Sheftel questions Krekorians ethics
Hot news update here at Mayor Sam as CD 2 candidate Frank Sheftel has alerted us to the questionable ethical behavior of fellow CD 2 candidate Paul Krekorian.
Krekorian has a piece of campaign literature out that you can view here.
In the piece, Krekorian appeals directly to the Armenian community, as the piece is in English, but also in Armenian. It encourages the Armenian community to register to vote-by-mail -- which gives a voter a much larger window of opportunity to vote for a candidate, as ballots are mailed far in advance of their due date.
Two things are wrong with this. One, the flier asks voters to mail this document back to Krekorians campaign, which would give the Krekorian campaign the advantage of having voter registration information BEFORE the City or County actually had this information.
Secondly, Krekorian is using the County Seal on the document, making it appear that it is an act of official County business.
"Does it pass the smell test?..." asks Sheftel. "I question the ethics of it" he added.
Sheftel also seemed to be concerned that Krekorians webmaster was using devious methods, and that recent searches for "Chris Essel" and "Frank Sheftel" were driving internet searchers to Paul Krekorians website.
Any comments about this from Mayor Sam readers?
Posted by Phil Jennerjahn @ 8/07/2009 03:45:00 PM
54 Comments:
Krekorian's team diverting people to his site when searching for Essel or Shiftel is super shading and if you ask me desperate! It is a low blow! Play clean
Thank you Sheftel. Krekorian's low ethics shows his low quality of leadership!
Krekorian has the Mayor's team. Underground messed up ethics. Shiftel, thanks for this!
What does the County Seal have to do
with a City election? Weird?
Frank is one to talk. He's questionable too. Like selling Michael Jackson candy the day after he died or trying to get press by showing up to Laura Ling's house with a basket of candy the day she got back from N Korea. That's just shady in my view.
All campaigns send out AV forms and Krekorian has reprinted it. This is a non-issue. Frank should be doing the same. That's how Gordon Turner stunned all you guys.
But fringe candidates like Frank and Walter Moore don't believe in get out the vote efforts. They're more into printing signs and getting on TV or radio.
4:10 the County registers voters not the city.
Location, Location, Location and an implied connection. Nothing wrong with using the Seal after all it is a county form. It is the placement of the candidates name next to the seal.
Oh Higby your just going off cause your a Paul guy. Good for Sheftel for outing a shady politician. And Oooh bad guy for bringing candy to a neighbor. Is that all u got? Thanks Sheftel.
Does anyone remember Sammy Davis' song, "The Candyman" or better yet, the horror movie?
Sheftel's search results claim is without basis. Google search results for Chris Essel do not lead to any site for Krekorian for AT LEAST the first 8 pages of results (that's where I stopped). Most people don't look beyond the second page if that.
At the top of the Chris Essel search results are of course Mayor Sam, followed by Essel's personal pages at various social networking sites, Essel's own campaign site, some other blogs and even Zuma Dogg's twitter page!
Ditto for Sheftel. No results for Krekorian. His top results are his own website followed by articles about his candidacy, his business and his pro-pot activities, later followed by this blog and others.
Phil, he's bamboozled you!
Oh please!!! "Questionable ethics" is something you only use against Antonio-associated candidates. Your Nuch had the dirtiest campaign ever, starting with buying Jack Weiss's name and turning it into an attack site before the official campaign even began over a year ago. Then when you googled jack's name for city attorney you got that site which had been set up by the nasty little core group from CD5... He put his name and photo on official-looking Democrat ticket mailers with Robert Kennedy's name on it, but you made a big stink when Weiss's name appeared the other way around. That's Shallman's dirty work,and if some of it is coming back at someone else, they can thank Shallman for it.
It's common practice for campaigns whether for a candidate or ballot initiative(s) to have people send people forms to register to vote by mail, and encourage them to vote for them. You're making it sound like there's something "new" about voting absentee/ "early?"
I do think it's unfortunate if it's turning out to hurt someone not associated with the dirty tricks in another election -- I don't know anything about Sheffel -- but if Shallman hasn't done that for Chris Essel yet it's because she won't let him.
What WOULD bother me is if LIES like Nuch's -- both touting himself and lying about his opponent -- crop up. I don't want to see any other candidate rewarded for that sort of slime now that people are aware to look out for it. Shallman was a piece of work but you can't keep getting away with that.
David Hernandez bamboozled Phil. Sheftel doesn't know how.
Higby.
Gordon Turner only got third place in the Mayors Race because he was the only one who could list an official City job in his candidate description on the ballot. "Deputy City Attorney" sounds pretty fancy. "Homeless Advocate" doesn't.
Voters are hesitant to put a rookie in charge.
That is just a reality of politics.
Wow way to attack the messenger Higby. But I guess u need to defend your buddy PK. If it were Essel playing internet games you'd be all over her. Your guy DOES have questionable ethics. Has he ever finished out a term in any office?
all sites seem to be clean. what was the site the people were being diverted from? this all sounds a bit made up. higby, i followed you lead and just googled all candidates and it seems find. what's the uproar about?
MH, Looks like your support of PK is load and clear. Looks like this site is a lot like the government--Corrupt. And will you monitor and wait for this to be approved too. Can't you post without your bias in the forefront! That sounds "unethical."
Quick spin work Michael but your facts may be blurred by your support of Krekorian.
Frank made the candy for the Jackson wedding and put some samples on display for the press. None were sold as he beleives in keeping his commitment. He had to commit to the Michael and Lisa Maire not to sell any of the extras and unlike some others in this race, he keeps his commitments.
With no sitting council member in CD2, at least one of the candidates had the class to welcome CD2 resident Laura Ling back home.
The return address issue was brought up by the City Clerk not by candidate Sheftel. He was just made aware of it. The matter was sent to the County Registrar- Recorder/Clerk by the City Clerk for them to investigate. Is the City Clerk Shady?
Phil - Maybe - but the key to Gordon's success was the significant AV effort he made especially with in getting homeless people to vote for him. Ask Don Garza!
If Walter Moore had an AV and GOTV effort he might have been the one go to go Iceland and South Africa with Lu Parker, not Tony.
If you want an EXCELLENT example of how a grassroots candidate can mount a successful challenge through GOTV efforts look at Louis Pugliese. He came within 500 votes of knocking off a union, big money, Villaraigosa backed candidate because he had the troops on the ground GOTVing.
Everyone else is just playing candidate.
BTW, I will never again support ANY grassroots candidate that doesn't make a commitment to GOTV. I will go with the most acceptable status quo candidate instead.
non story. nothing illegal, nothing unethical. If there was, the County would have put a stop to it.
This is an official county document, thus it has to have the seal. Also, sending out vote by mail applications is a VERY common campaign practice. You bitching about having the voter reg info before the county and city shows how ignorant you are of the campaign process. In order to send out this mail you have to have the voter reg info, which every campaign buys from Political Data. Second, the County releases all the information, especially for those who are vote by mail voters.
Second, whats wrong with encouraging armenian-americans to vote? Is it wrong for Antonio to encourage Latinos to vote? Or how about Brad Sherman or Tamar targeting Jewish voters?
Sheftel and Shallman are just pissed that non-White people are votig in droves for Paul.
As for the internet search...you are a retard. NO ONE can manipulate Google search results, the only thing you can do is buy ads based on key words, like chris essel or frank sheftel. Nothing illegal, nothing unethical.
talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Sheftel runs a pot-clinic that was opened up on a "hardship" loophole. if you tried to do that now, you wouldnt be allowed, but shady sheftel got away with it when people weren't looking.
Dont you think its strange to run a candy shop AND a weed pharmacy?
Really!? This is pushing it, even for an idiot like jenerjahn.
Let me get this straight, you are trying to paint PK as unethical becuase he's working to get out the vote? So it's in Armenian and English, good for him, he's doing what any smart campaign does and capitalizing on his base. Any campaign is free to reach out to whatever ethnic group it wants. This is America, remember?
Oh my, Sheftel did a google search and is upset that he didn't come up first. Make some news and your name will come up too.
And I wasn't aware that Frank Sheftel was some sort of expert on ethics. This is the guy that sells weed, right?
If Sheftel filed a complaint against Krekorian they have to investigate it no matter how oddball.
Either way, his PR stunts on Michael Jackson and Laura Ling, whether he made money or not, were disconcerting. Just trying to get PR.
how come the city clerk didnt "alert" any of the other campaigns?
is sheftel good friends with the clerks office?
This is what I saw about the Michael Jackson candy:
Frank has begun to prepare authentic replicas made from the molds used for the Jackson-Presley Wedding.
So I guess that doesn't mean he was SELLING that chocolate but either way it was trading on his death.
Anyway Sheftel, Mary Benson, et al need to be out there canvassing voters, door to door, making calls and not spinning on Mayor Sam.
Even Chris Essel knows that and has people canvassing (though she has n parking for them)
BTW, Thanks Phil for the clickety-clicks!!
Higby you may wish to warn Krekorian to make sure that Frank doesn't go all Craig X Rubin on him! Remember how those pot candidates get!
Weed & Candy?!! This guy totally has my vote. And with
over 600 Weed shops I'm sure I'm not the only vote for him.
Yes Krekorian is guilty-
of Campaigning.
Frank Shiftel might next accuse Krekorian of canvassing or attending candidate forums.
There is no story here.
I thought it was a nice gesture that Frank Sheftel welcomed Laura Ling back from her horrible ordeal in North Korea with chocolates. The Ling family live in CD2 and currently CD2 has no representative so I for one am glad he represented the community in welcoming her back.
Y'all are trying to make it sound like nice gestures should be questioned. I don't want to live around people who are suspicious of good deeds. I want to live around someone who recognizes something as simple as common courtesy. A hard thing to find in politics if you ask me. I'm glad this Frank guy is displaying some human characteristics.
Wow is this a record? 31 comments and Michael posting 9 of them himself in attack mode.
Chris owes Frank a big hug. She was only mentioned a couple to times.
MARK MY WORDS:
Essel is going to spend a significant amount of money on TV ads (probably 6 figures).
IBEW is going to do a large IE on her behalf.
And after all of this, she is going to make it into the runoff, but barely.
Michael,
google searches of Mary Benson were also taking people to Krekorians Website. Mary and I discussed this yesterday.
It is a service you can pay for.
I think it's kind of a cheap shot.
Phil, thank you so much for posting this. You are an important independent voice in city politics, and we thank you for it.
There's more backstory to this than even Sheftel is onto. The backstory is SO disturbing, it makes me wonder how anyone who cares about democracy can support Krekorian.
In a year of many other needs, Paul Krekorian is pushing a bill through the Legislature that gives campaigns the ability to directly manipulate Vote-By-Mail ballots andescape any consequences. The bill would literally be a license for our Sacramento politicians to keep themselves in office by any means necessary. Incredibly, the campaign manager of the bill's author has thrice been investigated for voter fraud. With all the focus in Sacramento on the budget stalemate, this dangerous bill has gotten little attention.
Here's the gist: Currently, if an elderly voter (or any other absenteevoter) wishes to have someone else take his or her ballot to the polls or even mail it, the voter must give the ballot to a close relative or caregiver, who must signan affidavit of relationship and identify him- or herself on theballot envelope. This is a precaution to make sure that sweet old Gertrude Jones' vote-by-mail ballot is handled by her son, John Jones,instead of Jim Smith for State Assembly. The law also requires that a relative or caregiver handle the ballot, because if any stranger could (or, worse still, a campaign), that person could change the votes or just not turn it in, if the votervoted for the "wrong" candidate.
For the hundred years that vote by mail has existed, states haverecognized that allowing campaigns to handle vote-by-mail ballots is just too tempting, and that even the appearance of impropriety there is just too great. This is all about to change, if this bill passes. It would allow campaigns, thugs, goons, anyone to handle VBM ballots withoutlimitation: collect them, bring them to polls, mail them, etc. As many people know, this can lead to serious problems among the elderly and minorities, especially recent immigrants from countries where being browbeaten into voting a certain way was a normal part of one's civics education in the old country.
***And finally, get this.*** Krekorian's Campaign Manager / Political Consultant (Eric Hacopian of EDH and Associates) has not once, not twice, but threetimes been investigated for . . . You guessed it: manipulating the votes on absentee ballots!
(Check out: http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/15/local/me-patt15
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/D.A.+MIGHT+REVIEW+VOTE+APPLICATIONS+IN+ASSEMBLY+RACE.-a0146202332
In fact, the City of Glendale recently passed an ordinance prohibiting consultants from touching ballots, due in a large part to allegations about the Hacopian/Krekorian machine.
Now, Krekorian is in the race of his life to cling to a public paycheck, running for Los Angeles city counsel because his time in Sacramento is almost up. His bill is just too close a tie to be mere coincidence.
No one is convicted of anything in either of those articles. Only one of the articles even mentions investigation and it's in this context:
"Just because a complaint or information is sent to us that does not mean that we automatically open an investigation,'' said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office."
Which means just becuase you accuse someone of something doesn't mean they did it. Many campaigns make these kinds of accusations when they are desperate, often they are just mad becuase they suck.
The people posting about Krekorian (or anyone else) manipulating Google search results have absolutely no clue what they are talking about. Any service that tells you that they can lead your web traffic elsewhere is RIPPING YOU OFF. Higby is correct about the search results Google is displaying as he says as is Yahoo, Bing, etc.
Phil Jennerhate gets gamed by the candy pot guy. Higby fast knocks the shit down before even the Krekorian spinners can get it. By the time the Essel people come into the game they all appear to be amateurs.
Someone should hire Higby to spin.
Frank Sheftel says that internet searches for other candidates names in the CD 2 race take people to Paul Krekorians website.
I tend to believe him....from personal experience.
My webmaster set up a live feed program on my website when I was running for Mayor and I ended up getting a LOT of hits from people who were originally doing searches for my opponents.
Krekorian is coming up on Google Ads when you search for the other candidates, - anyone can do this.
For example, you could set it up that when you google "marijuana" an ad comes up saying "Sheftel for CD2."
PK did that to Mary Beson's site yesterday about half a day.
Uggghhhh!!
Google Ads is not something you "do to" a website. It's a PAID way of getting an ad when someone Googles the competition.
Google is not a government agency and can sell all the ads it wants.
No one can "jack" a website.
Okay, some of you who post here really are retarded. It's almost funny the shit you're coming up with.
Sheftel's in with the City Clerk..lol
Diverting people to websites is low and unclean..as though Paul himself set that up. Lydia come on, don't make Mary look silly by posting your private conversations.
Mayor Sam, I am with you 100%. The only way a grassroots candidate can win is by a hard GOTV campaign and knocking on NEARLY EVERY DOOR in the district. Lazy people need not apply unless they're rich. If you're rich, you don't have to GOTV as hard.
I also agree with Mayor Sam about the AV voters. Any candidate who doesn't do that is just plain stupid. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they know what you mean MS. I fear they don't know absentee voting and think when you write AV that you're talking about Villaraigosa.
Whew boy. This is going to be some kind of crazy race.
Grassroots candidates - work your asses off because "I" don't want to see anyone else win.
But if stupidity makes me choose, I'm picking the least of the evils and that means if Mary Benson doesn't work herself to death, I hope Paul wins.
I'm not going to spend the time to explain to you people how Google searches work but suffice it to say most of you don't know what you're talking about. I work in the industry, have been to Google several times and have run this site for five years. I know what I'm talking about.
No one can manipulate Google search results as you folks suggest and Google is able to very quickly identify anyone who tries and will block their website from searches.
The other things you accuse Krekorian of border on illegal hacking activity that I really doubt he's dumb enough to try.
Finally there is a major difference between Google AdWords and Google's organic search results. If your campaign doesn't know the difference, you shouldn't be running.
1:48 am, excellent post and you are 100% correct.
I had thought of that, when I referred to "AV" people might think I meant Villaraigosa voters.
We're not dealing with many geniuses here.
The term used to be PAV, or permanent absentee voter- Now they are called VBM, or vote by mail. They represent anywhere from 20-40% of the vote. Whoever gets them usually wins.
OH HIGBY PLEASE SPARE US ALL THE TECHIE NERD DETAILS.....Bottom line when u typed in candidates names to do a search- Benson , Essel. Sheftel....sites popped up with Krekorians right on top. I checked it out myself last night. It just seems like a little deception and trickery. If thats what you support good for you.
Urgh, there's no trickery here, it's an ad. Anyone can buy one, so quit yer whining already. What a bunch of goobers.
910 when you lie about something you don't know about you look like a fool.
Hey guess what?
When you do a search for Gavin Newsom there are PAID ads for Steve Poizner.
Do a search for Acer Laptops and there are PAID ads for Toshiba laptops.
Do a search for Mayor Sam commenters and there are PAID ads for Immodium AD.
Get it?
Benson, Sheftel, Phil Jennerjahn, whoever can BUY paid ads. The great thing about Google is you can bid on keywords and set your own budget. If Frank Sheftel wants ads to show up for him in Google he should BUY them.
Otherwise the top search result for Frank is Mayor Sam anyway. So people can read about him here.
Ok Higby what was the lie? Cause you
admit that searches can be manipulated
for a price. Who lied about what here? I only
see somebody exposing someone elses tactics.
Did I miss something?
The lie is that Krekorian is manipulating the search results. Google CLEARLY makes a difference between ADS and ORGANIC search results. The posts that Krekorian "hijacked" Mary's website or Frank's website are unbelievable. What Krekorian did was BUY ADS ON GOOGLE. Probably elsewhere too. All candidates do that. Pepsi Cola does that. Even OBAMA! Its not illegal or immoral.
Some of you are quite obtuse. I am gratified that there are a handful of posters at least who can comprehend and not go nutsy koo koo like the birthers or the 911 truthers.
SADLY RUNNING FOR OFFICE IS A DIRTY GAME MADE DIRTIER BY SPECULATION ON ALL SIDES. PEOPLE NEED FACTS, CHARACTER MATTERS. FRANK MAY USE THE MEDIA TO GET EXPOSURE THAT'S THE NAME OF THE GAME. I AGREE THAT STREET CAMPAIGNING IS NEEDED BUT SO IS RADIO AND TV EXPOSURE, GET REAL. PEOPLE VOTE FOR NAMES THEY RECOGNIZE I WISH MOST WOULD LOOK DEEPER BUT MANY WON'T. LESSER FUNDED CANDIDATES NEED THE SAME EXPOSURE AS DO WELL FINANCED CANDIDATES, THEY NEED STRONG GRASSROOT SUPPORT TO BE HEARD TIL THIS HAPPENS WE ALL WILL BE STUCK IN A ENDLESS CYCLE.
g dude, you are preaching about reading up on the issues and candidates at the same time you're baffled that we aren't still posting about Paul Koretz's seat.
I hate to say you are reinforcing my "oh my god, most of these posters are so stupid" but -- well, if the shoe fits...
You might a really nice person, but you definitely need to bone up on your reading and get a tad more educated on the issues.
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