Morning Briefs on "The Well-Oiled Machine" for Monday

After last week's impressive Re-election Victory via "The Well-Oiled Machine" of CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar, discerning media scribes are wasting no time in keyboarding missives on what will become known as "The 2015 CD 14 Wipeout".

How many Political Favors do I owe after my Re-election?

A 2015 CD 14 Elections Post Mortem in progress.

So how does a supposed, level battle for the hearts and minds of the less than 10% of CD 14 voters that care to cast ballots, become a Grand Canyon-like abyss, which the Gloria Molina Campaign would never resurface from, in her failed attempt to unseat the self-noting Princeton Graduate Incumbent?

Fred Register, the longtime Altadena-based Political Consultant tells the LA Times David Zahniser that time dedicated to actual campaigning played a role ........, "I do absolutely think that if she was really determined to do this, she should have started much earlier," said Fred Register, Molina's campaign consultant. 

Indeed, Team Huizar was lubricating its victorious Election Machine in late 2013 by identify loyal community voting blocks (with a total of 10,000 votes as a goal), then granting them funding for their respective community endeavors (ex. Eagle Rock Music Festival, El Sereno Bicentennial Parade, Bringing Back Broadway), which successfully countered the negative media, generated by his multiple episodes ofTonto-like behavior.

Thus, by the start of 2015, the Public and Privately-finance Huizar Re-election Machine was not going to succumb to a abbreviated, Twentieth Century-styled Campaign, devoid of Social Media messaging, and especially, with no Downtown LA presence.

** From Glassell Park's Tony Butka, here are a couple a reasons why, in his opinion, that the ex LA County Board of Supervisor went down on last Tuesday.

As to why Gloria Molina did so poorly, I think there were two main factors.  First, she really wasn't ready for the rhythm of a 2015 City election process.  Huizar went after that huge vote by mail crown with the some $800,000 he had in the bank before Molina even got serious about playing in January.  His consultants and humongous campaign staff did a bang up job, too. Heck, I was even invited to friend one of them on Facebook -- and yes, I accepted :-). 
The second reason is that Molina just didn't have a ground game.  She did well in the debates, but if over 1/2 the votes are being locked up while you're talking, who cares what you say or what happens at the polls on election day.  I kept looking for her 'machine' to ramp up, and it never did.  Or if it did, I sure didn't see it.  To be sure, she had a dedicated group of volunteers, but in 2015, that isn't what wins elections.  As I cautioned in my first CityWatch article about the Northeast Dems endorsement, nowhere was written that she would be able to get into a runoff and have the luxury of really running  a campaign.

** From Gene Maddaus at the LA Weekly, with no apologies to East Los Angeles Community Corporation (ELACC) President Maria Cabildo, CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar's Re-election is a victory for ..........., "The G-word". But lets give Parke Skelton credit for stating "what could of been" ........., considering;
The outcome was by no means inevitable. Back in September, Parke Skelton, Huizar's strategist, did a poll that showed Huizar with a slim, two-point lead. Skelton was actually relieved that he wasn't in worse shape."I thought there was a good chance that he might be so far behind I'd have to tell Jose not to run," Skelton said Wednesday. The poll offered Huizar a path to victory. Voters were asked whether things in their neighborhood were going in the right direction, and 63 percent said yes. Skelton's strategy was to barrage voters with mailers to remind them of tangible improvements in their neighborhoods. And as we noted last week, there was a "Public Cost" for that mailing blitz.



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

Scott Johnson in CD 14