Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Monday

We bring you this bloggin PSA on the pratfalls of over-indulging in Political Pipe Dreams, that lead to Narcissist Episodes of delusional thoughts of future Political Grandeur, as a former "Failure Mayor" seriously contemplates a run for US Senate.     

 Objective, discerning Angelinos will never forget the Two Term Reign of former Failure Mayor Antonio Villar (formerly marry to Corina Raigosa).

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Senator Boxer, meet the "Bob Packwood" of the Greuel Campaign, Dr. Anthony Samad (or is it Essex?)

California Feminist Liberal Sister Senator Barbara Boxer choice for LA Mayor Wendy "The Feminist, PPL, SEIU, UFLAC, Slick Willie, Mayor Villar, IBEW, DWP and Boss D'Arcy's Greuel" has a prominent supporter that may remind the "Greece on the Pacific Junior Sister Senator", of a certain former Oregon Senator.

Liberal Sisters in denial of sexist campaign supporters?

Wendy Greuel for Mayor supporter Dr. Anthony Samad (formerly Essex) stands by his Mayoral Greuel of Choice, as she addresses a past event.

** Blogger's note: Once upon a time in recent California political history, a Marin County Congresswoman  charged up the steps of a Washington D.C. Senate Office Building, with fellow feminist politico sisters, as they sought to protest the treatment of Anita Hill by then Wendy Greuel fellow Republican and now US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In 1995, now California US Senator Barbara Boxer, continued her crusade against sexually-inappropriate behavior by (Republican) males, via leading the call for hearings into allegations of sexual harassment by former Oregon Senator Bob Packwood. In a 1995 story in People Magazine, she revisits her own graphic encounter with sexual harassment in the excerpt below.

EVEN NOW SEN. BARBARA BOXER becomes tense when she remembers that winter day in 1962. A Brooklyn College honors student at the time, she asked to meet her professor to discuss a questionable C-minus she had received on an economics course. It soon became clear that the married instructor did not have academic reappraisal on his mind. " 'I just find you so dynamic—you're really my favorite,' " she recalls his saying. "He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me against the wall—it was so sudden! This old face was coming at me, aiming to kiss me. I pushed him aside, opened the door and ran out." Though shaken, Boxer told no one but her husband, Stewart, of the unwanted advance. "Now," she says, "I realize how wrong that was. I might have spared a lot of young women the experience." 

Some years later, former 100 Black Men of America Inc. employee Patricia Rillera, could of benefited from a more candid, younger Barbara Boxer, as she relives her horrible experience, in a lawsuit regarding alleged sexual harassment by its CEO and President at the time, ANTHONY SAMAD.

The lawsuit states that between 2007-2009 Anthony Samad was the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of 100BMLA and direct boss of Patricia Rillera.   During her time with 100BMLA Ms. Rillera alleges she was repeatedly sexually harassed by Mr. Samad through conversations of “how good in bed he was” he asserted that “him and his wife participated in swinger activities” and although he made these comments she should simply “ignore” and regard them as a “joke”.Ms. Rillera repeatedly denied these advances and as a result, she alleges that Mr. Samad created a hostile work environment by making outbursts during her presentations in meetings and repeatedly making references that his agenda was to have her terminated.  He further alleged she wasn’t qualified to do her job and tried to deem her as incompetent by not inviting her to scheduled meetings or ridiculing her in front of board members.  As Ms. Rillera complained to members of the board, their reply was, “they equated it to ‘sexual frustration’ between Rillera and Samad”. 

....... and Rillera was NOT the original target of Samad's alleged sexual harassment.

By 2008, Melanie McDade, a secretary employed by 100BMLA, brought claims against100BMLA and Samad alleging sexual harassment by Samad.  It was during this case that Rillera was questioned on what she observed between Samad and McDade, and Rillera corroborated McDade’s story.  As a result, Rillera alleges she was also retaliated against by 100BMLA for cooperating in the McDade investigation. 

So, just who is prominent South LA Wendy Greuel supporter Dr. Anthony Samad? Maybe it would help to also know his previous "Anthony Essex" incarnation. One can discern that in addition to harassment issues, both the former Anthony Essex incarnation and current Dr Anthony Samad persona, share an ethically-challenged DNA.

Anthony Samad is no stranger to controversy seeing that he is formerly known as Anthony Essex, former President of the NAACP who back in 1990 was found guilty of loan fraud and spent 6 months in jail for lying on his home loan application for the bank he worked for. (** Wendy should make the now "Dr Anthony Samad" the founding member of the "Convicted Frauds for Greuel Committee). 

and this via LA Times Steve Lopez.

L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas greeted me warmly Monday afternoon, even though I'd come to hear him explain why he used $25,000 in taxpayer money to buy a place in "Who's Who in Black Los Angeles." I wanted to ask him whether his decision to buy the spread had anything to do with the fact that the book's associate publisher has made campaign donations to the supervisor and is a longtime ally.

Guess who the "longtime ally" is? This should be no surprise.

I wasn't all that surprised to learn that the associate publisher of "Who's Who," Anthony Samad, happens to be a longtime friend of Ridley-Thomas. But I was a little rattled to discover when I looked up campaign contributions that Samad donated $1,250 to Ridley-Thomas' campaign in 2007 and 2008. And that's not all.I also laid my hands on a document showing that Samad had been awarded a $24,999 consulting contract in 2002 by the city of Los Angeles, at the behest of then-Councilman Ridley-Thomas. The contract was for "expertise the council member needs … that is not otherwise available." (I can smell the "Waste, Fraud and Abuse" here but no signsof Wendy)

But then how can a member of the US Senate Ethics Committee and Candidate Greuel, remain silent about these alleged sexual and ethical misdeeds? Consider the pronouncement below

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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

Senator Barbara Boxer has sought to hit hard in defining a negative image for her opponent Carly Fiorina.  However those who attend her rallies and hear Fiorina speak in person find a different person than what Boxer, one who is warm and has ideas for California.  The GOP challenger will have to overcome Boxer's commercials; however I predict a stunning repudiation of Boxer buoyed by Meg Whitman's multi-million dollar ground war will lead Fiorina to a three point victory over Boxer.  So long Babs.

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Senate Race Out of Reach for GOP in Cali?

Drats!

Five-Thirty-Eight forecasts that the GOP may be SOL in the California U.S. Senate race. The new Field Research Poll gives Boxer an 8 point lead with just 3 days and a few hours left before election day.

"While Ms. Fiorina’s chances had already been on the decline — California has been very widely polled, and most of the surveys have shown Ms. Boxer holding a lead in the mid-single digits — the new poll harms her odds somewhat further. Given the robustness of the polling (and how close we now are to Election Day),  our model gives Ms. Fiorina just a 4 percent chance of making a comeback, down from 7 percent yesterday.

The reason this relatively small change is in fact quite important is because the California race was providing the Republicans with at least some redundancy in how they might win enough seats to take over the Senate. Along with Washington and West Virginia, it was one of three tipping point states that were most important to their overall probability of getting to 51 seats".

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

Egads! The well heeled liberal suburbanites of Beverly Hills (you remember - swimmin' pools, movie stars) are aghast that choo-choo trains with hordes of non-Whites aboard will run underneath their mansions as part of the route of Mayor V's Subway to the Sea. Joining the fight to make sure no such travesty happens is none other than County Stupidvisor Zev Yaroslavsky.  Yikes.

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Barbara Boxer Asked LAUSD to Violate the Law

According to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, representatives of the Barbara Boxer for Senate Campaign sent a letter to LAUSD teachers asking them to recruit students to serve as volunteers for her campaign.

This is a big violation of the California Education Code which states:

California Education Code, section 51520: “During school hours, and within one hour before the time of opening and within one hour after the time of closing of school, pupils of the public school shall not be solicited on school premises by teachers or others to subscribe or contribute to the funds of, to become members of, or to work for, any organization not directly under the control of the school authorities, unless the organization is a nonpartisan, charitable organization organized for charitable purposes by an act of Congress or under the laws of the state, the purpose of the solicitation is nonpartisan and charitable, and the solicitation has been approved by the county board of education or by the governing board of the school district in which the school is located.

Press release and doc below:

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Tells L.A.U.S.D. and Los Angeles Board of Education:

“Barbara Boxer Asked LAUSD to Violate the Law”

Boxer campaign solicited Teachers to get students to volunteer for Campaign work

 Sacramento --- The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) notified the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Board of Education today that, in abject ignorance of California state law, the political campaign of Senator Barbara Boxer has openly solicited teachers employed by LAUSD to urge their students to volunteer for her campaign.

HJTA's letter to the school district urges LAUSD to immediately inform all its personnel, credentialed or otherwise, that it would be a clear violation of law for teachers to recruit their students on school property during school hours to volunteer for a specific political campaign.

“This is open and shut,” said Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.  “Pursuant to both case law and a specific provision of the California Education Code, what Boxer wants would leave LAUSD subject to both civil and potentially criminal sanctions.  Common sense should also tell her that seeking public resources and classroom time from teachers to do her political bidding is just wrong.  Barbara Boxer should know better.”

A copy of the letter was faxed to both the school district and the Board of Education this morning, and is attached here in PDF form.

A copy of the letter which was sent from Boxer’s office to teachers is also attached here.

   

For more information about the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association or for an online copy of the letters, visit: http://www.HJTA.org.

Senator Barbara Boxer at "Rally in the Valley"

Thanks to the Headington Cabal for this extraordinary clip;

Senator Barbara Boxer @ the Rally in the Valley from Edward Headington on Vimeo.

UPDATE: Great bonus Footage of Paul Krekorian at today's rally, also courtesy of Headington Cabal;

Councilmembers Koretz & Krekorian @ the Rally in the Valley from Edward Headington on Vimeo.

Brown and Boxer Pull Ahead in New Poll

Meg Whitman's ongoing effort to buy the governorship of California finds her $119 million out of pocket and 5 points down in the latest poll by LA Times/USC. The Times/USC poll has Brown at 49% over Whitman at 44%.

Meanwhile, Carly Fiorina finds herself even further behind at 43% to Sen. Boxer's 51% according to this poll.

The first debate between the two gubernatorial candidates will be held Tuesday night at UC Davis. More details here.

RCP: Whitman Surges; Boxer-Fiorina Now Neck and Neck

Latest reports from the neutral website Real Clear Politics show some not good news for the two Democrats at the top of the ticket.

RCP has listed for some time both the California Governor and Senate races as toss-ups and continue to do so. However recent polls show both the Republican ladies moving up in recent days.

At the end of August Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman were dead even at 43 and some change points in the RCP poll of polls. However, as of the end of last week Whitman has gained several points on Brown as apparently independents are starting to decide.  As of today, Whitman is up four points over Brown though Brown has been ahead most of the campaign.

Over on the Senate side the race between incumbent Barbara Boxer and businesswoman Carly Fiorina is a squeaker as the former Hewlett-Packard CEO is catching up.  Still a toss-up in RCP's view, even though Boxer has been ahead most of the summer, less than 3/10ths of one percent separate the two in the poll of polls even though individual polls put Fiorina slightly ahead.  Like Whitman, Fiorina has made up considerable ground so far this September.

Stay tuned!

Boxer and Fiorina Set for Debate

From Politics Now
By Ben Demers on August 27, 2010 12:59 PM

Just days after a poll showed that the California U.S. Senate race is practically a dead heat, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Carly Fiorina on Sept. 1 will have what could be their only debate before Election Day on Nov. 2.

The debate will be from 7 to 8 p.m. at St. Mary's College in Moraga. The moderator will be Randy Shandobil, political editor at KTVU Channel 2 News in Oakland.

Locally, the debate will air on Channell 11 KTTV.

Results of a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey released Wednesday showed Boxer garnered 44 percent support, while Fiorina had 43 percent.

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Well, well, well.  Guess who spent $50 million to save $13 million? Nope not the DWP.  Nope, not Tom LaBonge. You're incorrect if you said Kim Kardashian. Give up? Your Los Angeles MTA spent that amount to install turnstiles at it's subway and light rail stations - except it currently can not issue the fare media the gates require and can not be locked.




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Cut and Paste Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Tuesday

"Dedicated to the 12.6% of Californians who are unemployed"

The Telepromptive President of the United States (TOTUS) Barack H. Obama has lefted the City of Los Angeles.

This after flying into town in the forlorn hope of saving the political career of California's Junior Senator Barbara Boxer, who is going to face the hardest re-election challenge for her Senate seat.

No word if TOTUS met with Mayor Antonio Parkervillar during his brief money-raising venture to Los Angeles, but in the 9:00 AM KFI 640 Newscast, City Council President Eric Gartraitor, was heard pushing the Measure R "30 to 10" Proposal which would use an Federal Loan Guarantee, to compact the 30 years of transit projects paid for by Measure R tax money, into a 10 year time period. It seems from Gartraitor's comments, that he he some quality time with TOTUS via his Twitter, to discuss this scheme.

One interesting print media observation of TOTUS's brief Los Angeles visit, came via the Old Gray Hag on Spring Street aka LA Times "Top of the Ticket" Blog Writer Andrew Malcolm.

The good news for California Democrats is that their hero President Obama is returning to the Golden state this afternoon.

The bad news is once again they'll have to hand over big money to see or hear him.
Common Californians -- including the increasing 12.6% of whom are now unemployed -- will be unable to hear the president address the economy or mounting fears over his healthcare bill and its costs because his announced events on this West Coast trip Monday are political and closed to all but donors.

These cynical comments about TOTUS, earned Malcolm some uberattention from the West LA Blogger known as the "Westside White Guy", who is known well for outing the journalistic doings of those minute number of Times writers, who dare go against the elitist, left of center leanings of the likes of Tim Rutten, Jim Rainey, George Skelton, Michael Hiltzik and others.

OTHER NEWS:

** Mayor Antonio Parkervillar will preempt CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar's "State of Boyle Heights" Speech, with his own today at 4:00 PM, on the "State of Los Angeles". One of the more newsworthy elements of his telepromptive, ahh, speech, will be the number of future layoffs that he will propose. Hint? Think triple digits..... and by the way, will LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia be leading the cheering section?

** Memo to current political office holders. Your chance to claim unemployment when you get defeated in your next election cycle, is being closed with SB 1211, authored by State Senators Gloria Romero and Bob Dutton.

** Ron Kaye has the details on the workings of the "Clean Sweep Campaign", which is an endeavor of a "diverse group of Los Angeles community activists" ( ** with no apologies to the myopic "WWG"), to bring reforms to 200 Spring Street, with like-minded candidates for City Council. Here is the platform, which is still a work in progress.

LA CLEAN SWEEP PLATFORM

1. CLEAN UP CITY HALL -- We need a change of leadership. The failure of our leaders is clear to everyone, We need tough penalties and enforcement of ethics law violations and immediate and full disclosure of campaign contributions and interests even as new leaders develop reforms, including clean money campaign financing that break the power of special interests. The Department of Water and Power Commission, Community Redevelopment Agency and other commissions must have independence free of political control. All city agencies, task forces and Council committees must have representatives appointed by Neighborhood Councils. Transparency, openness, public access to all documents must be enacted under an open access law.

2. FIX THE BUDGET -- Spending must be brought under control for the benefit of the city's 4 million residents and hundreds of thousands of businesses. Salaries of city officials must be reduced along with Council and mayoral staffing, slush funds and office holder accounts eliminated. Adjustments must be made to the employee wage and pension system. Tax, rate and fee policies must be restructured to create a healthy economic environment.

3. FOCUS ON CORE SERVICES -- The focus of city government must be on basic services that benefit the whole community, not as a jobs and patronage programs. Protection of police and fire services and infrastructure. Parks, libraries, street maintenance, integrated planning to preserve neighborhood health, enforcement of building codes and fair share of city services are paramount. Services provided by city staff must be cost-effective with those of the private sector.

4. POWER SHARING -- Elect City Council members who put the interests of the whole city ahead of any special interest. Empower Neighborhood Councils to make the first decisions on all local development issues. Create a commission to develop a plan for a borough system of government. Establish that a key function of city government is to encourage public participation and treat all people with respect and courtesy.

Wonder how Mayor Parkervillar and the current City Council, will comment about these steps to clean up their ethical transgressions?

** BTW, that "three month" DWP rate increase approved by the shady actions of City Council President Eric Gartraitor?? Haha, it is looking like the DWP Commission punked the ratepayers again.

** Ooooppps!! I almost forgot to mention this. On the subject of Hahahahaha, wonder how that press event on the south side of City Hall is going, regarding the "total recall" of one Mayor Antonio Parkervillar?

** 11:00 AM update on the South Lawn proceedings via the Daily News.

A handful of former candidates and grassroots activists launched a recall drive today against Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Former mayoral candidates Walter Moore and Phil Jennerjahn and David Hernandez,, along with former City Council candidate Augusto Bisani are among the proponents of the effort.
Aides to Villaraigosa said he would have no comment

Even Deputy Mayor for Spin, Matt Szabo, knows when no words are warranted.

Your thoughts......

Scott Johnson in CD 14

Thursday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

A coupla Johnnies...

Johnny Grant, the Brady Westwater of Hollywood, has passed on. The celebrity-hugging Mayor of Hollywood was 84, and most of all bridged the natural divide between Hollywood star and local politician. Grant lived at the Hollywood Roosevelt. Last I saw him in person was at the Holly Trolley launch party, the kind of event where he was in his element.

So much effort for so few people: rather than working to fix homelessness for all, half, or even a quarter, the County stoops to providing social services by lottery. Seven will tend to fifty in the new program that won't work for 50,000 but will make your consciences ease a bit that something is being done.

Lastest agency eyeballing a local tax is Metro. A focus group puts a Subway to the Sea tax as winning over 66% of the vote.

An amazing sight: Senator Boxer will be in LA today, and not just to grab some donor money. She's here for an environment dust-up. Also speaking are Jerry Brown and Hizzoner.

National follow-up: Bradblog is sticking with the Diebold anomaly in New Hamshire story, and some in mainstream media have picked it up. It now seems Hillary went up and Obama down wherever Diebold machines were used to tabulate votes, but remained consistent with exit polling where they were not.

And the Hotsheet at 3 a.m. even goes international this morning, for this one: "What are you doing here?" man asks wife at brothel...

Liberals Want to Outlaw Conservative Talk

Well sort of.

Unable to achieve success in talkradio via the free market, liberals now plan to use government intervention to achieve their goals of more "liberal voices" on the air. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer want to bring back the so-called "fairness doctrine" and other regulations to "balance" programming. Its not just the liberals who are after talkradio but Republicans such as Trent Lott upset that their "free ride" on many conservative programs is over.

As reported by The National Review, longtime Clinton crony John Podesta has authored a treatise on what has to be done about the "problem" of conservative talkradio.

What's next? Are they going to outlaw blogs?

See the problem for you liberals is you might be able to try to outlaw the speech you don't like. However, the dangerous precedent you set will eventually come back to harm you when your opponents are in charge.

If it were up to some of the members of the City Council and the Mayor, laws might be passed that would impose government control on radio programs such as that of Doug McIntyre (pictured above) or blogs like this.

And even if the liberals get their laws, its likely they won't have the intended goals. Should stations be able to air unfettered and wildly profitable conservative talkradio programs, they will drop the format and political coverage altogether in favor of talk programming similar to Howard Stern or Tom Leykis or even other formats such as sports, music or foreign language broadcasts. And even if the government mandates certain types of programming be covered (such as they once did with community affairs programming) the broadcasters will find ways around those rules, such as airing the programs at 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday (as many still do voluntarily).

The best bet is to let everyone express their views and then let them be judged in the marketplace of ideas. But do liberals get that? I imagine some do but their numbers are shrinking everyday.