What's Up In CD 10?**
Herb Wesson started in politics as the Chief of Staff of former 10th District Councilmember Nate Holden, then as Chief of Staff of Supervisor Yvonne Burke. He followed that up by securing the 47th State Assembly District seat and later was a Special Assistant to Supervisor Yvonne Burke.While serving in the Assembly, Wesson was elected as the 65th Speaker of the California Assembly and served in that capacity from February 2002 until February 2004. He was the second African American to be elected Speaker in state history.
On November 8, 2005, Herb Wesson was elected to represent the 10th Council District on the Los Angeles City Council. But we reported that he was actually "elected," as Mayor Villaraigosa's handpicked successor to former Councilman Martin Ludlow (who left the Council to head up the LA County Federation of Labor upon the death of his predecessor, Miguel Contreras), on August 16, 2005. That's when no other major candidates besides Wesson filed to run for Ludlow's seat.
So with about two months in office, Wesson hasn't had time to quite distinguish himself, though he did get mentioned in Steve Hymon's LA Times column, something about statues and critics. Other than that, the jury is still out.
So what's up in CD10?
**Update: Coincidentally enough, Erin Aubrey Kaplan has an op-ed piece about Wesson in today's LA Times, in which she calls Wesson "not enough" to meet the challenges of the District and sees Wesson's expected "bump up" to County Supervisor upon the coming retirement of Yvonne Burke as perhaps the only oppoprtunity to bring vision to the 10th District.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 1/18/2006 12:05:00 AM
12 Comments:
Talk about a difference maker! CM Wesson will make a substantial difference in CD 10.
Ludlow wasn't too effective. He was more of an organizer who won just because of a mistake by his opponent when he was "young and dumb" and he lied about it. And popular to contrary belief, he was not "hand picked" by Ludlow. Ludlow once worked for him and I doubt that he told Wesson "I will knight you". Wesson has more folks supporting him than Ludlow ever will.
Wesson, a more seasoned politician and more likeable person will be very effective. He was probably the most popular Speaker of the Assembly in recent years (yes, even more popular than AV) because he got along with folks and knew how to get the job done. That, and he knew how to raise money.
Wesson will be a role model for all. He will get things done and make a difference. He has a great core staff that has been with him for a long time and are as committed to public service as he is. Hell, he even brought back Deron Williams who was very effective as Nate Holden's deputy. Sylvia Lacy is back too. Great moves CM Wesson!
Whether he stays long enough to serve his term will remain to be seen. Even if he doesn't, i think he'd be a better supervisor than a councilperson.
Great op-ed in today's LA Times
STILL LOOKING OUT FOR NO. 1 IN THE 10th
Don't think Wesson would have done this. Daily News...
Not your property
Re "Don't bet against Texas, city learns" (Briefly, Jan. 14):
I just read that Council President Eric Garcetti lost a bet to his Houston counterpart and will now fly a "Don't mess with Texas" banner on our City Hall. I am outraged. City Hall belongs to all of us and is not the property of our council members to use as a personal wager on a football game.
This is just another example of our elected officials using public property for their personal use. Come on, L.A., when do we wise up and vote these idiots out of office? The council president owes us all an apology and should do so after he apologizes to the person he made this ridiculous bet with that he has to renege and not put up the banner.
Morris Caraway
Van Nuys
After talking a bunch of shit about CD 10 and Herb Wesson, Mr. Kaplan states "I realize Wesson has only been on the council for a few weeks...."
What a DICK! (that goes with the CUNT word of the week. Now use it in a sentence). Mr. Kaplan knows CM Wesson better than that. He's been writing about the black community for years. He knows CM Wesson has not let his constituents down. Yeah he's worked for Burke, Holden and with Hertzberg but hell, you've got to get in the game somehow. Those that don't get into the game like that just happen to be independently wealthy and sometimes that doesn't even work.
Uh, Kaplan is a woman.
So he used to work for Burke. I wonder how he will figure in on the Sunshine Canyon contract vote then.
Mr. Herb Wesson is great man!
Wesson is an AV puppet!
That's probably what Granada Hills fears Archie.
WTF? Wesson will do nothing for CD 10. It's an open secret that he intends to run for County Sup, so why jerk around with this community, which has been so underseverd?
I like Wesson, but I question some of his decisions. What was the guy from the first comment smoking? How is it good to bring back Deron "Coke Head" Williams? What the hell does he do anyway? Isn't he supposed to work in the field? What is he doing in CH? And what's the deal with Silvia Lacy? Have you seen this old hag at work? Generally, you get sense that the district took a step back after Ludlow resigned.
Dynamism is a word that whizzed past Wesson's head, on his sprint from City Hall to the County building...
Surely there are comments since 2006?
If you want to know how Wesson has fared in our fair community checkout EYE ON WESSON in the CD10 midcity community magazine The Neighborhood News. Its an EYE full! http://www.theneighborhoodnewsonline.net/editorial/eye-on-wesson
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