C'est la vie, Walter
Back in the day
Having lost for Mayor after running for the last five years, it appears that rumors that former candidate Walter Moore would move to France if he were not elected Mayor may very well be true. From Moore's website:
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate those of you who contributed your time and/or money to trying to save this City. We didn’t replace Villaraigosa, but we did defeat Measures B and E.
And if anyone wants to buy a nice house in Carthay Circle for $1.1 million, let me know, will you?
It's easy to say good riddance but I have made it clear why Walter - who had a lot of potential and did manage to catch the attention of a Dodger stadium size crowd of Angelenos - was not the candidate to upset Villaraigosa and right the course of LA government.
At an election night event I attended I spoke with someone who related to me that when Walter was shown phone bank calling sheets he was mystified and thought it might be something he could use. As far as we know, he didn't.
Walter ran a vanity campaign that ultimately gave a lot of good people false hope. He squandered his hard earned campaign funds on flyers printed at Kinkos, hats, bumper stickers and on radio ads on stations that were already giving him extensive free media. He never hired a consultant, someone who could run a further fundraising operation, phone banking efforts, precinct walking and all the things that would have earned Walter the extra 13,000 votes he would have needed to push Villaraigosa into a runoff. Worse, Walter allowed his campaign to dip into racially tinged rhetoric that pushes the envelope of division and which would never fly in multi-cultural Los Angeles. Everything else Walter was talking about could have sold and sold big.
With Walter out of the picture the challenge for Los Angeles is to identify who is that good government, politically moderate, dynamic leader focused on transparency, accountability and opportunity for all Angelenos - and who has a respect for the racial, ethnic, religous and socio-economic diversity of the city (maybe some neighborhoods want low rise but others want an urban landsacape - we can do this!). At this point, I have no idea.
But maybe soon that person will emerge.
Labels: 2009 mayoral election, walter moore
Posted by Michael Higby @ 3/04/2009 11:17:00 PM
46 Comments:
ZD WHERE ARE YOU?
Walter was a baldie back in the day.
Check out Higby's admission on his Dewey Defeats Truman post.
He admits to editing comments, and then republishing them under a false name, obvious to "boost" conversation.
take the money and run!
I might be biased because the guy throws me a bone once in a while, but there's only one answer to Higby's question: Ron Kaye, who won't let me write about him on his blog. With only a web site and lots of appearances before anyone you would listen, he beat the mayor's political machine by defeating Measure B. Tell me the last time somebody did that in LA?
there are still 46,000 uncounted votes out there. it ain't over yet..
A MUST READ FROM STEVE LOPEZ. ONE OF THE FEW LA REPORTERS WHO SAYS IT LIKE IT IS.
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-lopezweb-2009mar05,0,5187900.column
......Maybe he was apologizing on behalf of the two Florida businessmen who were charged Wednesday with conspiring to launder $25,000 in donations to Villaraigosa's 2005 mayoral bid, allegedly hoping to nail down some airport concession contracts.
.....In the second largest city in the nation, Villaraigosa didn't manage 130,000 votes. Heck, we've got that many potholes. "I thought he'd get at least 60%," Bob Stern, of the Center for Governmental Studies, said of Villaraigosa.
7:24 a.m.
Whatcha wanna bet Villaraigosa gets 35-40,000 of those.
Why did the LA Slimes hold this story until AFTER the election? We all knew back in 2005 Antonio was meeting with the Florida guys and in fact didn't Huizar fly back to hang with them last year at the Super Bowl? The candidates for governor will use this against Antonio.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-campaign-charges5-2009mar05,0,7178090.story
VILLARAIGOSA SUPPORTERS ACCUSED OF MONEY LAUNDERING
MS...you're missing the biggest point! Walter Moore ALMOST forced Villagrossa into a runoff!!! Villagross only received 127,000 votes!!!!
Now, if an unknown, non-charasmatic goofy grass roots activist with a $280K campaign chest could almost topple the drunken Mayor...it's a victory! Villagrossa is the LOSER!!! He is now a lame duck, and there is no way he can EVER, EVER, EVER become Governator!!!!
Rick Caruso should be ashamed of himself for underestimating the PEOPLE! He could have won by a landslide, but he is a coward!
The next step is to start the Recall Villar movement! He's so weakened now that we should be able to overthrow him in a nano-second!
Villagrossa and his minions should be shaking in their boots today...they are NOT invincible! The PEOPLE have started to rumble! The end is nigh!!!! Hurray!!!!
MICHAEL, WHERE ARE THE MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS YOU ARE BEING INTERVIEWED IN?
I'M SURE EVERYONE WOULD LIKE TO READ THEM REGARDLESS OF THEIR FEELIGNS ABOUT YOU.
7.53 types just like a ZD post
hmmmm
Caruso might have won very easily, but as a businessman, it might not have been the best decision for HIS reasons.
The sorry state of affairs that Tony has let develop, sometimes being the source, makes the office of Mayor a huge challenge for a successful candidate, maybe taking more time than Caruso would want to spend at this time.
Since Tony doesn't have any really good ideas for anyone's benefit other than for his own career, he doesn't have to spend time as intensively as one who might care. You can expect his solutions to wind up shifting costs right to the people and businesses that still remain in L.A.
The $1 Billion budget deficit prediction was met by Tony's idea for privatizing the city zoo, and considering the Chicago plan of selling off parking meter/lots leaseholds for years in exchange for a lump-sum payment. $1-1/2 billion for the 75-year rights in Chicago's case.
So another company would gouge us more efficiently to maximize profits for every year they own the rights, as creatively as legally possibe, you can bet. They are not guided by "what's best for the city," but then it's like that with the Mayor and the Council more and more.
Meanwhile, Tony's miraculously balanced the budget, adds another paragraph to his resume, and gotten his butt out of L.A. for greener pastures and probably cheaper parking rates.
He only has HIS goals in mind- Wasn't it that way for the LAPD extra 1,000 officers? HIS bragging rights, our bills rise (trash fees raised by about triple rates) to cover that all-out effort, and HIS timetable controls, HIS budget priorities are important and SHORT-TERM gems are what he's going for, with long-term headache out of the picture.
And to add to this picture, that trash fee hike was supposed to do it all, and like most political promises, they didn't come through and STILL need more cash for more police.
Tony will be gone. He doesn't care about "later," because it won't matter anymore. Only "now" is what makes a difference- and isn't that the real reason behind the Solar Energy Measure B?
It doesn't end there and with Tony, it never will end. His poor election showing is bad for us, like with a wounded animal. His desperation for higher office will be generating some costly proposals, and they will be pushed with utmost urgency as a main consideration. There's a governor's election next year, and a Democratic nomination to chase before that, you know.
in cd-14, just one opinion.
..."an unknown, non-charasmatic goofy grass roots activist"...
You mean, ...an unknown, non-charasmatic goofy grass roots activist who looks way too much like David Duke...
I've seen the Grand High Wizard himself in person a time or two, so I know of what I speak.
You are a turd to pick on Walter! Why haven't you mentioned the 46,000 votes that have yet to be counted?
Sounds like jealously is in the air. It ain't over!
7:47: The real question is why did DA Steve Cooley decide yesterday the day after the election to file this charge against those two in Miami, stemming from something in 05, 4 years ago? When Zahniser reports that Antonio returned all the money soon as questions arose about it?
Because DA Cooley's pet came in 2nd and can't stand stress testing when the truth comes out about him? The real issue is the way Coolie has been devoting so much effort to install his stoolie...
7:53 AM -
Almost does not count in elections.
Votes do.
Walter had it in his grasp to force the runoff.
But he didn't do what was required.
Who knows - maybe he didn't want to really win.
Higby: What if Moore gets enough of the 46,000 Provisional Ballots and there is a runoff? Have you considered that?
Higby you hypocrite. Alger says good riddance to Zuma Mutt and you rip into him but you get on your all-knowing soap box about Walter.
Walter is not a good candidate, but your rationale for not supporting him could easily be attached to the mutt, whom you would apparently take a bullet for.
If they are still counting ballots why is the only focus on Measure B?
Are they ONLY counting ballots for Measure B?
Something smells...
10:31. Walter would have to get about 30 - 35% of those still uncounted ballots to even come close to pushing T Villar into a runoff. Not very likely. Most likely those votes will break along the same percentages as the rest of the vote as the uncounted votes are from all over the City.
10:37 - totally different. Zuma is none of the things I said about Walter including on the money issue. He didn't raise any, hence he had none to waste. He did however make good use of what he did have and went out and talked to people, made phone calls, did email blasts to tens of thousands of voters, etc.
If Zuma had money and spent it the same way as Walter I would have not voted for him either.
Considering what Zuma accomplished with practically nothing, he could have turned the city around.
Now with respect to Alger he did a very good job of using his campaign resources and despite being massively outspent by the opposition he was very close in the vote. He did calling, precinct walking, GOTV and from what it appears he used his money wisely.
I know Alger said he would never support Walter but he could have run Walter's campaign and forced a runoff.
Michael do you and anyone know if the gang banger Mayor decides as we know most likely will run for governor according to the city charter does he have to resign? I agree that a recall should start at the grass roots level. This guy is a clown and has done nothing but put our city in the shitter. Every newspaper has a negative story on the Mayor and him being re-elected.
Everyone wait! Walter did not loose yet, these results are UNofficial, Norwalk is still verifying the votes, this akes 21 days, 19 more days to go. A lot of illegals could have voted, when illegals are removed the (anemic) 55 percent may go under 50 percent ...
Walter dont move to France yet!
I don't know what math classes the posters here slept through at junior college, but getting 56 percent of the turnout is NOT "nearly being forced into a runoff". PERIOD.
Most of the presidents elected the last 100 years did so with smaller percentages than 56 PERCENT.
And don't scream at me because you hate the reality that AV was re-elected, SO DO I.
I've voted against him THREE TIMES NOW for mayor, and once for councilmember.
My "pedigree" is 100 PERCENT, Anti-AV. (How's yours, Higby??)
It is just simply NOT true that: 1) AV was ever in any danger of not winning March 3; or that, 2) WACKO Walter could have EVER "forced" AV into anything, including a debate.
EVEN if there had only been 2 candidates to begin with, and the other was Mr. Bitter-Moore, that would only have revealed to just that many more people what a WACK job he really was, and AV would have sailed in even easier in the primary.
REALLY, is there that big a difference between being a very popular lame duck and being a not quite so popular lame duck. Probably the only real payoff for Anti-AV people was in the Measure B results.
Remember that when AV was a FIRST term mayor with all kinds of cache, he still couldn't get anything done on substance.
He's a "campaigner" -- not a leader.
Nuff said.
11:37
No, Wacko Walter didn't "loose" yet, but he did LOSE, again.
Get a life (and buy a dictionary, illiterate boob).
11:10
YEESH, Higby, your math skills are worse than some of the morons that post here from their parents' basements.
Assuming there ARE still something like 46,000 uncounted ballots (don't know where that figure comes from - but so what). And, assuming they're all from L.A. City (remember many of the ballots cast Tuesday are from county areas, etc. - for school board seats).
THEN, Villaraigosa ONLY has to get about 20 percent (1 in 5) of the uncounted ones to stay away from a runoff.
Figure it out yourself... about 229,000 votes cast for mayor - round figures - add to that (a possible) 46,000 others, to get 275,000.
So, the sweet spot is about 138,000 (50+ percent), give or take.
AV has 128,000 now, only needs about 10,000 more if all of the (alleged) 46,000 are counted.
If you ACTUALLY believe that after collectively getting 44 percent of those counted, that Wacko and the other 7 dwarves will now pull in 80+ PERCENT of what's NOT counted yet, and force a runoff, then you get to ride in the jump seat on Moore's plane ride when he moves to France (airfare's on me).
(And, the first retard to say "welllll, it COULD happen" gets the deed to Walter's soon-to-be vacated house, and a lifetime supply of tinfoil hats.
I believe that Rick Caruso could have defeated AV with no problem.
However, his family comes first. However, when I wrote to him to ask him to run, he replied saying NO because he wants to devote as much time as possible to his pre-teen children (which is when they need him the most). He didn't want to burden his family with his lack of presence at this time in their lives. But, he did not rule out running when his children are a little order. I have enormous respect for him and believe he can turn this city arround. Even if he is a developer he has proven that he will work with our communities as he did with The Grove and The America. He is a smart business man and knows it is to his benefit to do so.
"I know Alger said he would never support Walter but he could have run Walter's campaign and forced a runoff."
Daffy Duck could have run a better campaign than Walter did but c'mon Higby, you accused Walter of being arrogant and endorsed a guy who videotapes his every move as if he is the center of the universe. That is a joke.
Oh wait, I just remembered, he doesn't videotape everything. There is no footage of his run in with LAPD.
Your lapdog is figuring out that 97% of la couldn't give a rats ass about him. That is a hard reality to face. You set this poor guy up for failure Higby.
Higby
No matter what Moore did it was wrong in your eyes. Bumper stickers and yard signs were, of course, a TERRIBLE idea. Do you ever leave your house? Did you happen to notice that every other car in L.A. had a bumper sticker for Obama? Same with yard signs. I saw hundreds of people with Obama caps and t-shirts. But of course, it's a stupid move to spend money on these things. Ditto for radio ads. What exactly SHOULD he have done?
And let me add, you really don't know what Moore did. How do you know he didn't make phone calls?
You have no idea how many thousands of people he talked to. Because you weren't privy to any of that info. You were shut out because you threw him under the bus. Why would he share strategy with you? To be ridiculed? He's not stupid.
You, of course, can be critical because you've been so successful when you've run for office. Right? Oh, wait - you haven't run for office, have you?
You're bitter, jealous and hypocritical. You chose not to let your readers know what Phil Jennerjahn does for a living. Great move - by doing so Phil got
.88% of the vote. Good thing you kept it under wraps or his percentage would have been less than
.50%. You push a delusional homeless guy as someone who has what it takes to run the second biggest city in the country. Brilliant! Yes, of COURSE Zuma Dogg would do a great job. He knows all about Dr. Demmings 14 point plan. You're crazier than Saltzburg.
Look, at the end of the day, he got one vote for every two Villaraigosa got. And for every FIFTEEN dollars Villaraigosa spent, Moore spent ONE STINKING DOLLAR.
You really have no class, no manners and bad judgement. The right thing to do would be to congratulate Moore on a hard fought campaign. But here's the deal, with you and a lot of others like yourself....if things were good, there'd be no story, would there? There always has to be conflict - that's Television Writing 101. If you have no conflict, you've got no show. So continue to create conflict, people will continue to visit your site, and you will continue to pull in the big bucks from your little blog adventure. What do you make, $30 a month?
Meanwhile Moore can go back to his comfortable life. Zuma can continue to live in his van and beg for food money. Jennerjahn can continue down his delusional path. And I'm done reading your blog.
12:31: Paul Koretz the leading candidate for CD5 says the Grove should be bulldozed as a case of a project that should never have been built.
You use it as an example of good design and working with neighborhoods and a reason why your Caruso should have run as a "good developer."
Koretz is a pandering jerk who built up West Hollywood and ignored CD5 residents furious about the traffic impacts especially on Sunset Blvd, right below the CD5 hills. However Ty/ David Vahedi is the puppet of a small group of homeowners and is worse. They want no development, but their puppet would get no support in council and leave CD5 essentially ignored and outvoted. Sadly the best candidates went down. Sad for CD5.
1:06 - please do not allow your posterior (I'm trying to observe no cussing week) be hit by the door as you exit.
You think Obama won by bumper stickers?
You surely did not study the brilliant campaign tactics of the Davids Plouffe and Axelrod.
Nor, did Walter Moore.
Cheers. Nice to know you.
Love,
Mayor Sam
Oh 1:06 - I never threw Walter under the bus. He did that to himself. Share strategy? No one shares strategy with me. But there is also a public record of what a candidate is doing as well as we can all see what they are doing. Walter didn't have to tell me or any of the other people who agree with me that his campaign was fucked up from the start what he was actually doing because it was painfully obvious.
I can tell that I know personally who early on, before we got to know Walter better, offered him expertise in various areas (free) and these are people who are very talented. He did not accept advice because he felt he knew what he was doing himself. That's fine, but it showed.
And you think that Walter not sending me his e-mail blasts was somehow his attempt at not sharing "strategy" with me because he felt I didn't like him anymore? That's silly. Just because Walter took me off his mail list doesn't mean I wasn't still getting his email blasts. Heck even his own sycophants would email them to me hoping I'd post them on the blog. There was no strategy there.
So feel free to spin, bloviate, lie, spin, bloviate, lie, cut/paste and blog away dummy. You can't change the truth.
How did Walter grow hair on his forehead since that picture was taken?
9:42 am wrote: "7:47: The real question is why did DA Steve Cooley decide yesterday the day after the election to file this charge against those two in Miami, stemming from something in 05, 4 years ago?"
I am not a Cooley fan. However, in his defense, perhaps it was more appropriate for him to file such a charge after the election than before it.
I am curious why this wasn't addressed back in '05. Perhaps it's because such cases evolve over the course of years. Maybe, after the initial filing of charges, more information emerged and, as depositions came in, Phony Tony was revealed for the schmuck he is.
'Just speculating.
WE ALL LOOSE THIS TIME. THE MAYOR RUNS FOR GOVERNOR AND THE CITY GOES TO POT. SOME VICTORY! AT LEAST WALTER WON'T GET SCREWD!!
5:28, if you read the article, and stopped "just speculating," you'd know that "phony tony" wasn't implicated in anything and in fact, the Asst. DA in charge said his ofc. is the one which reported the money as they were supposed to, cooperated and had no knowledge of wrong-doing, gave the money back when the issue was raised. Those two guys seem to have tried to buy influence and were naive to think they could so easily.
So the point is there is NO reason to drag Antonio's name into it now except as a campaign stunt for his buddy. Maybe if he'd have dropped this the day before the elections, it would be too obvious and dirty a trick even for Cooley -- coming now he hopes that people like you look no further than the name of Antonio linked to those clowns -- even though a few paragraphs into the story it explains it away.
That's how his kind plays the game: they know the average person/ voter isn't too bright and has no attention span beyond the first word or image that pops into their heads.
12:45 and 1:06, the "97% of L.A." reference for ZD? If referring to vote, you'll have to scale it down a bit since only 15% came out to vote, and 9,000 of them apparently did not care about any mayor candidate, including the incumbent, good old Antonio.
AND , that 15% showing up being among the "registered voters" is very small, compared to NOT registered who were ineligible by under-age or no citizenship, or just not caring.
The fact is that most of the candidates were ignored, including the Mayor and his nearly $3 million campaign.
The style of argument that belittles the subject or your opponent is what you do when your arguments are short on merit.
For the guy not coming back to the blog- what do you think? It's too hard to not look for something to attack and posts will return from that source.
ANTONIO lost because of TRUTH- he could not debate or the TRUTH migh be revealed and would shoot him down directly instead of just concluding he's a dud and CANNOT debate.
A candidate with good points to bring up would not shut down the debate opportunity. Antonio thought he was too strong and would overcome that negative by more t.v. face time.
Tony was the main one rejecting a debate outright.
Moore's weakness is that his attitude is too condescending and for all the skill he has in court, he irritates people with his "one-upsmanship" with snide comments and those nearly "under your breath" wisecrack comments - kind of like the blog posts above.
Moore is his own worst enemy on that basis. Tony is just a shell and that's why he's got a small army of aides or work would never get done, at least not by TONY. And when it's done, somebody has to fill him in so he can try to talk intelligently on the topic. And you've seen how bad that usually turns out, usually leaving work for Szabo or Saenz to recite to the media.
Great election. Now let's get ready for the next one where the state lawmakers are trying to pull some fast ones on us with taxes.
in cd-14 observing
Rita missed telling us that Walter Moore wears a toupe.
ZD is hoping that Walter will leave his toupee behind so he can wear it and ditch the smelly ski cap.
To March 05, 2009 7:24 PM
Yes, I did read the article. I read the part about reporting the money and cooperating
I also read how Phony Tony met with these folks and denied making any deals with them. THAT is the part I am referring to with regard to depositions.
46,000 is a lot of votes left to be counted.
What if Antonio loses more and more of them and his percentage goes down to 53 or 52?
I felt Walter mismanaged his campaign. Radio ads? He was getting free radio all the time.
He needed mailers and callers to target the people who actually vote.
I was going to spend money on robocalls, but decided not to because I was expecting to lose and I felt the large expense was unnecessary after I went on Good Day LA and got featured in the LA Times.
Did it occur to any of the people saying this, including one former candidate himself that Wacko Walter bought so many ads on radio, etc. so he COULD get so much (so-called) "free media" coverage on the actual programming.
Geez, haven't any of you ever experienced the realities of pay-for-play media coverage, still a major factor on anything you can see or hear on radio or TV?
A guy makes a major media buy, then says, "can you get me on your talk show, too?" Then the ad guys pressure the suits to pressure the talk jocks to interview him.
At least in some large part, Walter NO-moore bought his on-air exposure by buying ads.
PLEASE don't confuse ostensibly objective journalism with the hack screamers that populate local radio. It surely wasn't a case of "don't buy ads, just use all the free airtime.'
Didn't mommy ever tell you, NUTHIN'S FREEE!
You should have read the earlier "match" posts, before posting, Phil. If you had, you might have understood that in order to even drop from 56 percent down to 53, AV would have to fail to get even one-third of the remaining votes -- and, his mostly unknown challengers would have to get two-thirds, after only collectively getting 44 percent of those already counted.
At BEST, any remaining votes will change the overall by less than 1 percent, either way, probably less than one-half percent (which also means AV's percentage could go UP by a half percent).
There's no rhyme, reason, or possibility that the remaining votes would be that skewed that far off from the others. If they were, someone would probably call for an official inquiry -- because there would be evidence of some monkey business.
(And, everyone else, breathe a HUGE sigh of relief that Phil J. won't be trying to balance the next Mayor's budget).
Phil, why on Earth do you think people watch Good Day LA? How many people do you seriously think caught that? Nobody I know.
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