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Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Did Gavin Newsom Buy Maxine Waters' Endorsement?

I'm not Gavin Newsom
but I would like to be!
Many have told us that it’s well known within political circles that there is a price to doing business with Rep. Maxine Waters. Specifically, the price is high to get a coveted spot on Rep. Waters’s slate mailer.

Just ask Rocky Delgadillo and Mike Feuer. In 2001, according to the LA Weekly, “Feuer got on the first, primary mailer for $10,000. He was then asked for $25,000 to get into round two. Feuer’s people offered $15,000, and the next thing you knew, the better-funded Delgadillo’s people ponied up $35,000 to replace the councilman on the Waters slate-mailer roster.”

The LA Weekly goes on to say… “So it would appear that, in this specific case, the election was really for sale. And, in a sense, sold. But this appears not to have been the only runoff race in which Waters’s mailerites tried to pull a shakedown. In at least one other city-election race, Waters also tried to put on the bite for a five-figure enhancement from the leading candidate, who asked not to be identified (it turns out that few, if any, politicians want to rankle Maxine Waters). That candidate, however, refused to be hustled. The Waters people then took their money from the candidate’s opponent, who (one wants to say “justly”) lost.”

It gets better… The LA Times reports, “Well-known politicians such as former Gov. Gray Davis, and state Treasurer Philip Angelides have been charged tens of thousands of dollars. Others have paid nothing. A school board candidate paid $250. Al Checchi, a wealthy businessman and political novice who ran for governor in 1998, paid L.A. Vote the most: $171,000.”

And… “Indian tribes have been particularly good customers for both the slate mailer. Since 1998, they have paid $170,000 to the slate mailer operation and $126,000 to her firm for community outreach on gambling initiatives, their campaign reports show. Meanwhile, Rep. Waters has backed the tribes' ballot measures and defended tribal gambling interests in Washington.”

And because of Rep. Waters’s sleazy tactics, the nonpartisan watchdog organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has repeatedly named Rep. Waters to their “Most Corrupt Members Of Congress” list.

Oh look, on May 26th, Mayor Newsom announced the endorsement of Rep. Waters! Something tells me, he'll be on Waters's next slate mailer.

SO WE POSE THE QUESTION TO MAYOR NEWSOM – HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY FOR REP. WATERS’S ENDORSEMENT? We suspect that the next finance report will show a hefty sum forked over to the Waters’ slate mailer.

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I don't like Newsom at all but Janice Hahn is just too stupid to be half a heartbeat away from old Governor Brown.

June 02, 2010 1:34 PM  

Blogger Michael Higby said:

I'm deleting stupid comments.

June 02, 2010 2:13 PM  

Blogger Michael Higby said:

Mayor Sam is now an LA blogging legend but it wasn't always the case...

This was posted at LA Voice right after Mayor Sam was born. Hell LA Voice isn't even up anymore:

------

Blogging City Hall - Tiny Beeps Accompany that Great Sucking Sound
Posted by: mack_reed on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 10:51 PM
LA Voice

The deep black hole left at the political end of L.A.'s blogospheric spectrum by the dizzying rise and sudden implosion of 4th Floor is being augmented by blips and beeps from a couple of sources.

The 4th Floor blogspace is completely empty now - its 5 weeks worth of posts either erased or squirreled away in archives behind a password. I'm guessing the former (a shame) since links like this to old posts there are now dead.

But a frequent 4th Floor commenter who identified himself only as "Sam Yorty" (in honor of L.A.'s charismatically gravel-voiced demagogue of an ex- (and dead) mayor) has started up Mayor Sam's Sister City ...
In his inaugural post just days after 4th Floor shut down, Sam offers:
- I started this whole blogging business by appearing first on the Fourth Floor Blog. Now that was a real thing. I never met the fellow who was the Fourth Floor Blogger but I have to give my thumbs up to him. Its a crying damn shame those loudmouth tinhorns at City Hall had to run him off. Well they can't do that to me - I'm dead.
Mayor Sam is joined by four other pseudonymous bloggers: Chief Parker, Chief of Staff, Mayor Frank and The Insider.

Then there's an odd little placeholder site set up in Blogger called LA City Hall, which has just four posts, set up apparently as categories for comments: Departments, City Council, Mayor's Office and Open Tread (sic), which suggests:
Share what you like. If it’s hot or gets a lot of attention, it will get its own tread…
Whether any of this adds up to a wide, bright window into the darkest back rooms of City Hall remains to be seen.

(As always, anyone in Los Angeles is invited to log in at LAVoice under their own name and submit news or post comments on any subject, including City Hall.)

June 02, 2010 2:15 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Gavin Newsom is so slimy he makes even Mike Gatto palatable. But there's one human being who will make me vote for a man so slimy he makes even Mike Gatto palatable: Janice Hahn.

June 02, 2010 2:22 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Good Michael. I'm tired of Mary Cummins and her lame comments.

June 02, 2010 2:31 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Love the picture of Gatto. So true.

June 02, 2010 2:45 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

By next week Mike Gatto will be the 43rd's new Assemblyman.

The people of that distict will kiss his ring.

Then the hater Sunder Ramani who hates gays and lesbians will be back to his tikka house.

June 02, 2010 3:14 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

3:14 -
Desperation in the Gatto camp = the new normal

June 02, 2010 4:37 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Question: how do these guys think they would get away with fake videos?

June 02, 2010 4:39 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Question: how do these guys think they would get away with fake videos?

June 02, 2010 4:39 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Janice is a tard! She can't traction with Newsom and people are talking about Gatto.

June 02, 2010 5:51 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I worked for the State Legislature back in the 80s and my boss had a bond measure that was to be heard in Assembly Ways and Means. Mysteriously $10 million in funding for a community program in SCLA was inserted in the bill. Where did this come from, I asked? "That's what it will cost you to get the LA votes controlled by Waters" I was told. Naively I asked "Do we need to do this?" "Only if you want your bill" I was told! Some things never change!

June 02, 2010 6:21 PM  

Blogger trojan2002 said:

To 3:14 messenger.
Gatto the Pimp doesn't list Waters as an endorser so obviously no payment was made.
But all of the other politico machinists are endorsing him.
The party line voters will vote for the Pimp.

About Waters... this post makes no mention of the TARP money she tried to swindle for her husband's bank.
Maxine Waters is the Queen of the crooks.

June 02, 2010 9:27 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

All of these references are completely foreign to those of us who look to this blog for CITY news! LOS ANGELES CITY politics. Home Of, The.

June 02, 2010 10:07 PM  

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