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Monday, September 21, 2009

Interesting Financial Data from "Californians for Krekorian in 2010"

"I was hoping to speak from here more in the future"
CD 2 City Council Candidate Chris Essel, with John Shallman's "talking points" next to her, gave it her best shot in the KPCC "Air Talk" CD 2 Special Election Debate with the "Big Three Candidates", moderated by host Larry Mantle.
Essel for the most part, was the decisively lesser candidate in this three-way exchange. But she did awkwardly hit Paul Krekorian with the accusation that Krekorian had made payments to Campaign Consultant Eric Hacopian from his 2010 Assembly Campaign Fund, and guess what?? He did.
The payments listed below were made to Hacopian between January 1, 2009 and September 16, 2009 from the "Californians for Krekorian in 2010" account on file with the Secretary of State. One wonders if these are the debt payments Krekorian alluded to in the debate?? Yeah right!!
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $6,000.00
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,000.00
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,000.00
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,000.00
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,000.00
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,000.00
EDH & ASSOCIATES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,000.00
In retrospect, it is no wonder that Krekorian was befuddle and halting in responding to Essel's "desperation round house punch", attacking his use of campaign funds.
But this disclosure coming on the back of the "$15,000 Televised Appreciation Spot" courtesy of fellow Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes-Handel, makes you wonder if Krekorian and Hacopian are playing "games" with campaign finance laws.
** One can review Krekorian's 460 forms and try to find where the word "loan" is use in describing the above payments.
Your thoughts.....................................

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30 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

My thoughts are Shallman should not be wasting his time and talents on such a pathetic candidate.

Shallman - Use your skills to help this community. Not the Mayor.

September 21, 2009 1:32 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Krekorian has got some splainin' to do.

He said the payments to Hacopian were for past debts. Past debts for an election that hasn't happened?

These payments to his current City Council consultant during his City Council campaign out of his assembly campaign committee are almost a year before the 2010 primary election.

It's likely these "payments" are financing his mail and field program for City Council. That's illegal.

Follow the money:

Lobbyist and special interest money up to $3,900 per contribution goes into Krekorian for Assembly 2010.

Krekorian pays Hacopian (his Council Consultant) tens of thousands of dollars in "consulting fees" out of the Assembly account.

Hacopian pays for mailers, postage, and other campaign related items for Krekorian for City Council.

Krekorian for City Council pays Hacopian a nominal fee/reimbursement for producing 25 direct mail pieces (see ethics website).

Normally, an average mail piece to voters in CD 2 would cost between $12k and $17k per mailer--depending on how many voters were mailed. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say he only spent $10k per mailer. That means his mail program alone should have cost a quarter of a million dollars. Yet he only shows expenditures of less than half that.

How did he do it?

He's paying for it out of the Assembly campaign and Hacopian is accruing a debt to be paid back later out of...yes you guessed it...the Assembly campaign.

No wonder Krekorian was flabbergasted. He's busted.

September 21, 2009 1:46 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

DA Cooley is using his henchmen to raid the two homes of recently elected Democrat (of course) State Sen. Roderick Wright, to see if he really lives in the house that's in his district. Needless to say, Cooley was backing the OTHER candidate.

If Krekorian or Essel get in, watch out, your cribs will be ransacked for "proof," no joke.

September 21, 2009 2:02 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I don't like Krakorian, but still less do I like - that is I detest - this sort of Shallman campaign strategy, where he tries to "get" the far more experienced and credible candidate over some minor technical financing issue, which can be an oversight made by advisors. This is petty, disingenuous (a word he's taught Essel to use, since it's what HE does, tries to pre-empt the opponent with the accusation). This desprives voters of the best candidate and rewards being "a blank slate," who can then turn out to be utterly incompetent when the campaign mgrs. are gone. He already tried twisting Krakorian's voting record.

Not that Krekorian wasn't "disengenuous" blaming the city for spending $30 million on Cirque instead of public safety when he knew damn well the money was designated for certain uses.

September 21, 2009 2:07 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Chris Essel is the Jack Weiss of this election.

September 21, 2009 2:13 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

My thought is Krikornian and Harcopian are play games for sure and I be complete befuddle.

September 21, 2009 2:16 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Essel the empty vessel accusing Krekorian of corrupt money?
Did I not read that the Union of Painters bought Essel for $35,000?
Of course, they bought only a part of her. Other unions have a steak in this seat too.

September 21, 2009 2:22 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

What's funny is that even as the peanut gallery is trying to link all three top candidates to Villaraigosa and think it's mostly Essel, the Times endorsed her for being the most "independent of City Hall" and the Mayor. The election's tomorrow and you're all still pointing fingers at this one and that one. Your Republican candidate Mary and her promotion by Moore-James won't work, though since they've raised no money and she's a poor public speaker.

Absolutely right about the latest Cooley political vendetta investigation on the Dem Senator, wasting money and misusing power of office harassing him for beating his chosen candidate. LANow also has the story. This is why Nuch wants to hire 200 private cops of his own during this budget crisis, to harass the Mayor and anyone who isn't sucking up to his clique. Plus it serves his purposes that as his allies gut the LAPD he can hire some cops and earn their "loyalty."

September 21, 2009 2:28 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Is that how Serbians do business?

September 21, 2009 2:33 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

2:13 PM

I served with Jack Weiss, I knew Jack Weiss, and although Jack Weiss was no friend of mine, Chris Essel is no...umm actually, wait, yes, Chiris Essel IS the Jack Weiss of this campaign...

Let me be the first to que the music...happy trails, to you. Until we meet again...

Sorry CE staffers scouring this blog, and you know who you are, time to dust off that resume and shift over to the next race...

September 21, 2009 2:37 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

It disturbs me that Paul Krekorian has such a distinguished record fighting for the underprivileged and this is how Red Spot thanks him.

September 21, 2009 2:43 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

They are not airing the budget finance committee meeting today. No one can call in cause all the lines tied up. Ummmmmm wonder if Bitter Bernie didn't want people to know what was actually going on today. 2 shot at MacArthur Park in broad daylight. Wait til gang members take over the Park again when they furlough officers.

September 21, 2009 2:48 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

2:48, the cops can thank their idiot political protective league union leader Paul Weber for not having a contract yet and getting cut. After spending a million bucks to elect an outsider against the mayor they now expect him to be on THEIR side?

The mayor wants more cops on the streets even if some highly-paid senior cops have to "share the sacrifice," and Weber's got to get realistic or face outright layoffs.

With the Times and general public siding with the Mayor on this one, Weber can tell his guys they might get to work as part of Trutanich's Private Police Political Espionage Dept. spying on their former buddies as well, if the council's stupid and afraid enough to let him get away with it.

September 21, 2009 3:08 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Anyone see the KNBC 4 segment about Zuma Dogg and the election tomorrow that ran in the 11am hour? I missed it. What was the spin? I heard it was a nice reflection from someone who caught the last part.

September 21, 2009 3:20 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Or maybe he was actually settling debts with his consultant. Hacopian has managed PK's campaigns before, it's very possible that he was paying for previous campaigns. In any case, this accusation is questionable since there are no dates on those expenditures. The reporting period is from the beginning of 2009, before CD 2 was even open. Give PK's campaign a little more credit, everyone knows this is public record and they aren't stupid enough to pull anything illegal out in the open like that, nor do they need to.

September 21, 2009 3:47 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

It wouldn't be the first time Red Spot made libelous claims. Krekorian should sue.

September 21, 2009 4:13 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Some one should just tell Shallman to SHUT UP.

Hacopian has whipped your ass up and down CD2 at half the money, and this is the best you can come up with?

September 21, 2009 4:16 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Can you spell Martin Ludlow?

Good for Chris for showing us all the Emperor has no clothes or ethics.

If Paul pulls this off, will we need 2 special elections in six months after the DA gets through with him? One for the 43rd AD and one for CD2...

September 21, 2009 4:17 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I am glad to see that Eric Hacopian is finally being exposed as the face of evil in LA politics.

The one thing that a lot of people don't know is that he is Parke Skelton's brother in law.

That is all you need to know about that man.

September 21, 2009 4:23 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Shallman used John Thomas as his mouthpiece and liason to his buddies at the Times like David Z, and Jim Newton and Robert Greene in editorial to act as their PR agents for Nuch. Thomas isn't working for Benson, doesn't think she has much of a chance, and he and Shallman are on opposite sides on this one anyway.

Shallman can only "succeed" for Republicans who have Thomas AND the James-Cooley-Zine-Knabe-PPL etc. machine going for them. (They also ran Cooley, the master of tricks and intimidation, using the fire-power of his office's legal and private eye staffs to besmirch and intimidate opponents and currently, convening a Grand Jury against some poor schlobb who dared "expose him" as a Republican.)

Shallman needs a candidate who's a better liar and phony than poor Chris Essel. She's actually fine on her own, it's the Shallman part that's hurting her. To be fair, she should be looked at in her own right, not as a Shallman client.

September 21, 2009 4:43 PM  

Blogger Michael Higby said:

Spoot are you on Shallman's payrool? (misspelling intentional)

LOL

September 21, 2009 4:49 PM  

Blogger Red Spot in CD 14 said:

Waiting for some "pay pal" from Shallman.

LOL!!

September 21, 2009 4:55 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Rubbish! You gotta show more than an unsupported list with no dates. And Shallman talking points by her side? Ha! Essel had Shallman himself by her side since she was allowed to phone it in. That way he could give her notes for her responses. Larry Mantle should have required her physical presence in the studio. That way the candidates were face-to-face and not able to cheat on this "exam". Essel's a liar and a cheat. Guess she can't do anything else since she isn't knowledgeable enough to stick to the issues. Instead she attempts to stick it to another candidate. I guess Essel looked good on paper to the Mayor, but she's quickly turned into the Edsel of this race.

September 21, 2009 4:57 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

That's it, Red Spot.

You are fired.

Eric Hacopian, Owner, Mayor Sam's Sister City.

Don't laugh, Higby, you're fired, too, for letting red Spot post here.

Parke, take over.

Eric Hacopian

September 21, 2009 5:32 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Honestly folks, the jokes here on this topic are just not funny.

THE HACOPIAN-KREKORIAN MACHINE IS DISGUSTING.

Krekorian flaunts city ethics laws. Does anyone seriously think that Krekorian had debts to Hacopian dating back to the 2008 race where Krekorian was unopposed? This is sick. It's just such a blatant disregard for city ethics laws, it really gives Krekorian a bad name.

But payback's a female dog. Hacopian will be investigated for the absentee shenanigans in this race.

Get him out of politics permanently.

September 21, 2009 6:48 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

that crap about paying $10,000 for a mailer is just that, crap!

any consultant worth their weight can milk a printer and gang-run a bunch of units and get a massive discount.

its more like $5000 - $7,000 for each mailer, and that is how Krekorian is able to send out 26 pieces for so cheap. Also, dont assume they are like Shallman, just blasting every voter with a mailer, Krekorian's team has targeted voters to a very large degree and they have utilized regional mailing to ensure each area gets a unique mailer designed for their issues. You can verify that on the ethics list, his printing invoices are there as well.

Shallman is just trying to make up some shit so he doesn't look bad for raping his client out of her money

September 21, 2009 6:48 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Wow, I just entered the Shallman bash session. Probably a bunch of Weissholes still smarting from the ass whoopin. I'm not an Essel fan but I didn't think Trutanich would win either. The haters on this blog (Krek's campaign staff who worked for Weiss) shouldn't underestimate. They ought to know better.

September 21, 2009 8:35 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I love how specific Paul Krekorian is in his response to this blog on his targeted mailing. Wow, Shallman is really in your head. Now you're giving away strategy.

You're being played like a fiddle.

September 21, 2009 8:39 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

1:46 & 6:48 Keep ranting if it makes you feel better but prove it. It's a cheap shot to make these unfounded accusations, so if you want to bolster your claims, prove it. I guess your riding another pony in this race. Hope you didn't bet too much.

September 21, 2009 10:09 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hear that thud? That's the sound of Chris Essel kicking Shallman's ass tomorrow night.

Wednesday, the malpractice suit starts.

Stick a fork in Shallman. He's done.

September 22, 2009 1:03 AM  

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