Nakano Misleads the Voters
State Senate candidate George Nakano sent out his first mailer last week. The piece asks voters to compare the records of the candidates on public education.One bullet points out that Nakano’s “own children attended local public schools” while his primary opponent Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza’s did not. Jenny Oropeza and her husband do not have children.
Three items attack Oropeza for not voting for legislation that Nakano had supported. All three of the bills were from the 1999-2000 session -- before Oropeza was elected to the Assembly.
At a community meeting last week, Nakano was asked by a voter to apologize for his tasteless mailer. Nakano merely acknowledged that Oropeza did not have children. He refused to apologize or take any responsibility for his conduct.
Jenny Oropeza issued the following statement:
My husband, Tom Mullins, and I have been married for 28 years. We love children and have been very active in the lives of our nieces and nephews, but we have not had children of our own.So George - how does one send their kids to public school when they have none AND vote for bills that were up prior to one joining the Assembly? If you can figure that out, let us know. In the meantime, go play on the freeway. Shame on Nakano.
I must say that I was extremely saddened to receive a mailer from George Nakano attacking me for not sending children to public schools.
My commitment to public schools is unshakeable. I attended public schools. I served on my local School Board for 6 years. I supported the policies that led to the Long Beach School District being named the nation’s best urban school district. I have been an unwavering supporter of public education as a member of the State Assembly.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 5/15/2006 12:06:00 AM
22 Comments:
Besides, when you're a homeowner, you send everybody's kids to school...
Nakano is pokemon
What could Gayle Kaufman have been thinking. Maybe that is something you send out on June 3, not in mid May.
I think Nakano's point was that he knows local schools becuase his kids went there - not to blast his opponent for not having children. I didn;t read the mailer as an attack at all. I think it was straight forward.
Oropeza's ads are nasty. George's ads dont even mention Oropeza. I dislike her negativity.
By the way, who is she?
If Campaign 101 says stay positive if you are winning, why did George Nakano make his very first mailer a sleazy attack on Jenny Oropeza. His first mailer.
He attacks her for not sending children to public school when she has no children. He attacks her for not voting for bills when she was not in the Assembly.
That's pretty low.
And the landmark Martha Escutia environmental justice bill Nakano did not support was SB89, 2000. Odd you would want to bring that up. Only 3 Democrats did not support it -- George Nakano was one of them.
And lectures on moral from George Nakano who spent months telling people that Jenny Oropeza was "too sick to run" -- are just laughable.
Desperate is right! Nakano will will this race. Her attacks on a man so loved in Torrance and the South Bay will only turn voters like myself off.
Oh these campaign consultants. It never ceases to amaze me how you all feel you have to justify yourselves on this blog. Do you actually think the average voter, with no interest on politics, but an understanding that voting is a civic duty even knows or cares about this blog?
From SD 20 to AD 45, this blog will play NO FACTOR in who gets elected. Get over yourselves people. Unfortunately, the things that will matter are who you know, who you're doing, and how much $$$ you have in the bank. Not a Gale Kaufman flunky trying to defend a client and their firm nor Jenny being quoted on this blog. Besides, we all know she's a little kooky herself.
hey screw the candidate if they do not properly represent the contituency, how can one relate if there is no common ground. on the issues of family values, how can a candidate whom is single relate to the issues of family, or even if there were gay issues on the table, how can a republican relate?
Why should Nakano bear the burden of Oropeza's choice to not have children? I agree with one of the previous bloggers, Mr. Nakano has a legitimate credential - his kids went to public schools, therefore he might know a little bit more than someone who doesn't have kids.
Get over it Oropeza.
I agree, get over it.
speaking of misinforming voters, Frank Quintero's campaign in the 43rd AD is getting real desperate. they are using republican tactics by telling minority voters that Krekorian is pro-gay and that frank is not. Then when he is communicating to anglo dems he states he is proud of his pro-gay record. What a desperate loser, just shows how much their campaign is freaking out. Quintero is gonna get his ass kicked on June 6th.
2:46
I can only cc what your saying, check out this site. After looking at the most stupid mailer of the season {Thank you Mr. Nakano}.
Go to this site to check out the mailer on the front page.
http://paulkrekorian.com/
I just checked out the krekorian website and I have to say I am impressed. That flash piece on the home page is great, does anyone know if he sent that out as a mail piece?
As a resident of the assembly district Nakano used to represent, I can safely he was perhaps one of the mosrt worthless elected officials we have ever had. On his best day, he was little more than a seat-warmer. Is there anything of consequence he did while in the assembly? Nothing I can think of.
I am a strong and eager Oropeza voter.
All this nasty campaigning and Jim Alger is not involved.
and anyone is surprised he did this?
I agree, Nakano will win this race. I don't care how much money Oropeza spends, she can't beat Nakano in Torrance or the Beach cities.
Your freak’n nimrods! Hello—this was a brilliant and successful fishing expedition: better a mother with kids in public school than no mother at all.
To the absolute imbeciles who are saying a single person knows nothing about family, and that because someone (say, Nakano) has kids, then they might know more than someone who has kids....OH REALLY? So apparently, single people don't HAVE families. They don't COME FROM families. They are completely ignorant about family structure. And what about all those parents who REALLY know kids? Well, let's head down to juvenile hall and interview some of the kids about how well their parents knew THEM. Hey, let's visit the Menendez boys - they had TWO PARENTS. You think Jose & Kitty had a clue what their kids were up to?
Most importantly - since when in hell was EDUCATION the end-all, be-all issue to decide upon a State Senator? I don't know much about either candidate but considering the kind of idiot, uninformed assholes that are standing up for Nakano I can only think he must be a jackass. Oh, and to the particularly pathetic piece of shit who threw in the "barren" insult - it's a shame we can't say the same thing about YOUR MOTHER.
"...how does one send their kids to public school when they have none AND vote for bills that were up prior to one joining the Assembly? If you can figure that out, let us know."
Maybe she was an undocumented Assemblyperson?
If you really want to know the dirt behind George Nakano, just ask him why he's never returned that $10,000 plus from convicted felons Gene and Nora Lum? And why won't he return his thousands of dollars from convicted bank fraud felon Anastasi? Why? Because George always has been, and always will be, a mob-connected patsy, a puppet of organized crime interests running him behind the scenes.
That's also why he took money from JACK ABRAMOFF LINKED CASINOS. Thousands, in fact.
This guy is a mob magnet. He's served well as a money laundering conduit for decades.
Ask Nakano about his fishy $50,000 loan from Lani Sakoda, another con artist who passes her self off as some South Bay primping Diva - and who was veeerrrryyyy close with the Lums and that whole Chinagate affair. They are still players - they just changed their spots.
Ask Robert L. Paulson about HIS fishy $10,000 loan to Nakano around the time he had to 'suddenly and under very suspicious circumstances'...leave Logicon.
Nakano, time to hang it up. At least Jenny is keeping the high road and hopefully she returns her Abramoff linked dollars too....?
She'd be smart to do it. It would be the ultimate slap in Nakano's face if SHE stands up and does it, while he keeps his dirty dollars.
She may nix him yet. Felando almost had him at one point during his Assembly race. If you use the Wayback machine, you can find lots of old archived pages from that site listing in PDF forms all the illegal campaign donations on Nakano's record.....
Lots there. LOTS....
http://ducktwacy2.blogspot.com
WHAT IS IT ABOUT NAKANO AND CONS?
I MEAN...THE GUY JUST CAN'T STAY AWAY FROM DIRTY MONEY...CAN HE? Look at this article. He's a mob magnet!!!!
WAIT...Jenny...LET'S START CALLING HIM GEORGE NA-CON-O!!!!
Friday, December 06, 2002
2 men, Mattel fined for illicit donations
SCANDAL: Former executive and a consultant laundered 56 campaign contributions to several local politicians through third parties.
By Nick Green
DAILY BREEZE
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El Segundo-based Mattel Inc., a former company executive and a Torrance-based political consultant have agreed to pay more than $900,000 in fines stemming from an ethics probe into the laundering of corporate political contributions.
The 56 contributions, most of them amounting to a few hundred dollars apiece, were given from 1996 to 2000 to more than two dozen political candidates, party committees and political action committees.
Recipients were both Republicans and Democrats and included the campaigns of such local politicians as state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach; Assemblyman George Nakano, D-Torrance; county supervisors Don Knabe and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke; former Republican Rep. Steve Kuykendall and Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi. Cash also went to Gov. Gray Davis and the Gore 2000 presidential campaign. (also Senator Diane Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, Bob Filner-San Diego)
"The laundering of campaign contributions is one of the most serious violations of the (Political Reform) Act, as it denies the public of information about the true source of a candidate's financial support," the state Fair Political Practices Commission said in its filing.
Indeed, the politicians involved didn't know the true identity of the donors either.
"I had no idea," Guidi said, adding he did not plan to return the $5,000 he received in 1999, the largest single contribution. "It's money spent. How do you return it?"
Fines also have been levied by the city of Los Angeles Ethics Commission and the Federal Election Commission, which announced Thursday that its $477,000 penalty was "one of the highest cumulative civil penalties in the history of the commission."
However, the state commission observed that the contributions were so "widely dispersed" that they "did not have a significant effect on any particular election."
The scheme, unbeknownst to Mattel, went like this: Fermin Cuza, senior vice president of governmental affairs at Mattel from 1997 until he resigned under company pressure in 2001, funneled more than $100,000 from the world's largest toymaker to political campaigns under other people's names. "It was done in the mistaken belief that this was necessary to get out there politically, without thinking of the consequences," said Mark E. Beck, an attorney for Cuza.
Cuza, who maintains a house in Manhattan Beach, has agreed to pay $188,000 in federal penalties, $110,000 in city fines and $88,000 to the state.
Alan Schwartz, a political consultant well known in Democratic circles and a member of a prominent Torrance family, was hired as a consultant by Mattel and via his company, Asset Management Systems, aided Cuza in laundering 30 of the contributions. He has agreed to pay $195,000 in federal fines, $66,000 to the city and $58,000 to the state.
Mattel uncovered the scheme last year and reported it to government officials, who began the three-pronged probe.
"The actions taken were in direct violation of Mattel policy and without the knowledge or approval of the company," Mattel spokeswoman Jules Andres said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the company conceded it failed to report 48 campaign contributions made to various local and state candidates. It will pay $94,000 in federal penalties, $72,000 in state penalties and $60,000 in city fines.
Observers on Thursday were mystified why Cuza and Schwartz broke campaign finance laws. The amounts involved were relatively small; Schwartz had contributed to campaigns before and in some - such as state races - there was no limit to the amount of corporate contributions Mattel could give anyway at the time. "We're talking about a contribution I got from somebody, having no idea the money he was donating to the campaign wasn't really coming from him and wasn't really his to give," Bowen said. "The whole thing is just so odd that I still don't know what to make of it or what they were trying to accomplish.
"I wouldn't have had a problem with a contribution from Mattel and I can't imagine George Nakano would have either," she added. "Mattel is a good employer in my district."
Schwartz wasn't talking Thursday to shed light on his actions. He referred inquiries to his attorney, who didn't return a phone call requesting comment.
Becky Ames, chief of staff for Nakano - who knows Schwartz well, but was traveling and unavailable for comment - said the real damage was to the public's perception of politics. "Garbage like this is just unfortunate because you accept the contributions in good faith and it undermines the public's faith in the (political) process," she said. "It's a very frustrating position to be in." Both Cuza and Schwartz had glowing civic careers.
Cuza is a former executive in residence at California State University, Los Angeles, and rose to director of border operations on the U.S.-Mexico border during a 15-year career with U.S. Customs. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn appointed him in July to his International Trade Advisory Board, although Cuza resigned a month ago to start his own business, city officials said.
Schwartz, who flirted with running for Congress in 1998, is former chairman of the South Bay Economic Consortium, served as managing director of a Torrance investment firm and is a member of the Harbor-UCLA Community Alliance Steering Committee, which is working to save the trauma center. While the federal commission levied the fines Thursday, the state commission isn't scheduled to take action until next Friday while the city's Ethics Commission will finalize its settlement Dec. 17. Federal ethics officials said recipients of the contributions will be instructed to "disgorge" all illegal donations.
The Associated Press, staff writers Donna Littlejohn, Ian Gregor and Lee Peterson, Copley News Service correspondent David Zahniser and researcher Sam Gnerre contributed to this article.
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