James: Something About Mary
Update: I'll be appearing on Kevin James' show during the 11:00 p.m. hour.
KRLA's Kevin James has endorsed Mary Benson for LA City Council District Two.
James told his audience that voters have the opportunity to elect a grass-roots candidate. He said that such a person could beat the establishment candidates if everyone gets on board with his choice.
KRLA's Kevin James has endorsed Mary Benson for LA City Council District Two.
James told his audience that voters have the opportunity to elect a grass-roots candidate. He said that such a person could beat the establishment candidates if everyone gets on board with his choice.
Labels: cd2 special election, kevin james, Mary Benson
Posted by Michael Higby @ 9/18/2009 10:22:00 PM
82 Comments:
Kevin just put his value on the line with this endorsement. She better deliver on Tuesday or he'll be a joke on Wednesday.
Backed another loser like Walter, the Walter Moore-endorsed candidate. She's a Republican, wants to work with Trutanich and Zine she told James earlier, that's his ultimate litmus test.
Joe M right again.
Very interesting....
Not changing my vote, but this is a nice gesture after the folks in Sunland Tujunga went for Tamar.
Kevin James is giving very legitimate reasons why he chose Mary Benson.
He's pointing out the flaws in the other candidates.
Good work by Kevin. VERY thorough.
The "bloggin mentor" makes the call.
Props to Joe Mailander.
Your Friend,
Spot
Kevin threw Sheftel, Zuma, Sanchez, Essavi and McCue under the bus.
Is this an independent expenditure?
I just can't for a Republican Mormon that wears bullet-proof god underwear
Mmmary for Council? The squirrel chasing wacko? Wow! Does Kevin know?
Dumb move: if James' people do go out and vote they'll help elect Paul or Essel, taking votes from Tamar, the least Big 3 of the Big 3, the one he claims to have liked most.
This helps Krekorian.
Though there are several good candidates, the only way to beat the three special interests is for everyone else to get behind ONE candidate.
I believe Mary Benson is the best candidate, and I urge the other seven grassroots candidates to throw their support behind her for the good of the city.
I've known Mary for over a decade. She's "for real." She's not running because she's a "wanna be" politician. She's running to fix this city. Her education, experience, and track record of serious community support make her the best candidate.
Does Kevin know that Mary isn't even supported by her own community?
Tamar is laughing at this endorsement. Zuma is crying like no tomorrow!
I meant to say "the REST of the seven candidates."
Walter how much are you being paid by Mary?
Walter, do you have to bill Mary for your endorsement?
Come on everyone get on Mary's Magical Mormon Underwear Tour!
Joe M always calls it right, that's why he has endorsed Tamar.
Good night all, have to get some rest as we have four days of campaigning to do. Sorry it won't be for Mary.
P.S
The push poll they are speaking of was a fix to make Paul look good and Chris look bad. Sorry you fell for it.
"Hello Kevin? This is Michael Higby, also known as Mayor Sam. Can I come on your show? I need clicks. Hello? Hello? Damn, he hung up on me again!"
I wonder if Higby will explain to Kevin James how he thinks Krekorian(!) is the right pick..(???)
Does Kevin know about Mmmary's lawsuit settlement against the City?
Well done Kevin and Walter! You've chosen the only electable grass roots candidate.
Kevin James' endorsement will run through CD2 like a viral email and suddenly the light will come on in the minds of the people who will actually go and vote and they'll realize that they don't want one of Villaraigosa "BIG 3" candidates.
They don't want a fake prosecutor who has NEVER tried any cases involving serious crime (it's all trash dumping and noisy neighbors with Tamar) and
They don't want an irrelevant carpetbagger like E$$el, and
They don't want a career politician from Sacramento.
If Walter says yes, I say no.
Right Wing Mormon Mary Benson will never win in Studio City, North Hollywood and with the backpack bunch in Sunland-Tujunga.
If Joe M endorsed Tamar, she'll win. Even though James' pick takes votes away most from Tamar, since they'd never consider Paul or Chris.
This time the "minor" candidates aren't all against ONE, however, so they'll cancel out each other and Mary, making her harmful impact less. But Walter and James are dreaming if they think they can anoint the next councilmember. These two clowns choosing their soulmate, another Zine-Trutanich-Thomas (guest John Thomas is their campaign manager), is really scary.
James doesn't think too much of Nuch's homegirl Janice running for Lt. Gov because he's often said how stupid she is. Well, that's why she's been dubbed the female Forrest Gump.
Did Mary Benson support Prop 8?
She's a Mormon, what do you think?
All of Trutanich's people are now going to vote for Mary Benson, so she's going to be in the run off against one of Villaraigosa's candidates, probably the least detestable one; Kreckorian.
Interesting that Trutanich himself has NOT endorsed Tamar, wonder what's up with that?
The pro Walter Moore, anti-Villaraigosa and Jack Weiss folks will win it for Mary Benson, and all the monied campaign hacks are squealing like stuck pigs now.
Mary Benson is not a Morman and she's not a Republican. Sorry Tamar, lies don't work here.
Yes she is, just ask anyone. Better yet, just ask her.
But wait, there's more. So far in this race, we haven't seen the big dem guns coming out. Yes, of course I mean the environmentalists; Ed Begley, Jr and his Toyota Prius.
Expect Ed's endorsement at any moment.
Expect it to do as much for the Big 3 as it did for Jackass Weisshole.
Please clarify: Mary Benson isn't really a Mormon, is she?
11:07 = Tamar - hard day at the office? Oh, you weren't there were you. Too busy campaigning on our dime.
I'd give up the Mormon thing if I were you. It's about as compelling as the NRA crap that you tried to use against Trutanich.
10:31 only a small handfull in Sunland-Tujunga announced their endorsement of Tamar, not the entire community.
Ed Begley already endorsed Chris Essel -- early on.
Just ask Mary. She will tell you.
You can't have Mary Benson being a "closet Republican" if you want her to tap the real conservative Republican base of Walter Moore and Cooley-Zine-Trutanich. No time to hide behind that armored underwear!
11:14, a group of community heavyweights from S-T endorsed Tamar.
Joe B and Abby Diamond and Dan McManus support Tamar. That's not a group to be ignored (just ask Home Depot).
10:31 & 10:40 only a very small handfull of people in Sunland-Tujunga announced endorsement of Tamar, not the entire community so qualify your statement or get over yourselves.
Ed Begley, for that matter Jack Weiss, with his national-name endorsements and values, would have meant more at a state or national level. This has been a whole different ballgame, the endless round of debates with the likes of some of these candidates, if Benson's the "most mainstream" of the bunch.
(Though they ARE more "mainstream" than the ones who ran against Antonio for mayor, and none of them made fools of themselves if you don't count the "what am I doing here" Bisani or McClueless.)
With Sunland-Tujunga setting the tone, this has been more small- town with the same handful of stalwarts coming and voting, mostly the gray-hairs, middle-class homeowners the ones who care about Measure B and DWP ratepayer issues, etc.
Kevin James blasted Walter Moore along with Doug Macyntire for months and months and it wasn't enough to get Moore into a run off with the most unpopular mayor in history. Walter had hundreds of thousands of dollars, too. Plus, the mayor election was citywide. So only a small amount of the audience can even vote. So this last minute audience pitch isn't much and isn't going to be enough to push her into a run off.
Give me a break, they are only three people and they didn't beat Home Depot by themselves. There is no way they could have succeeded in beating HD without community support!
I think Abby, Joe, Dan and the others all in all, like Mary too.
I was contacted by someone who said they had a group of activists from Sunland-Tujunga supporting Mary Benson and they wanted to issue a statement like JoeB's group did for Tamar and the Valley Glen group did for Paul.
I told them that would be fine to draft a statement, put their names on it and send it to me. Then he just sent me an email why he supports Mary. I tried to coach him and his friend on how to do it but even they though seemed like really nice people they couldn't get it together.
It appears the best that they could do is get some woman named Elaine to get Red Spot to post her endorsement.
If Mary is as organized as she says she is and is tied to the NCs in the North Valley as she says she is how come she can't organize a similar effort to JoeB?
You may not agree with their choice and you may not think they represent Sunland-Tujunga (and I think they ate too many of Tamar's cookies LOL) but no one can organize like JoeB and Abby. Their work will easily turn out several hundred votes for Tamar in ST and I don't think Mary is going to do very well there at all.
For her sake I hope Mary really does have this secret army she told Kevin James about to GOTV. Krekorian's people have been out there for months, calling, robo-calling, mailing and walking like crazy. Everyone I know in CD2 has heard from him but not all of them have heard from Essel, Tamar, etc.
I think Mary may have some very passionate supporters but I don't sense they're that sophisticated about campaigning.
But we will see.
A woman who sounded Mary's age called in to say she represents the animal people, the horse people who don't mind slogging through horse doo to get out the vote - but this Pat wasn't even hooked upto email. Sounds like Mary's got a niche core following who "can't get it together" because they're "out there" in more ways than one. (Not just the way many of Walter's are.) She is not a ready-for-prime-time candidate, this isn't Green Acres.
I think you're right, people like Mary, respect her work and she's very knowledgeable. But does she has the charisma, speaking ability and cojones to be in that horseshoe? Don't know.
Something I didn't mention to Kevin on the air tonight is that if Mary gets into a run-off whether its against Paul, Tamar or Essel they will savage her for being a Republican.
And for those of you who are saying she isn't a Republican, she is. She just got the endorsement of the Republican Party along with Joe Essavi.
Michael,
For the record, the choice to post Elaine's endorsement in the CD 2 Special Election, was my only.
I felt that Elaine's pick was a message worth sharing regardless of personal leanings.
Simply a community message worth repeatin considering the plight that S-T had to endure in the recent days.
Spot
Did you hear that lady on Kevin's show tonight. He told her to send out an email blast. When she said, "I don't have email," Kevin had to say, "Then tell people who do." Quite a sophisticated level of people supporting her.
If JoeB and Abby are pushing for Tamar in ST, then you can be sure they will deliver a lot of votes.
They are highly respected here for their Home Depot win efforts and the many other things they do to help ST.
Maybe you forgot that the Mayor's race was drawing about 18% of the L.A. registered voters to decide the race without the other 82% acting.
As it was, barely half of the votes went to TONY, with Wendy Greuel getting more votes that TONY and the total number of votes for "Mayor" was less than the number of voters- some skipped this category altogether.
Now the CD-2 election is more interesting and whoever gets out the most bodies to the polls should win. Even with the election as important as this, lots of people barely know about anything of it if it's not in the lame t.v. news.
I still favor David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg, but don't live in CD-2, and all the not-so-gracious opponents would have to consider him even though they say he's no threat. The continued attacks say otherwise.
Voters in a city election will not go out to vote because of the voter apathy that even the thoroughly literate people demonstrate simply enough, "What election?"
They don't know the candidates and consider one candidate to be the same as any other, "So why bother? It doesn't make any difference." Yes, apathy.
This is how Tony stays in office and how the other CMs get over at election time.
Asking any candidate now to fold and support another would be a disservice to the candidate and to the supporters. Play it out. The run-off in December will call for that endorsement action so wait until then if you don't make a run-off.
The very worst outcome Tuesday would be to have Krekorian, a super slickster who's seen that it's time to trade-up to a higher paying job, and Essel as the other one pulling in the most votes (Only a hypothetical). Even being mildly informed about Essel should be enough to cancel her as a choice to vote for in the first place.
If Tamar makes the run-off and if Krekorian does, too, it would not be a total disaster, only a partial one. Tamar's ties to Villaraigosa still might be dangling loose about her, not clearly or totally cut off at all, but she MIGHT be helpful to CD-2 now and then, and would be a salvageable choice.
Krekorian would bring more of the same problems that are already there in City Hall now. A "change" would not happen by voting for him, at least not a good change.
But let's not let that come to such a condition. Support who you want and re-align the choice when the run-off comes if your pick is doesn't make the cut.
I do see the posts here that dwell on religion and not issues. That's pretty retro to worry about religion. A lot of the posts seem to be serially made by the same few people.
Regardless of the source of endorsements, what makes a difference is how many VOTES anyone finally receives. There should be a pool of about 80% of registered voters who, if plundered, would make the election go any way one wants.
You don't need all of them. Tony won with only about 9% on a city-wide basis.
Still in cd-14 and favoring ZD.
I hope Mary wins....
I wouldn't call anyone who supports someone who is married to a Home Depot supporter highly repsected. I would call them gullible. They were only as good as the community behind them. But, now they are losing ground. Higby, don't you live in Council District 4 doesn't that mean you can't even vote in Council District 2?
Why do you allow hateful remarks about Benson's religion or political party. It have nothing do with the council seat. It's classless.
To all my good friends, and I learned who a lot of my friends were these last few weeks - so many of you offered me your help and gave me your encouragement when we were under mandatory evacuation. I even have an unknown friend who anonymously donated to the wildlife feeding. Thank you.
And many of you have been my friends in spite of me and sometimes in spite of you. I have been on all sides of issues, sometimes the wrong side. But what I know is this, I am on the right side of the issue this time. And tonight, Kevin James on KRLA agreed and endorsed Mary. This is huge!
Please think about what it could be like to have Mary Benson our Councilmember at City Hall. We can actually have hope that our wishes, so often rudely tagged as NIMBYISM, would be met. We can be "PROUD To BE a NIMBY!"
We can actually have a Councilmember that really wants to save our rural lifestyle and our open space. We already know we have submitted truly strong comments in response to the DEIR on the Verdugo Hills Golf Course that may give the City no recourse but to turn down the DEIR/EIR. With Mary in office it could mean the final deathknell to the development.
CD2 is the lead agency that oversees the implementation of the approvals for the Angeles National Golf Course. With Mary in office we can get ANGC to complete their conditions and mitigations. We can change the CD2 recommendation, from Gerry Miller the caretaker through Dale Thrush to PLUM, to turn down the California Fish and Game Appeal against ANGC.
Mary will help prepare for the winter floods. After all she lives right here in the area that may flood and Mary saw the forest burn with her own eyes. She knows that 95% of the wildlife died in the Station Fire. She knows that Animal Services dropped the ball. She knows that even with moderate winter rainfall houses all over Sunland Tujunga and Lake View Terrace may be in jeopardy of mud slide and flood; there is still danger in our area from last years fires.
Mary will continue to work with Paul Edelman of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and me to further our so-far-so-good application to obtain a grant to save the 4 3/4 acres at Oro Vista and Big Tujunga Canyon Road property.
Mary will assure that our agricultural lands remain agricultural and their will be no Pacific Paseo in Sunland Tujunga.
Mary will help us to stop the assault on Sunland Tujunga by auto related businesses. She will help us stop the overdevelopment. She will work to restore the watershed. She will work diligently to find ways to repair our infrastructure.
All of us, animal rights advocates, hikers, bikers, equestrians, environmentalists; all of us who love our small town feeling, our magnificent views, our air, and our forest can expect a friend in our new Councilmember Mary Benson. You may not agree with Mary about everything, but she lives here, she listens, she has an open mind; can you ask for more.
Just imagine what Mary can do for us. WE MUST UNITE!
Go! Vote for Mary Benson on Tuesday! Thank you, Elaine Brown
(Just some woman from Sunland - a non-prominent community activist)
1:44a - All sounds nice if you live North of North Hollywood.
The rest of us want someone who is in touch with the needs of the whole district.
What plight has S-T had to endure in the recent days???
I'm not gonna name names, but . . .
A lot of you people talk a good game. Until it comes time to elect someone. Then you line up like groupies behind the establishment candidate. Then after your establishment candidate wins you spend the rest of the year bitching about the lack of representation at City Hall.
WAIT! Does Kevin James know Mary Benson is involved with the SMMC?
Doug McIntyre can tell you all about that!
If you hate CRA you will DESPISE SMMC!
Sunland Tujunga burns while 9:47 fiddles!
Michael what have you been sipping on? Without the SMMC, we would have condos on every peice of open space in the city, the county, and the whole damn state.
Despise the CRA and their no-bid contracts; love the SMMC as they save us from the developers!
In this case they are preserving 240 acres of a SEA - Sensative Environmental/Ecological Area - as demanded by the community in the approvals for the Angeles National Golf Course in April, 1998. Thank you SMMC.
And Michael the SMMC is also partnering with the community to obtain a grant to save another SEA and a wildlife corridor versus 18 McMannsions - and as always we have a willing seller. The SMMC are the good guys.
Lotta Buzz here on Mary. Fear factor is up.
IMO - Joe "Trust me" Barrett. and Abby have succeeded in tearing up the community with their rogue endorsement of the "I'm a Valley Girl" Galatzan. Was that the plan?
What's all this about ?
Abby donates to Benson's campaign? Huh? This buys $35 of forgiveness.
What happened between a donation on Sep 6 and Sep 15th?
Something smells to high heaven about this. Any one with any sense knows that Tamar is Villar's girl.
Come on. Two million to put here on the school board? Some body is doing some long range planning. Give me a break.
This is a set up. Some one is getting fooled here and it ain't me.
Sunland-Tujunga and the La Crescenta Valley want the SMCC to help buy the Verdugo Hills Golf Course! It's a historical area and we want to save the our precious open space and recreation area. That's a good thing!
Hate to break it to you but Elaine is one of those "Art Bell" listeners. There are a lot of conspiracies out there. Don't give her your email address or you will have to put it on block.
Sad to say but Joe and Abby have lost a lot of credibility in the community. Resignations from the STA abound. People are saying the fix is in. Word gets out in a small community.
I detest Kevin James but those of you who think he's a prophet should know that last week, he told Red Spot that he believes Tamar is not supported by the mayor and in fact, that she's in a tough spot because once you cross him he works against you.
He said "it's the gang mentality" but that part is sheer hypocrisy and self-serving selective amnesia, because he and Trutanich, Zine, Cooley the rest never stop attacking and lying about anyone who's THEIR opponent or just didn't support them. No one is more vengeful than that bunch.
It takes one to know one.
Partly because of this, her guts, James likes Tamar next best. Since voting for Mary would hurt her most, since they'd never vote for the other 2 Big Ones, it's not a smart move frankly. He said he considered endorsing both of them like the Daily News but went with one -- as the declared Republican and Walter Moore's candidate. And James and Walter himself haven't gotten over that he didn't win. They're deluded about their ability to get Mary into the runoff so they're just spoilers.
IF you want Essel to win, vote for Mary.
4:03 said, "Sad to say but Joe and Abby have lost a lot of credibility in the community. Resignations from the STA abound. People are saying the fix is in. Word gets out in a small community."
Really? Is that why my inbox is full of letters of support?
I've only received two emails from people questioning our decision to support Tamar. Hardly qualifies as mass resignation.
And how about all those STA members that signed the letter of endorsement?
You are also failing to mention the many STNC members that signed the letter. There is a consensus or we would not have made the endorsement as a group.
Trash talking me, Abby, or any one else that supports Tamar only proves how insecure you are in your candidates chances for victory.
Who is this Nutty Scummings the Catwoman? Get out there and mingle with some humans. We're not that bad.
Every one but probably Higby will be happy when this is over in a few days (no clickity clicks except for the recap and blame game.)
Every thing will return to normal in Pleasantville.
If there's a runoff, then it starts again and we have a Happy Higby.
Mary is both a Republican and a Mormon...I do not need to remind my fellow gay and lesbian brothers and sisters that these two groups heavily funded and advocated for Yes on Prop 8 (aka Prop Hate). There is no need for further connection, as the candidate has in no way attempted to explain that her views differ from the groups she associates with.
Now with the right-wing Kevin James endorsement...my heart has turned to stone regarding Mary. She now comes across as someone who puts horse trails and animal rights above human dignity and human rights!!
I urge all gay and lesbian voters in Sunland-Tujunga and all of CD2 to NOT VOTE for Mary Benson
"KRLA's Kevin James has endorsed Mary Benson for LA City Council District Two.
James told his audience that voters have the opportunity to elect a grass-roots candidate. He said that such a person could beat the establishment candidates if everyone gets on board with his choice."
TRANSLATION: Voters have the opportunity to elect a right wing republican Mormon whose political philosophy is much like Kevins.
Such a person could beat the sane candidates if they follow Kevin like sheep.
6:56, sadly Kevin's people do vote like sheep, even more than Jon and ken's and Doug's, and like the lady calling in for Mary right afterwards a lot of them aren't even hooked upto email so rely on HIM for their information. Crazily skewed propaganda but it's what they know.
The ones who do have email ask him to send e-blasts or his "synopsis" of things like the healthcare reform bill and they all "see" it the same way, of course.
These people tend to be also Rush Limbaugh's, a whole universe of people who "see" the world with their own colors, have their own language, a cult. Worked for Nuch but then he had Cooley and Zine as regulars, who's Mary got besides Walter Moore? Will she get Berger Moore's running mate, or has he finally been leashed too, by Bill Carter?
How do you expect people to vote when the most popular sale item on Kevin's web-page is a t-shirt some white trash blonde is wearing: "I'd Rather Be Waterboarding."
Yeah ok, but only like three people in CD 2 listen to Kevin James. Mary Benson and average Joe are two of them. That leaves one wacko out there somewhere who's likely stoned and will forget to vote for his guy Sheftel.
8:02PM The real danger of Kevin James endorsement is that it does unleash the Walter Moore faction. Moore got 7,644 votes in CD2 in the mayoral race. Those were hard core right wing, anti-Villaraigosa votes. Moore's been promoting Mary Benson on his website and for sure he's been using his email list to get his people to turn out and vote. 7,644 votes for Benson will guarantee her a seat in the run off and that's a problem for Villaraigosa's Big 3.
More interesting is the number of Trutanich vs. Weiss votes in CD2; it was a landslide for Trutanich as all the Moore/Berger people went with Trutanich. Neither Trutanich nor Berger have said anything about the CD2 race, which is strange considering Tamar Galatzan is a part-time deputy city attorney. What's worse for Galatzan is that a bunch of people in the city attorney's office are secretly working for her campaign, and they are the same people who supported Jack Weiss. If the Moore voters find out that Galatzan is a Weiss type, it will drive them to the polling stations faster than a double dose of Ex Lax.
The value of the Moore/James endorsement obviously has Galatzan worried as she's mobilized her Young Dem bloggers to keep on hammering Benson for her religion, and now they're also trying the Prop 8 thing. Dunno who's running Galatzan's campaign but if they really think religion and gays are factors in CD2, they should also throw the NRA into the mix. That really worked for Weiss, didn't it? Not so much.
I just got off the phone with Chris E$$el. She promised to ignore all of you guys as soon as she's elected.
The City Attorney's working for Tamar are only doing so hoping that she'll win and then they'll have the money to bring in someone who will actually do their job.
Tamar has been a disaster for this city on all fronts. She doesn't do her job as a Deputy City Attorney. She hasn't paid attention to the LAUSD in sometime other than to tap the remaining funds in her campagin account.
Now she wants to be your Council Person so she'll have a perch of which to run for Controller when Wendy Greuel runs for the Mayors' office.
What's the expression "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
What a joke. If she makes the runoff, this city is finished.
8:06 - No reason to believe that Mary Benson will not fight vigorously to support the community desired outcome of issues in the south CD2, just because Mary lives in the north CD2.
Afterall, Wendy Greuel screwed the south CD2 just like she screwed the north.
"Hate to break it to you but Elaine is one of those "Art Bell" listeners."
Always knew that girl was out of sight!
Kevin James endorses Mary Benson on cable tv.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMMklhX74_w
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home