Walter Moore and the Electoral Math of City Council Victories
Ron Kaye video of Walter Moore speaking at the SLAP! Meeting in Glassell Park on Saturday. If the citizens of LA are determined enough to make a change in our government and elect someone other than Ed Reyes, Richard Alarcón, Jan Perry, Bill Rosendahl, Eric Garcetti, or Janice Hahn to the City Council, the numbers required are not at all staggering.
Incredibly, the number of voters who vote in a City Council race at best couldn't fill up half of Dodger Stadium; at worse 6th District Council Member Tony Cardenas' about 3600 votes would barely be a sellout for the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Incredibly, the number of voters who vote in a City Council race at best couldn't fill up half of Dodger Stadium; at worse 6th District Council Member Tony Cardenas' about 3600 votes would barely be a sellout for the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Labels: bill rosendahl, ed reyes, eric garcetti, jan perry, janice hahn, kodak theatre, Los Angeles City Council, Richard Alarcon, Ron Kaye, SLAP, tony cardenas, walter moore
Posted by Michael Higby @ 8/03/2008 01:46:00 PM
22 Comments:
Just shows how many illegals Cardenas has in his district vs. citizens/ voters -- same for Alarcon, slightly more voters for Reyes and Huizar in their older Latino neighborhoods like Boyle/ Lincoln Heights, but still many more illegals than citizens.
This group wants to use AB1818 (and tried to sneak past Fuentes AB212, which is even much worse) to build low-income, high-density projects with no parking in ALL neighborhoods that are within a mere 3 blocks of a bus stop! The literal trashing of the westside/ hillsides/ west valleys. Their own constituents, from Wyvenwood to Lincoln Hts., are onto them first.
Janice Hahn's coasted by on her dad's name in South L A -- which is now 80% Latino, no longer mostly black as it was, which is why she's busily pandering to the illegals with her "living wage" for LAX-area hotels where it's NOT the city's business or jurisdiction, and sr he's gotten the city sued over it, costing us hundreds of thousands $$ (with full support of Rosendahl).
Rosendahl's negligence when it comes to his CD11 district in non- PC issues/ areas is clear from the LA Weekly article/ feature, about the 2 old ladies who raised thousands of RATS in their house in the posh Palisades Village area.
Despite years of complaints by neighbors of smell, and one neighbor finding a dozen rats in her child's food bowl, and calls to Rosendahl's office, NOTHING was done.
If they were homeless or gay homeless, or better yet gay illegal homeless carwash or hotel workers who don't speak Spanish, Rosendahl would have called a press conference on Day One to blast the City for allowing this blight to continue in their midst. WHY do the PC idiots of his district think he's a "rock star," according to one local paper? They voted for him, an old leftie gasbag from public access tv, instead of a highly qualified businesswoman -- they deserve him.
Zine is increasingly revealed as a fool who's tried to play all sides against each other to get his PR, and he's been caught as the Fool Uncle Fester in leather drag, groupie of young sluttie celebs. Meanwhile, he's been developing every last scrap of open land in his district for years.
Smith revealed himself to be even more shameless than the Mayor when it came to the trash fee hike: he says it's no biggie that the Mayor and others "lied to the public" about using the fees for cops since the money went to the general fund and so the city can and will do whatever they want with it. Since homeowners have been "given a huge gift" for 50 years and it's time to pay up.
What an idiot -- yes, Parks and Cardenas tried to steal the WHOLE trash fees for the mismanaged General Fund months ago, but Antonio's allies fought for some truth in advertising: to keep the trash fees for cops and public safety.
The Mayor actually at least WANTS the tax to go to cops, toward his goal of 10,ooo -- and the money did hire 400 plus pay back monies owed cops from half the revenue. What Smith learned from his month-long luxury trash junket around the world to many countries was, lie to the public and tell us we've been too selfish and cheap for too long.
These people must be challenged on their issues.
Walter's argument is specious. It's not a question of how many votes it takes to win a council seat, but how much each vote costs. Go back to the seat vacated by Laura Chick, which attracted a strong field of fairly well-known candidates. Who won? The guy with the labor money. It's absurd to believe, as Walter argues, you can win one of these seats by going door-to-door in the district. Sure that's nice, but not as effective as a ton of well done mail. Sorry, folks, but that's how the game is played and all the good intentions in the world aren't going to change it.
3:07's cynicism is sadly true. Look at Zine: challenged by an unknown who had the whole community in his pocket on the ISSUES, of Zine's lying about not planning on developing a huge open green space, the last big one in his district, when he ran the first time: then turning it into over 5000 units of condos/ retail.
But the guy didn't win because of the development money Zine had by then, and name recognition such as it is -- buffoon that he is, the other guy was a nobody.
So Walter can urge people to race into the flames like gnats: but if they want their moment of fame, like Walter himself, it may be worth it to them to highlight an issue. Which is the most they can expect.
Zine IS vulnerable now -- made a fool of himself over the paparazzi debacle and has badmouthed and backstabbed too many Council colleagues too long, on top of Bratton, the Mayor's ally.'
His constituents see him more for what he is, a big blowhard who cries and crumbles like a baby when his duplicitous games are called. Ron Kaye's documented how he blows off "the little guy" condescendingly and loudly, until he's caught in a PR embarrassment. Which would include his leather Harley gear, if he had awareness.
Grandstanding against measures then voting for them anyway is his Daily News trademark. Grandstanding in general on lost causes is his main trademark and legacy, other than overdeveloping against communities' earnest wishes while pretending to be "a man of the people." His is one seat ready to challenge, along with Greig Smith -- who outed himself on the trash fee hikes this week, see the Smith thread below.
Reyes is very vulnerable, an embarassment to Antonio who's trying to seem more mainstream, not threatening to the westside and west valley whites, Jews and blacks. His own people hate him.
Cardenas grandstands as a gang expert, but admits he hasn't been able to make his own street safe enough to let his son go outside -- with his slim vote margin and giving Mexican males a black eye with his arrogant, macho tactics like against Laura Chick, he's easy to take on. Like the rest of them, he bent over backwards telling the carwash workers in Spanish that he and Huizar were born in Mexico and "like them": it's past time for some American-born, non-Marxist (NOT Alarcon-type) mainstream Mexicans/ Latinos to run and win. To begin to really unite the city.
It's past time to get rid of these first-gen Mexicans more loyal to Mexico than America, who put their emotional emphasis on the MEXICAN part of "Mexican-American." Blacks have been at it longer, and showed that they can win in white areas too IF they earn it.
Tell you what 4:18, go to the Fallbrook Mall and ask the first 10 people if they're registered to vote? If so, ask if they live in the district? Then ask if they've ever heard of Dennis Zine? I'll give you $10 for every yes. All of this "everybody hates Zine" and "everybody hates Weiss" crap has nothing to do with the realities of politics. Zine will drop a lot of mail with him surrounded by cops and firefighters and he'll win. It's as simple as that. Want to knock off an incumbent? Find a back stabbing bitch like Laura Chick who's willing to plunge the knife in her bosses back, like she did with Joy Picus.
4:40, what you said may have been true of Zine before, but now he's been shown to be "a backstabbing prick," constantly badmouthing and second-guessing Bratton over SO40 in favor of "his" motion "to improve it," even feeding gossip to that insane mutt nutt Zuma Dogg. He's been criticizing many motions before voting FOR almost every one of them, but raising questions about Antonio's judgment each time. He's the one who publicly badmouthed Weiss to the media and gave major succor and support to that badly failed recall, and being the only Councilmember to support his rival for City Attorney -- what did he hope to get out of that?
He's apparently trying to make new fast friends with the Mexican contingent and Janice Hahn, luring poor clueless Tom LaBonge into his paparazzi conference, but he's done.
Z-Man sucked it up to Ron Kaye's group at City Hall and is encouraging Walter Moore and the Shaws against Weiss/Bratton/Mayor's office, but he gets no love even from the Kaye blog.
It's all coming home to roost. You say Zine will be surrounded by cops and firefighters -- with Bratton clearly loathing him and I'd assume Weiss barely tolerates him, he's only got a few other fat old Republicans like DA Cooley. Baca's endorsed both CA candidates and is keeping his options open. Zine's a LOT weaker than he was even a few months ago. A few weeks ago.
I will no longer vote for any Hispanic name as a candidate for anything. No one can tell me when Huizar became a citizen and until then all Hispanic names, even anchor babies are suspect and illegal.
5:43 pm, What is the difference between "backstabbing" and just opposing or changing your position on something? I don't think Zine is much different that any other council member on that.
The decisions of Bratton and Mayor Tony V. would have to be worthwhile matters first in order to deserve support. There's been, on balance, more to challenge both of them simply on their veracity but the substance has been weak, as well. Special Order 40 is not unanimously regarded as a good policy. It’s dated, dealing with conditions of nearly 3 decades ago. Functionally, it’s not in keeping with what life in Los Angeles has become now, even being a counterproductive policy in several ways.
That may be a reason to "badmouth" as you put it. Others would call it disagreeing. But if you are a fan of Bratton AND Tony V, so be it. Bratton is the operative for Tony V's directives.
Weiss deserves criticism. I would say it a problem if Weiss is NOT questioned by others on the council for his conduct- and he's really been left alone. Weiss tells no one what he does publicly, and so any heat he takes is earned. If Zine does something "publicly", it is not automatically bad. Maybe it's better that he goes out on a limb to air out his views than to remain silent and allow conditions to be shielded from public examination.
I don't agree that Zine must avoid any disputes or disagreements with other city officials. I wish more council members would feel free to do that, but there's an implicit agreement that appears to account for the unanimous votes in nearly all matters. Where you have a few "NO" votes, an explanation invariably accompanies it as something needing a change before a "Yes" vote will be made. Most votes ARE unanimous.
What I don't like is the blind allegiance to each other on the council that I have seen, shown in part through the voting pattern. This theme works its way into the rest of the council's style of operation. I think that this city hall version of a "non-aggression pact" is just the norm. It is the path usually taken in cases where the public good might be better served by more meaningful debate, not the simple "all for show" discussions that go tend to go nowhere.
The ones afraid to act independently- to the extent independence is possible in that arena- should be criticized for taking a personally "safe" behavior, and choosing the road to accommodate their pandering to voters, not a high road at all.
Zine could be and is criticized, especially here, for doing differently than the pack (as in "wolves"), risking and maybe making some mistakes along the way.
I'd rather see that kind of thing happen than what’s there now- mostly, it’s a bunch of robots programmed to perform as directed by Antonio and the special interests, during or between their money-counting sessions, that is.
In CD-14 as opinion
7:50: You seem to have quite a defense of Zine for someone "in CD14," against a realistic take on Zine's having marginalized himself, AND showing ignorance in each case. Whether it's SO40, the paparazzi law or anything else, he's just not smart enough to think 2-3 steps ahead of himself before taking an oppositional stand. Every lawyer or more educated person laughs at him.
He even seems to enjoy backstabbing and playing both sides against the other just to see what happens, in a perverse way. That, like the way he's known to leer at cheap-looking women, reflect a low-class nature.
True, at least half the Council are pretty dull too, but except for occasional blowups like between Alarcon and Smith, where the extremes are just too great to contain, they follow the norms of political life. However, Zine is too dumb to understand how his public badmouthing and backstabbing effect colleagues he needs to work with. (Look at him crying with obvious shock for the Mayor, Police Commission, ANYONE to "discipline" the Chief for putting him in his place.)
No, it's NOT okay to publicly badmouth and backstab -- while that doesn't mean unanimity, it means picking your battles and priorities and working to achieve a quorum for what's important to you.
Zine's also seems not only ignorant but like he just plain enjoys meddling and causing trouble. None of his obvious spinnng against Bratton here, including digging up quotes from disgruntled radical civil rights activists from a dozen years ago, have had any merit -- he's been bashing Bratton for being too easy on illegal Latinos, but then his postings argue the opposite, that Bratton's been too tough on minorities. And Weiss never owed him any "explanations:" nor does he seem to feel a need to beat his chest and ramble on during Council, which is one of his better points -- he's got a keen analytical mind, opposite of Zine.
Zine's a smug buffoon who lacks character -- say what you want to your colleagues in private, but not behind their back to the press or their political enemies or constituents -- and as with the paparazzi issue, it's not just WHAT he thinks but how he handles himself which are sorely lacking.
It's now just desserts to watch him running hither and yon, trying to suck upto this one and that, alternately lashing out and whining, in desperation.
Third floor spinner throwing the council under the bus?
Let's see...
If approx 250,000 people live in Cardenas's district and all the racist on this site think they are mostly illegals.
And while the next step in racist logic is to assume illegals want to vote in our elections (which is weird cause that would shine light on their status and increase the likelihood of them being deported), but let's not think logically.
Then it must be some illegal immigrant shock that less than 4,000 of them voted in an illegal immigrant sympathizer into office.
so this is how it works, right ractist blog?
Mayor's war chest says more about politics than his success
There are two ways to interpret the astonishing amount of campaign cash that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has amassed for his re-election campaign:
On one side, an optimist might see the donations as the expected fruits of a successful first term. Villaraigosa has been such a great city leader that people can't help but open their hearts and wallets to make sure he sticks around for another term. Indeed, the idea of spontaneous grass-roots support is exactly the tack that the mayor's campaign is pushing.
But a cynic might see evidence of a darker truth in the $1.6 million collected by an incumbent for an election with no serious competition. Nor has Villaraigosa achieved anything much noteworthy. He still could do so before the election next year, particularly if his school-reform effort has early and recognizable achievements. But so far, he's been a ho-hum mayor.
Sadly, it's very likely the cynics who are correct in this case. The mayor's war chest is most likely the spoils of a politician who plays nicely with the city's special interests - and is rewarded for it.
This suspicion is supported by the list of cash contributors found on the city ethics Web page (http://ethics.lacity.org/campaignfinance.cfm). It doesn't read like a list of enthusiastic Angelenos digging into their savings to support Mayor Antonio. It's a list filled with people who represent business and organizations - bankers, construction and parking companies, attorneys, and single-issue nonprofit organizations - that have something to gain by schmoozing City Hall.
None of this is to say Villaraigosa is different from any other politician in Los Angeles. He isn't. He's playing the game that is required of all candidates to win public office.
And that's the real interpretation: Not great ideas, but monied special interests - developers, public-employee unions, contractors or subway-building companies - get a candidate elected.
Vote for an honest person like Antonio he will stab you in the chest!
Walter, go run for Cardenas' seat and let's see how you do...
so this is how it works, right ractist blog?
Ha ha! The #9 Liberal Blog in California is being called "right wing ractist!"
What's a ractist?
Dumbass.
Higby - how come when someone responding to one of your posts on the fly spells something wrong, they're a "dumbass"
When RED SPOT does it - daily, it's just funny, and you and other say things like "well, you UNDERSTOOD what he meant, right? (BTW, not usually)
Also, "ractist" is a less common spelling for an old English word that has two current meanings. . .
1) hypocrite
2) DOUBLE-dumbass
Both of which apply to your "defense".
Wacko Walter can spin with his numbers all he wants. The "sum" will always be the same.
Politically, he's a "zero".
I remember fondly, not too many months ago when he posted a number of pieces here -- just about the time Mayor Sam stopped calling him "Wacko" (too soon) -- where he actually had the delusional chutzpah to list himself as the "chief economist" of a fake "think tank" made up of he, himself, and Walter. Problem was he was trying to engage in some REALLY tough 10th grade high school math (like "perentages" and "fractions") to make his points, and he just couldn't seem to add up the digits correctly.
Then, of course, he didn't check his work, and had to keep coming back and say "OH, I carried the number wrong. I meant 1 percent, not 10 percent."
Clue to the clueless -- any "economist" (chief, or otherwise), that has to keep re-posting "oops, sorry" messages about being off one or more decimal points, is such an incredible loser, they don't even belong in a classroom as a teacher, let alone being considered by anyone for elected office.
Call U-Haul, Wacko. Your 15 minutes of fame is up.
(OOPS, I added the numbers wrong. I meant to say 15 SECONDS.)
OOPS, again, did I say "fame"??
1:29, you're staying up way too late making stupid comments. You should have stayed in LAUSD instead, so that you'd be at least "as smart as a Fifth Grader," which you're not.
These MEChA Mexicans get in with such a slim majority because there are so many illegals among their "residents," i.e. illegal interlopers into our country, that a small percentage are eligible to vote. (The same seems to apply to Garcetti's district, too -- Echo Park and East Hollywood are full of illegals, too, as well as Armenaian and other ethnics who may not vote, which is a blessing if they're not equipped to understand the issues.)
People in general should NOT vote unless they've done their research; we've got too many stupid electeds and bonds and taxes because they vote anyway. Idiots like YOU, 1:29 -- go home to Meheeko. Remember, you can voluntarily self-deport all month and get a free ticket home.
Read 1:22's post and you'll see how some of us consider this blog to be right wing and racist. There is more immigrant-bashing here than out in the real world.
That is a really bad rat story about Rosendahl's district, by the way.
If this was a racist blog would half the bloggers be Latino and Black?
2:21, I've noticed it's more ILLEGAL bashing than immigrant bashing. Get your facts straight, you damn spousebreacher!
Mixed race myself - Jamiel's Law - in LA, have you signed it. The petition needs 74,000 signatures.
PLEASE HELP - WE NEED ALL VOTING IN LA TO SIGN.
LET'S GET THE JAMIEL'S LAW FOR AMERICA.
http://tinyurl.com/57d6zg
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