Belated LA Times coverage of a political upset in South LA

San Pedro native and LAPD Senior Lead Officer Joe Buscaino will become the fresh face of Los Angeles Politics after his grass roots juggernault dispatches the Mayor Antonio Villar/Labor Machine on Tuesday.

 Current City Councilman Paul Koretz will not have his political identical twin Assemblyman Warren Furutani joining him on the City Council.

We want to take this brief moment on a NFL Playoff Sunday to note the appearance of the Los Angeles Times on the crossroads of the CD 15 Special Election coverage. With Election Day less than 48 hours away, the Old Gray Hag on Spring Street saddled up its "journalistic medicare scooter" to generate some last minute column inches of campaign coverage on the latest defeat that will beset the Mayor Antonio Villar Machine on Tuesday.

While the fresh face of the victor may surprise many, the fact that the mayor's hand-picked choice in this race is going down hard, should come as no surprise. CD 15 and its San Pedro base have never been fertile ground  for Mayor Villar's policy initiatives. Retired LAUSD Administrator and San Pedro resident Neil Kleiner in 2007 barely lost to the mayor's choice for LAUSD District 7 School Board Seat, Dr. Richard Vladovic 53%-47%, with merely five figures in campaign funding. 

Local leadership for years have come in the form of Hahns, whether it was the Pops, son or daughter and their edits had been carried out by loyal operatives, namely McOskers. Many assumed that someday, "a McOsker" would replace now Congresswoman Janice Hahn on the City Council 

But come Tuesday evening, it will not be a McOsker that replaces Congresswoman Janice Hahn on the horseshoe, but a "local hero" who never sway from serving with character or leaving the community of his birth, unlike Pat McOsker who rediscover home in time to run for office.

This campaign has shown that community roots and service are paramount in the minds of the local electorate. Thus, when presented with the chance to stand behind a home grown candidate who's "character of service to community" was unmatched by most, they created and sustain a grass roots campaign structure (with the excellent leadership of Campaign Consultant Eric Hogensen's team) that will be study by many political scientists for years to come.

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14