Its All About the Money In CD 2, or Lack Of ?
"Boss D'Arcy of IBEW. His member's dues keep Essel's Campaign afloat"
"Can any of you spare some cash??"The last Saturday in the long and grueling process to replace Wendy Greuel, as CD 2's representative to the "Horseshoe on Spring Street", is near. Both campaigns spend the day in "counter spin" mode in attacking and refuting, supposed anti-Semitic claims made by the Chris Essel Campaign.
But just as it was easy to get caught up in the drama of the outlandish charges made by "Team Essel, the real story continues to be the "financial avalanche" of independent expenditures by Essel's Special Interest supporters and at the same time, Essel's lack of "hands" on cash.
Boss D'Arcy and his dues-paying members, are keeping "the vessel called Essel" afloat with these attack pieces on Paul Krekorian.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 PAC Pasadena, CA 91101 (Independent Expenditure) Oppose Paul Krekorian City Council Member - District 02 Krekorian for City Council 2009 - General (1321819) [Election: 12/08/09] 12/03/09 12/02/09 Mailer - printing, postage, design, consulting, research MAIL-8 $13,379.40
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 PAC Pasadena, CA 91101 (Independent Expenditure) Oppose Paul Krekorian City Council Member - District 02 Krekorian for City Council 2009 - General (1321819) [Election: 12/08/09] 12/04/09 12/03/09 Mailer - printing, design, postage, consulting, research MAIL-9 $13,904.00
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 PAC Pasadena, CA 91101 (Independent Expenditure) Oppose Paul Krekorian City Council Member - District 02 Krekorian for City Council 2009 - General (1321819) [Election: 12/08/09] 12/05/09 12/04/09 Mailer - printing, design, postage, consulting, research MAIL-10 $10,850.20
Meanwhile, IBEW is still investing in highlighting the positive of their "vessel of choice".
Local 18 Water and Power Defense League (IBEW) Los Angeles, CA 90004 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine Essel City Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 12/02/09 12/01/09Printing, production, postage, research MAIL-19 $15,168.00
Local 18 Water and Power Defense League (IBEW) Los Angeles, CA 90004 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine Essel City Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 12/04/09 12/03/09 Printing, production, postage, research MAIL-22 $11,625.00
** Interest to note here the two separate expenditure committees set up by IBEW to funnel as much money as they legally can into the CD 2 race.
While IBEW shills and attacks for Essel, in their "independent ways". Team Essel is almost running on empty when it comes to their financial state. Since the start of campaigning, the Essel Campaign has collected $627,404 in contributions and $184,259 in matching funds. But with the cost of paying the likes of Shallman, Berman and Burnside, eating away at available finances, her campaign has "big gulped" $902,201 in expenses.
With her hands on cash near nil, Chris Essel has loaned her campaign $10,000 of personal money.
11/30/09 CHRISTINE ESSEL (BUSINESSWOMAN/NEIGHBORHOOD ADVOCATE, NONE) LOS ANGELES, CA 90010 CHRISTINE ESSEL Council Member - District 2 1321633 - CHRIS ESSEL FOR CITY COUNCIL 2009 - GENERAL B - Loan Received [Period:11/22/0912/02/09] $10,000.00 [Election:12/08/09] This is not looking good...
As this long, arduous campaign heads for the finish, "Team Essel" should be thankful for the likes of IBEW, the Painters Union, the Police Protective League among others, for supporting her campaign. But the question for CD 2 voters is whether they can afford the "repayment of services rendered" for their "Vessel of Choice".
** Morning Update: Los Angeles Times Scribe Maeve Reston reports on the latest doings in CD 2, as posted earlier on Mayor Sam. In addition, Essel Campaign's John Shallman had some choice words about the content originating from this blog.
The mail from Essel's campaign also charged that Krekorian and his supporters "have unleashed a shocking barrage of nasty, sexist and anti-Semitic personal attacks" on a website. Shallman provided a list of comments that the campaign had collected from readers of Mayor Sam's Sister City blog as examples.
Krekorian's campaign stressed that it has no relationship to the independent blog, created in 2004 by Valley resident Michael Higby. In a telephone interview, Higby said he supports Krekorian but has no official role in the campaign. He and two other writers on the blog have authority to approve reader comments, he said.
But the "real story" is in the content above.
Your thoughts.....................
Labels: cd2 special election runoff, Chris Essel, IBEW, paul krekorian
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 12/05/2009 06:38:00 PM
26 Comments:
Hey English Major!
"His members dues keeps Essel's Campaign afloat"
You mean that the dues KEEP, not KEEPS. And if you know that there's an apostrophe on "Essel's" how come you don't know that there's an apostrophe on "members"?
Well one thing is for sure. After December 8th, the Frank and David show will have somewhere between 1 and 2 listeners.
We need more posts about the CD2 city council race, we need more Essel stories.
Please, Please, Please more Essel !!!!!!!!!1
Paul:
What did you do to piss off the Armenian Community?
Shallman and Burnside are robbing the idiot blind.
Red Spot nails them.
Where the hell is the LA Times? how come they are not going through these reports?
Pathetic.
After raising $900,000 and being out campaigned by Krekorian for less than half the money, now she has to put in her own money?
Shallman is a charlatan and a thief.
Kudos to Red Spot
Lots and lots of stealing going on in that campaign.
Noticed quite a few hot comments on my blog. There are some very partisan supporters on both sides who get upset when you post anything about the other candidate.
To those that take offense, I allow comments from both sides and even spotlight a few from time to time because they provide insight into how people feel - right or wrong. Remember the immortal words of Vito Corleone: Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
If you close your mind to what the other side is saying, how can you be an effective spokesperson for your candidate?
Can anyone explain to me why its such a big deal to win this seat? I mean $170K a year plus perks is cool and all, but is it really THAT big a deal? I come home to a forest worth of dead trees that goes straight into the blue bin and this has been going on for a few weeks.
Are the kickbacks the clowncil members receive really that huge?
Cooley's office went after other corrupt government officials(Compton, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, Maywood) a few years ago, maybe its time to start tossing the bank accounts and investments of our council members?
REd Spot you forgot to list all the money Essel has gotten from the Police Political League Union. cops are furious they are using their due money for this bullshit instead of doing something for them. Police Political Union has paid millions to the city council members already in office and cops didn't even get a raise like the IEBW...Bastards
Boy I was just beginning to think the LA Slimes was changing with their story on AEG and ties to LA politicans. Then I read the OPinion and they endorse Essel. This shows how much out of the loop this paper really is. Essel has no clue about the real people of the city. She's nothing more then another Mayor puppet and union lapdog. How sad if she wins.
....We are optimistic that Essel's experience in private industry as a Paramount Pictures Corp. executive, and her public-sector work as a former member of the Airport Commission and chairwoman of the Community Redevelopment Agency under mayors Tom Bradley and Richard Riordan, give her a breadth of knowledge and skills to serve the people of her district wisely
I see the LA Times re-endorsed Chris yesterday.
Essel's campaign has benefitted by more than $170,000 from the IBEW, primarily for mailings to the district. The Los Angeles Police Protective League has spent more than $400,000 on her campaign, including radio and cable television commercials.
Sometimes I wonder if the Times op ed writers are PREDICTING the outcome versus ENDORSING the best person for the job.
In this case, neither candidate is great, and this reads like the Times is predicting, rather than endorsing.
Mayor Sam's obsession with this Council race makes me wonder what is going on behind the scenes with him.
Even the MAYOR'S race, and the PRESDIENTIAL election didn't get THIS much attention on this blog. For Higby to be so taken with the CD2 race really makes me wonder. The coverage and hysteria is so out of whack, especially when he is now commenting as much on Phil's blog as he is on his own Mayor Sam blog.
This doesn't pass the smell test to me. No doubt Hibgy probably won't even post this comment.
Sincerely,
Red Spunk, er, I mean oninammust.
Shallman= Incompetent Thief
Two red shirt wearing ACORN canvassers where going door to door for Essel on my street in Valley Glen yesterday.
Red Spot:
Got it all wrong.
Shallman: Honest and good
Hacopian: Black Opps and bad
How soon you forget who the good and honest guys really are.
Honest and Shallman?
A real whopper.
I agree with 9:32
This election has become so personal for Higby. Let's be honest. Both sides have attempted to vilify each other. The reality, both are probably pretty decent people. I've met them both. Paul's a nice guy, but he is a politician. Not necessarily a bad thing but ambition has it's price.
Chris is perfectly nice as well. Probably not as lawyerly or booksmart as Paul, but she's obviously excelled in her job at Paramount having lasted there for 30 years. What I like about Chris is that she's not ambitious.
Yes, she's received a lot of money from outside interests. So what. Paul would have taken the money from the PPL and everyone else. It's what they do to win. That's the system.
The campaigns have little to do with the kind of representative they will be. If they drift away from their promises, then we work to defeat them in the next election. That's democracy.
Can we move the discussion away from these over the top charges on both sides? The personal attacks are offensive to average readers who are here for a real exchange of ideas.
Someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. That's life.
As we move into the holidays, it would be nice in these last couple of days to hear candidates and their supporters coming out from behind their anonymous blogging and talk issues rather than settling these personal scores.
Everytime I see personal attacks I score a point for the other team.
The personal attacks on this blog have been overwhelmingly anti-Essel, anti-Wendy, anti-Shallman, etc. In all sincerity, does Paul's team have anything good to say about what he will do that is different from Essel? Can you answer without the personal attacks?
I'm sitting here with all of the mailers and, other than negative attacks and endorsement mailings, I can't find one Krekorian mailer that provides any detail about what he will actually do as our Councilmember. Essel has sent her share of negatives, but at least she has several very specific plans detailed.
That helps undecided voters.
Thank you.
I just saw a Christine Essel tv commercial (CNN) full of LIES, like "Christine Essel will double police patrols in our neighborhoods."
HER BACKERS THE PPL AND THEIR BOUGHT AND PAID FOR COUNCILMEMBERS LIKE GREIG SMITH "MRS DOUBTFIRE", PARKS, ROSENDAHL, ZINE, MILLION-DOLLAR MAN NOOCH TRUTANICH ALL FAVOR FEWER COPS ON THE STREETS AND MORE PENSIONS TO OLD-TIMERS LIKE THE UNION HEADS WEBER AND REPOVICH, that is WHY THEY'RE TRYING TO BUY ESSEL.
These PPL and their masters PPL have fought Bratton and the Mayor tooth and nail over expanding the force, and the SAME people who are on the Budget Committee -- Smith, Parks, Rosendahl -- insist that the trash fees which were tripled for cops were never meant for cops but for offsetting cost of trash pickup. Because they blew balancing the budget and are now swiping the trash fees despite getting Bratton to shill for "trash fees for cops."
THESE PEOPLE ARE CUTTING THE BUDGET FOR COPS, ESSEL IS FLAT-OUT LYING THAT SHE WILL DOUBLE COPS.
And as for previous poster wondering why the attacks on John Shallman her consultant, it's because HE has dragged this race into the sewer like he did for Wendy vs. Nick Patsouris and for Nuch vs. Jack Weiss, lots of lies and soundbites and last-minute flurry of tv ads and nasty mailers.
Police Political League could careless about the cops on the street. They need to be audited and let the cops find out how much of the $6 million in cop dues go to political campaigns. They are not liked by the cops that's why rumor has it they are now looking around for better representation and TEAMSTERS are looking good to many of them. Their have been secret meetings. Let's hope the poor cop on the street have the guts to get rid of their stupid political union. It was never ever this bad when Tim Sands and Bob Baker were president each time. They at least had the respect of all and worked much better then the goons now in office.
It's interesting that 3:02 had no response about Barb's question of specific Paul ideas. Just more of the same name calling. Everything is a lie if it's not coming from the candidate you are working for.
Voters are smart enough to discern for themselves the truth.
It's interesting if you go on Paul's website and click on the issues button.
Several paragraphs about issues he cares about with no specificity whatsoever.
In contrast, if you go on Essel's site and click media you can download her big ideas plan with a great deal more specifics and goals--not the platitudes one would expect from a politician like Paul.
So, if we kept the race clean and stuck to who was the most subtantive candidate, the answer would clearly be Christine.
You can talk all you want about sleazy campaign ads, but ultimately the candidates should be judged based on their ideas and plans to solve problems in CD 2.
"Plans" vs. Proven Track Records - we've seen how THAT pans out with certain Shallman clients; spinning a good "plan" contrary to what the candidate's DONE = being a phony.
"Plans" premised on LIES like saying she'll "double police in your community," in writing and words on the tv ads she's running.
"Empty words and fancy speeches never to get elected but never meant to keep," as Laura Chick said about her endorser/fellow Shallman client. Just ask the MMJ community, too. (Except Sheftel and the homeless Mutt whose name can't be mentioned for good reason both of whom are Pay-to-Play.)
Christine's specific goals for the community can't be good for them because Christine is not for the community. She has already taken stands on issues that prove otherwise and would make her a bad council person. How much of this blog have you read? Not enough if you haven't heard that before.
SB1818, Neighborhood Councils and her refusal to share power. On those two issues alone, she is bad for the community.
But I think that you Laurette, and your group of pro-Essel friends are trying. For that, you get gold stars.
Paul Krekorian for CD 2!
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