Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Monday

Sunrise from Anza-Borrego State Park.

Great Monday morning to all as the sun rises again (with overcast skies in the LA basin) on another week of electioneering, leading up to November 6 Election Day.

CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar.

** As Downtown News Editor and "Scribe of Wit" Jon Regardie reports, November 6 is just the start of election season in Downtown LA and one of the first Downtown based elections, is whether Downtown inhabitants want to tax themselves to build a "legacy monument choo choo", envisioned by a certain Princeton Graduate politico.

5) Streetcar Approval, November: On Nov. 13, ballots will be sent to approximately 10,000 registered Downtown voters. They must be mailed back by Nov. 28 and delivered to the City Cleak by Dec. 3. No, I’m not sure what a “Cleak” is either, but it’s what the streetcar website said at press time. Perhaps they mean “clerk.” (** has Huizar's "one percent staff" heard of "spoll check"?)Typos aside, this will determine whether 14th District City Councilman José Huizar pops a champagne cork or cries like a 5-year-old watching Bambi’s mom die. Voters will decide whether local property owners should be taxed $62.5 million to cover half the cost of the streetcar.This could be tricky. The $125 million project needs approval from two-thirds of responding voters. However, streetcar officials expect that fewer than 1,000 people will return ballots. Every vote counts big time. For what it’s worth, $62.5 million divided by 1,000 works out to $62,500. That concludes the math portion of this column.The pro-streetcar campaign is using tactics including education and near-bribery. In addition to presentations to community members and homeowners associations, there was a free food-oriented event for more than 1,000 people in September and, on Oct. 20, a free screening of the 1985 film The Goonies at Grand Park. By press time, the two men who last week won the Nobel Prize for their work on matchmaking were still unable to determine a match between The Goonies and the Downtown streetcar.

......... and the rest of CD 14 constituents outside of "CD Downtown 14", are still trying to match Huizar and constituent services.

** Memo to District Attorney Candidate Alan Jackson (and Campaign Consultant John Thomas). There is something called a "background check" that should be predicated when ANYONE gives money to a campaign because you never know when a ex. felon may be in a giving mood.

** The Daily News Rick Orlov Monday's "Tipoff Column" this week features a bit of Labor shilling for a No vote on Prop 32, 'Mini Amin Wesson" playing a mayoral dictator, a possible CD 6 Special election and lastly, an Assemblyman Gil Cedillo "End of Session/Coming Home Tour" (** there is no fact to the rumor that an undocumented drivers would be chosen to receive their driver's license and steer Cedillo around the various barrios of his assembly district).

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14