Hertzberg to Butcher - You're out of Here!
Tonight's debate should be a lot of fun.
Here is the letter Huggy sent to Hahn today:
February 28, 2005
Mayor Jim Hahn5518 Wilshire Blvd.
Mayor Hahn:
Los Angeles, CA
90036
Since taking office almost four years ago, your administration has continually been hampered by allegations of corruption. Staff and supporters have been accused of everything from awarding contracts to campaign contributors to allegations of money laundering and misappropriation of public funds. Several members of your staff have been forced to resign over these allegations. There are several ongoing federal and local investigations into the conduct of your administration.
Your initial response to these scandals was to say: I don't know what the argument for it (banning fundraising by city commissioners) is. (LA Times, February 21, 2004) You finally heard the persistent outcry from the people of Los Angeles and last year you proposed a small number of reforms to attempt to address these issues. Since introducing those reforms, you have consistently pointed to the City Council for their lack of action. However, while you possess the authority to take several steps to restore the voters confidence in local government, you have yet to take action on items directly within your control.
You have appointed, reappointed and oversee a number of city commissioners who, in their other duties, oversee or raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that are being spent to benefit your re-election. As of today, you have nearly $400,000 worth of mail, radio and other election help directly tied to these commissioners.
At a time, when your administration is under such strong suspicion of wrongdoing, and when the people of Los Angeles lack confidence in their citys elected and appointed leadership, it makes no sense to keep these people onboard as officials in your administration.
You should immediately remove the following commissioners from their duties or ask them resign. It is absolutely inappropriate for them to act as both representatives of the public trust at the same time they are working actively to help you further your personal political goals.
The commissioners are:
Commissioner Julie Butcher
Commissioner Miguel Contreras
Commissioner Tyrone Freeman
Commissioner Sergio Rascon
Commissioner Sid StolperCommissioner Butcher is the head of SEIU Local 347 and is spending more than $14,000 to help your campaign. Commissioner Contreras is spending nearly $125,000 to help you as the head of the LA County Federation of Labor. Commissioner Freeman is in control of nearly $40,000 as the head of SEUI Local 434B. Commissioner Rascon and his Laborers Local 300 organization are spending more than $45,000 on your behalf. Commissioner Stolper is spending $50,000 to get you re-elected. In addition, current commissioners have given $205,372.42 to help your election and legal defense.
In addition to these commissioners, the brother of your own Chief of Staff is in control of nearly $125,000 that is being spent to get you back into office.
A mayor who was serious about restoring the publics confidence in City Hall would immediately remove each of these individuals from office. However, after observing this Administration in action over the past four years, I have tempered my expectations.
Demand the resignations of at the least one of these commissioners, to show the people of Los Angeles that you will not tolerate the abuse of political power on the city payroll.
If I were the mayor of Los Angeles, I would immediately fire all of these campaign aides from their responsibilities in city government. All Im asking you to do is fire a single one of them. If a housecleaning is too much to ask for, even a little dusting might help as a first step toward cleaning up City Hall.
Show the people of Los Angeles that government positions are not the reward for partisan political activity. Show the door to at least one of these campaign aides masquerading as commissioners.
On the first day I take office as Mayor, I will issue a directive to current city commissioners not to engage in city politics through donations, fundraising or participating in independent expenditures for or against candidates running for elected city office. Such participation will result in immediate dismissal. Candidates for commissioner assignments in the Hertzberg Administration will sign a pledge to this effect before their appointment.
The people of Los Angeles deserve a city government that they can be proud of. Take at least these small steps to restore their confidence in their citys leaders.
Sincerely,
Bob Hertzberg
Labels: SEIU
Posted by Anonymous @ 2/28/2005 04:21:00 PM
34 Comments:
FROM MEAT:
I think Bob is right on for calling for those resignations.
Especially since the pipe trades are about to dump 250k in the mail bashing him. And Carrick has dumped the OR file to (linda) breakstone for her bash bob exclusive on wednesday.
Bob is gearing up for one of the toughest political fights of his life in the next 8 days.
This city is about to be reminded why Hahn has to go --- and unfortunately for this city he's bringing out the guns on Bob.
This only strengthens Antonio's hand, which is why Hahn was hellbent on passing the sales tax legislation so he can campaign on that and not have to defend his negative campaign on Bob and his gotti-like administration during the entire exhaustive general election.
Wearing lil jimmy down, inch by inch, day by day, he's going to wish he never heard of being mayor, when MEAT and company are through with him.
can i get an amen!
hitting where it hurts
Breakstone, now there's a reporter with an insatiable appetite for the cheap personal attack. You don't think Carrick could have turned over Bob's divorce proceeding to her do you? Nah, even the Hahnsters would stoop that low...
amen and an alleluia!
AMEN!!!
Preach the good word brother MEAT -- We here at the UCLA poli-sci dept find you to be the most entertaining.
FROM MEAT:
The answer is "yes" breakstone will deliver a Gotti special to bob on wednesday -- all divorce all the time.
blog away.
Hallujuah -- i will follow MEAT all the way to the promise land. The land of Antonio becoming my next mayor.
CD 14 resident -- jose reyes.
whoa there -- not to let the UCLA poli sci dept out scoop us -- but whoever you are MEAT please call the communication staff over at USC -- we'd love to have you be a guess speaker.
I will not let UCLA be the school that gives MEAT his due. A lesson on breaking news on the blogs has been MEAT's expertise and we all have students here that would love to meet you.
oh and Amen.
MEAT you are preaching to the choir -- preach and please sing a tune for all of us --
CD4 GIRL
To the Hahn people who think Bob is out of line here - IF you think it was right for Hahn to fire Cynthia Ruiz because she was supporting Antonio, then you right ahead supporting your corrupt Mayor.
If anyone out there didn't think this campaign would get ugly you're in the wrong city. Bob deserves everything Hahn will throw his way and Antonio. They have been bashing him for months. And to think both of them have their own crap. Bob for being a consultant to Fleishman Hillard, taking money from Casinos and BFI. Antonio for taking money from ENRON, his CD14 Neighborhood Councils while sitting on thousands, and taking campaign money from Fleishman Hillard. Oh and Bitter Bernie just in today's LAT has been taking money from the LA Marathon for his campaign. So all these losers have the nerve to say anything about Hahn. I say Hahn will prevail. As for MEAT HEAD he never answered the question why Antonio doesn't list his 80 neighborhood watches and now its down to a dozen. Big surprise coming for ADV in next couple of days
MEAT you are so full of shit. First you say you're not on Attention Deficit Villaraigosa's payroll. But you sure make it sound like you're working for his crew.....when MEAT and company are through with him...THAT sounds like a threat to me MEAT. You've been this excited before and then had to be gently let down. The other mayoral candidates'guys know who you are and say you have no life and you live for constant communications with others on this site. You're basically a loner.
Even if Huggy, Antonio or Bitter Bernie did do all those things - none of them are illegal.
Can the Mayor say the same thing - that he has done nothing illegal?
I would like to see any of you Hahnistas prove so.
It must be a sad thing to be an old, white, liberal lady like Julie Butcher. Can you say "Dinosaur?"
Get on the bus, Julie.
Poll out!
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll1mar01,0,5644086.story?coll=la-home-headlines
From MEATEATER:
Interesting poll. So I think that this is good news for all candidates, but places Villaraigosa and Hahn in the runoff. Hahn is consolidating westside support, but going nowhere in Af-Am community. Hertzberg isn't going much outside his base, and he doesn't have the money to match the last week's onslaught.
Villaraigosa is not as strong as one would have expected and both he and Hertzberg have plenty of down to go. With the most money, Hahn looks better than last week, Villaraigosa looks strong, and Matt Szabo's already spinning how close Hertzberg must be.
Very bad news for Parks, who bragged about $1 million that he suddenly has, but his ads will be lost, unless they are negative against Hahn.
Hahn and Villaraigosa would be smart to hit Hertzberg. Hertzberg would be smart to hit Villaraigosa (he can't hit Hahn any more than he has been hit) and concentrate on Westside voters (though not sure where he picks up more of those--maybe some targeted westside mailers).
I predict
Villaraigosa 35
Hahn 29
Hertzberg 26
Parks 14
Alarcon 4
Moore 1
Others 1
I"m listeing to the debate and almost fell off my chair when Antonio and Hertzberg stated that "let's stop the blame game." That's laughable coming from these two. The hosts had to ask Antonio to answer the question a couple of times. Maybe he didn't study enough
Last note: The poll was of registered voters. With low turnout, this could work for Hahn, though any campaign that can motivate a voter to the poll can gain a point or two with a good field operation. This is why the LA Time's polls are skewed often.
wow. nine comments before it becomes bash antonio blog all over again.
and they wonder why the grey lady of la blogs calls it anti-villaraigosa.
folks, this post is about hertzberg hitting hahn - it is a bit shrill and more than a stretch to attack antonio too.
but i don't expect this comment to stop it. bleat away.
FROM MEAT:
Slightly off..
LA Times
Antonio - 24
Bob - 21
Hahn - 20
Parks - 11
Alarcon - 5
Excerpts from the LA Times poll....
The poll reflects damage Hahn has already suffered from news reports on the investigation — and on his challengers' stinging comments about it. Just half of likely voters say Hahn has the honesty and integrity to serve as mayor. More than a third believe he does not. Unfortunately for Hahn, likely voters name honesty as the top characteristic that they want in a mayor.
In the Valley, Hertzberg's share of the vote has grown to more than a third, strengthening his front-runner status on his home turf. Villaraigosa has pushed ahead to second place in the Valley, while Hahn has fallen to a distant third in an area where he ran strong in 2001.
By one measure, the most popular mayoral candidate is Villaraigosa: Two thirds of likely voters hold a favorable impression of him. The former state Assembly speaker is the favorite of Democrats, liberals, Latinos, Catholics and voters under 45 years old.
He made gains last month among moderate, conservative, Jewish and Valley voters.
blog away
Poor Bob, didn't get the labor endorsement, now has to cry about it. Boo Hoo.
If they were supporting him he'd be all about letting them do what they want. He's just mad they don't like his anti-union stuff.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just that, well, if you poop on unions, they'll poop on you. and Mayor Poopy poops on us all. Poop poop poop.
Interesting how MEAT fails to state that LAT also says HAHN has picked up more Westside voters. There's also a 4 point either way. Attention Deficit Villaraigosa should be worried about Bob and go after him like everyone says. I don't agree ADV has 45% Latino. He sure won't get the Latino vote from his own CD14 and everyone knows that. Remember the drug letter and why he lost in 2001.
FROM MEAT:
Interesting... so what is it? Is there a 4 point spread? Because you then can't deny his support in the Latino community and the fact that the LA Times says his support comes from the central core and east LA. Must be that recall keeping his numbers so high.
Just keep in mind the Survey USA (believe it or not) said similar things about each candidates stengths. But of course we can't believe the LA Times or ABC 7 -- nevermind that both polls have Antonio in 1st, both have him doing strong in East LA and among Latino's. My question is -- where's the damage the recall campaign was suppose to inflict?
please show me.
blog away
Here you go MEAT...LAT.. Hahn's share of the Westside vote has grown to nearly a third, well ahead of all his rivals. In 2001, that area favored Villaraigosa over Hahn. Also Hahn has picked up Latino votes. Interesting!!!! MEAT you know that its all in timing. Villaraigosa got nailed close to the end. Let's see if that happens again. All the voters need to remember is why he lost in 2001. Hey, did you support him that year? We haven't even seen the damage of the truth (negatives) that are soon to be released.
Oh yeah. the LAT endorsed Villaraigosa and hertzberg. Do you really think they want egg on their face having Hahn up on the polls in their own newspaper???? You would think with all the slamming the 4 candidates have done the past months on Hahn that his numbers would be way low.
It is pretty sad that all it takes is one political campaign for Mayor Sam to overturn our U.S. Consitution.
Shouldn't we be looking for proof of guilt and abide by our system of "innocent until proven guilty."
LAT poll says 80% of voters reject the incumbent. Wow! Nice numbers. Sad to spin that Hahn is "picking up support" when as an incumbent it was his to lose to begin with.
By using the same numbers, poll shows that 76 percent "reject" the LOSER from 2001, the guy who came in #2 to a boring candidate. Tony V. is in worse shape than he was 4 years ago at this time, and going nowhere fast. Double-rejection, that's got to hurt.
Very good points Sacramento. With all the attacking by the 4 bullies you would think Hahn's numbers would be lower. Hahn's picked up Latinos and Westsiders. I think LAT is fudging numbers because they endorsed ADV and Huggy. They would look bad if they printed polls showing Hahn at top. Don't agree with Eastside numbers at all. they should have called CD14 and I'm sure different numbers would have showed ADV has lost a lot of that vote.
MEAT you are showing your ignorance once gain. The recall is exactly what it says - a recall to remove him from office for breaking a vow to the people of the 14th District. The recall will either have enough signatures in May or it won't. And, MEAT, based on we know now, the recall has a slightly better chance of succeeding than Villaraigosa has of becoming mayor.
Butcher points out in the Times she's not a Hahn appointee and has nothing to do with the Union's fundraising efforts.
Truth is Sac Nighties that the incumbent has an 80% disapproval rating. Neither you nor your anonymous friends or you as anonymous can dispute that everyone knows a re-election campaign for an incumbent is a job review for that person. Hahn is obviously not doing the job. An incumbent's nightmare is the numbers Hahn is posting right now. Believe me, I know...I ran for re-election once.
And the loser that lost to Hahn 4 years ago is polling in a statistical dead heat to his poor numbers and is being outpaced by a newcomer spending far less on media. Not exactly a "coronation" for ADV, is that?
Point taken, ABH and ABV!
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