Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

Scott Svonkin playing hooky?

LACCD candidate Scott Svonkin was supposed to be at the San Gabriel School Board meeting Tuesday night. If you'll recall, Scott is an elected member of the San Gabriel School Board and is required to attend these meetings to deal with the many issues facing schools and students in the district .

Unfortunately, at the San Gabriel meeting it was announced that Scott was really "sick" and just could not make the meeting.

Imagine our surprise when Scott Svonkin was spotted the very same night at the UTLA Headquarters on Wilshire Blvd as the photos above show. Hmm, does he look ill to you?  I guess schmoozing with UTLA reps was way more important than being at a boring old school board meeting.  Learn more about Scott and his problems at this LA Weekly story.

UPDATE: This was a LA Democratic Party event being held at UTLA headquarters. This was not a UTLA meeting.

The CGOP continues it's slow and painful descent into total irrelevance. The latest blow comes from GOP finance chairman, Jeff Miller, the California GOP's top fundraiser, who has announced that he quits due to infighting and losing elections.



Louis J. Marinelli, the man behind the National Organization for Marriage's "Summer of Marriage Tour 2010", and a leading opponent of same sex marriage has seen the light;

"Having spent the last five years putting all of my political will, interest and energy into fighting against the spread of same-sex marriage as if it were a contagious disease, I must admit that it is hard for me to put the following text into words let alone utter them with my own voice.

Whether it is an issue of disbelief, shame or embarrassment, the one thing that is for sure is that I have come to this point after several months of an internal conflict with myself. That conflict gradually tore away at me until recently when I was able to for the first time simply admit to myself that I do in fact support civil marriage equality...My name is Louis J. Marinelli, a conservative-Republican and I now support full civil marriage equality. The constitution calls for nothing less." Read his full story.


AEG chief executive Tim Leiweke is having a hissy fit that some city officials and academics would dare to question his proposed NFL stadium in downtown LA. He's calling on LA politicians to be "cheerleaders" not skeptics. Councilmen Rosendahl and Krekorian have both raised concerns over this potential boondoggle, which I thought is what we elect these officials to do.


A very happy 5th birthday to Romney-care, the health care program developed by former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney. Obama advisor, David Axelrod, calls Romney-care, the original template for what is now known as the Obama Healthcare Law. Mitt Romney, as you may recall, is likely a Republican candidate for President in 2012.