuver Jim. Have we not learn how stupid this is? PS. I really enjoy paying for the gas in your city vehicles while you drive all over town putting your mug in front of every camera trying to take credit for everyone else's work over the last four years. Brilliant strategy.

Bob Hertzberg: "Hugs"berg doesn't have the built in advantages of a taxpayer funded staff, but he has stolen some inside talent with many connections to City Hall. I'm sure they know how to circumvent those sticky situations when needed.

Walter Moore: I only include him to prevent the onslaught of 15 comments asking why I left him out. He doesn't have any money to waste, so I guess that keeps him clear for now.

Antonio Villaraigosa: Here's the fun one. Antonio has a built in city staff and a reputation for living in the "grey" area of campaign finance laws. While he certainly is no Mayor poopy, he certainly has a knack for saying whatever he needs to say to anybody with a camera who will listen. Just look at his most recent example of plastering his face all over TV for the failed Measure A. Maybe if he donated his money to the campaign directly and let them spend it on what was needed instead of grandstanding and creating his own committee plastering his name and image all over the city, we wouldn't have to listen to Baca and Bratton running all over the city screaming for a new initiative on the March ballot. Wait.....maybe....there's a brilliant strategy. Maybe he wanted this effort to tank so he could plaster himself all over TV again in March with funds he's not allowed to use on his Mayor's race a secind time in one election cycle. BRILLIANT! Why beat a dead horse once when you can do it twice.

While only some of these blunders and problems are new (Alarcon), You have to give Parks and Antonio credit for giving already proven bad ideas one last run for their money. I leave Hahn out of this because his strategy has been startling. He's spent four years creating his disaster. As for "Hugs"berg and Moore, we don't know enough about them yet, but I'm sure the watchful eyes will spot something over the next few months.