Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

In what could be a striking example of why what Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin is doing to corral the gross power of public employee unions is a good thing, the re-election campaign for Councilman Bernard Parks is going tougher than it should. Parks, a popular and fiscally tough Councilman who came up the ranks in the LAPD, is going up an otherwise mediocre and ethically challenged candidate in Forsceen Rowles-Hogan who is the beneficiary of significant DWP and city employee union largess.  Parks has been a voice of sanity when it comes to the DWP, protecting ratepayers as well as fighting against more than generous bankrupting type pension schemes.  Rowles-Hogan, as noted by the LA Weekly, has a city career "fraught with controversy" including being forced to resign from the DWP retirement board after she was caught soliciting funds from money managers who wished to do business with the board.

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Mid-Day Briefs on the "non-CD 14" Los Angeles Political Scene for Thursday

Blessed bloggin lunch time to all as we near the last week of the "Reign of Cardinal Roger Mahony".

The "Old Gray Hag on Spring Street" would love your thoughts on the soon to be ex. Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

And while the Times ask you to opine on Cardinal Mahony's legacy, here are some questions pertaining to his leadership of the Los Angeles Archdiocese for your commenting pleasure.

* Should have or will Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley indict Mahony for his role in Catholic Priest Sex Abuse Scandal?
* Will KABC Talk Radio Host Doug McIntyre regale listeners with a special "Cardinal Roger Corleone Mahony" segment as the Papal rep retires?
* Why did Cardinal Mahony take a hard line regarding unionization of cemetery workers?
* Was Cardinal Mahony's pro-active stance for immigration reform a protective front regarding the sex abuse scandal?
* Will Mayor Antonio Villar receive Communion and Confession rites for the Cardinal before his retirement?

More non CD 14 political news after the bloggin leap  
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Morning Briefs and Outtakes on Possible Replacements for "Governor Kennedy Republican" and other Topics

Who wants to replace "Governor Kennedy Republican" in 2010??

These Californians want your consideration to be "Governor Arnold "Kennedy Republican" Schwarzenegger replacement in 2010 and one "ex. candidate" is reduce to shilling for the current governor in New Jersey.

The race to replace the "Kennedy Republican" is picking up steam with the potential candidates making their intentions official, or will shortly.

On the Republican side, former E-Bay executive Meg Whitman "re-announced" her candidacy in a Fullerton rally. Whitman has also used her considerable financial resources to make major ad buys on local talk radio stations such as KFI, KABC, and KRLA.

State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner for his part chose the KFI "John and Ken Show" to sign a "No New Taxes Pledge", Poizner or the "Poizninator" in the words of Downtown News Editor Jon Regardie, rolled out his four-point plan to enhance business and create jobs, at a September 15 presentation to the LA Chamber of Commerce.

On the Democratic side, former governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown, made the rounds of the Spring Street City Council Chambers with Council President Eric Garcetti acting as escort.

San Fransisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who has the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, was given the same City Hall treatment by supporter, former City Council President Alex Padilla in the recent past.

Then there is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who many thought would have been the front-runner for governor in the "pre-Mirthala" period. Now he is relegated to being the "special guest" at a Beverly Hills fundraiser for New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, who is in major trouble in his re election campaign back home.

OTHER NEWS:

** The Los Angeles City Council voted on these issues of "importance".

First, cut down a tree, including a sacred oak, and face the wrath of your local government. The "Fifteen Group" who owns the oak-filled Wyvernwood Apartment Complex in CD 14 might want to host Councilman Jose Huizar for another Super Bowl trip, to get an variance.

Second, they voted 12-0 to limit the amount of roosters or, errrrrrr, COCKS!!, to one per household. This comment from measure author Councilwoman Janice Hahn will be highlighted in bold for history. “Roosters have their place in this city, but we think having more than one per property causes problems,” she said.

** LA Times columnist Steve Lopez latest missive "Dark charges from Mohony's inner circle" has and is sure to reinvigorate discussion about the role of Cardinal Roger Mahony in the church abuse scandals.

** Shades of the days of late Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block as current Sheriff Lee Baca, announces no closures of county jail spaces.

** LA Weekly's Christine Pelisek has more on the "gruesome details" regarding the cold-blooded murder of LA Sheriff Deputy Juan Escalante by the Avenues Gang. Details includes some comments by gang members about using the resources of Homeboy Industries to provide cover for their activities.

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

Afternoon updates from the "RED SPOT INSTITUTE"

CARDINAL MAHONY FILES RESTRAINING ORDER:

Cardinal Roger Mahony has requested a Restraining Order against a 61 year old man who threaten him recently. This recent episode is unrelated to the summertime assault

This comes a day after the Cardinal sat down with the LAPD to discuss the July episode where Mahony was beaten during a stroll to a nearby mailbox.

The attacker physically express his anger over the Priest abuse scandal, leaving the Los Angeles rep. to the "Holy See" with injuries to his body.

"BIG JOE" STRIKES THE TENT IN MALIBU:

Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy's "LAND BANKING CZAR" Joe Edmiston came up a loser in his bid to open up SMMC/MCRA land within the City of Malibu to camping.

Malibu residents and the full City Council were in solidarity against the burly ranger with hat, gun, and "NO ACCOUNTABILITY" to anyone.

"RANGER JOE" plans to appeal the cities decision to the California Coastal Commission. No word whether the "LAND BANKING CZAR" would plan to access a hidden fee on the fire weary residents of Malibu.

"CLOWNCIL" DELAYS DWP FEE INCREASES:

What should of been a momentous day for "VILLAR DINNER FRIEND" H. David Hahai was outshined by the "CITY CLOWNCIL" new found want for accountability from the newly installed DWP General Manager.

After being confirmed for GM by the "FIFTEEN CLOWNS". Nahai's plans for fee increases in water and electricity to sustain the General Fund, errrrr, infrastructure improvements, was put on the shelf for the next couple on months.

No word how this went over with "BOSS D'ARCY" upon Nahai's report to the DWP "OVERLORD".

"STORM WATCH 2007":

Winter storm has local officials on stand by. Here are some sites to keep up to date on the storm's progression.

National Weather Service

Accuweather

Ontario Weather Service

Wednesday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

JM, Reservoir Street, Echo Park, 12.4.07

Surf's Up. Way up, says the Daily News. Epic. But the Lowriders at MayorSam demand equal time.

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Thieves steal copper from the City; it translates into a million dollar loss and also streetlight outages. "Among the hardest hit areas are Boyle Heights, the east San Fernando Valley and Wilmington, as well as a three-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River Bike Path between Los Feliz Boulevard and the L.A. Zoo."

Public Works Commish Cynthia Ruiz's attitude is that the problem is with the thieves, which of course it is, but not so much with the City securing the boxes or managing its assets better. "If I had an extra million dollars I could put 10 graffiti crews on the streets." We weren't aware that a Commisioner could act on her own to spend an "extra" million in a way she personally deemed fit.

Copper prices climbed in the summer, increasing the appeal of pinching copper wire.

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Council District 13 and No2HomeDepot.com have announced that Agent Orange has indeed backed off of the Glassell Park site for good. The language of the CD letter was surprisingly rosy, expressing unrestrained delight with the outcome and confidence that a good, more neighborhoody development would be found for the site. The Sunland Tujunga site on Foothill, however, still features a bashful "coming soon" sign.

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His Eminence didn't report a crime (don't go there), but the LAPD is investigating the summer assault on him anyway, just in case the Cardinal is, you know, lying. But it's Asst. Commanding Officer Andrew Smith's quote that doesn't quite ring true: "Whether it's the cardinal or a homeless guy, we take it personal when someone does something to one of our folks downtown."

It would be nice if the fishwraps also covered Mahony's Christmas Day mass at County Jail some year---he's only given up eightteen or so Christmas mornings now to celebrate mass with our most dispossessed of all.

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Southern rapper Pimp C ends up dead at the Mondrian. It could be natural causes. He was 33. He had played House of Blues Dec. 1.

Outtakes from the "RED SPOT INSTITUTE"

Good balmy morning to all in the "City of Angels". Here are some "BLOGGIN TOPICS" to engage the discerning mind.

CARDINAL MAHONY DISCLOSES SUMMER ASSAULT:

Cardinal Roger Mahony reveals in today's Daily News that he was assaulted in July by a person agitated over the Priest Abuse Scandal. While many are right in expressing their collective anger over the scandal, "STREET JUSTICE" is not the proper avenue to express one's feelings.

FPPC TO REVIEW, SCRUTINIZE EXPENSE PROCEDURES:

The fallout from the "LIFE STYLE OF WORKING MAN, FABIAN" continues. The state ethics commission, better known as the FPPC is reviewing new proposals that would require lawmakers to fully disclose the rationale and source of spending for trips such as those that Speaker Nunez engaged in. If these new rules are adopted, I would recommend naming them the "NUNEZ ACT". "MOO BOY MAVIGLIO" will love this.

LABOR TO PLAY MAJOR ROLE IN SUPERVISOR RACE:

Lead by the "FIRST LADY OF LABOR", Maria Elena Durazo, the county labor federation has given top priority to electing a "labor friendly" person to the Supervisor seat being vacated by Supervisor Burke. Can one sense a bad outcome for the "MANIC BITTER BERNIE"? As a side note, the county labor federation endorse the "PHONE TAX".

****DID LABOR LEADER DURAZO CALL OUT FABIAN NUNEZ TODAY??****

We’re certainly dismayed that [Núñez] would abandon 100,000 low-wage workers. He came from modest beginnings himself, and he should know better,” said Art Pulaski, the chief of the state labor federation. Excerpted from "Fabian's Fatwa" by Marc Cooper

"Fabian's Big Break" by Marc Cooper

"Fabian's Fatwa" by Marc Cooper

"Bad Bet?" by Marc Cooper

NAHAI NOMINATION COMES BEFORE COUNCIL COMMITTEE:

The nomination of David Nahai to become the General Manager at the nation's largest public utility, will come before the City Council committee which oversees the DWP. All eyes will be on Councilwoman Jan Perry who was at odds with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over the selection process.

Monday's Mayor V Madness

Latinas in Los Angeles are reportedly dropping their support for the Mayor in droves. Many of them who supported Villaraigosa in the past are saying never again. One woman interviewed by the Whittier Daily News prays and lights candles for the Mayor and his estranged wife as a way of "handling her anger and disillusionment."

Reports are that Mayor V plans to begin a major rehabilitation effort starting Monday including an all out assault on potholes and alleged spiritual counseling from Cardinal Roger Mahoney.

A reader reports that "strings were pulled" in order to get a female police officer allegedly favored by Mayor Villaraigosa transferred to the LAPD's elite Metro Division and his security detail.

Yet another print journalist can't stand how blogs and other parts of the new digital media have reshaped how political reporting is done. Tim Rutten bitches about blogs saying "Clearly, the mayor would not be in the fix he's in — and it's quite a fix — without the emergence of a vigorous online media that is reshaping the city's political landscape." I think we here at the Sister City take that as a compliment. In a related post on Newsbusters Dave Pierre says Rutten's article exposes a double standard about the Times' coverage of Republican and Democratic philanderers.

Click read more for lots more Villaraigosa dish.



Radar Online reports that Mayor Villaraigosa's situation definitely presents a big problem for Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Luke Ford enumerates the number of entries on the growing list of Antonio's alleged girls starting with Mirthala, the latest one and many others. He also puts a number of you in the spotlight posting your comments on his well known blog. Luke also wonders aloud if getting on that list gets you a plum city position. No proof to that yet, let's hope we don't find it.

Writing in the Daily News Earl Ofari Hutchinson says that the Mayor's relationship with Mirthala Salinas "crosses the line" and raises troubling questions when an elected official has an affair with a journalist.

Newsbusters points out that he LA Times makes quite a dumb point in an editorial claiming that Republicans seem to get away with affairs more than Democrats. I guess they forgot about Bill Clinton avoiding conviction on impeachment. The more I think about it I don't see the point of the Times' logic.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin is living in some kind of fantasy world. The paper editorializes that these sex scandals won't hurt the Mayor and that he has some kind of "potential."

The Times has video of Mirthala reporting the Mayor's divorce on air (scroll down the page).

Lonewacko's hope has been it would be his radical ways that would lead Tony Villar to lead his political campaign down the tubes but if a sex scandal is what does, he's cool with it.

The LA Times Dana Parsons has discovered the "anti-Villaraigosa:" Laguna Woods Mayor Milt Robbins, 86 years old, married for 63 years to Marilyn and whose biggest guilty pleasure is his occasional weekend nine holes of golf.

Flap the Blogging Dentist has lots of tidbits and photos of the Mayor's alleged new girlfriend.

Here's what readers say about the Mayor and his recent troubles:

• One reader claims that The LA Times is doing damage control for the Mayor.
• In the meantime another Mayor Sam fan says that the Spanish language media is AWOL on the story.
• Another poster alleges that the Villaraigosa name was not a politically correct feminist display of hyphenization, but a way for the future Mayor to escape rumored credit troubles.

Antonio's New Girlfriend Outed?

I don't blog much on weekends but this stuff just doesn't stop coming.

After we disclosed a tip that claimed the Mayor had yet another girlfriend, this time a Korean "developer," the blogopshere fired up to try to out the alleged individual. This time the usual wags, a blogger, another blogger and some Sister City readers are all pointing their finger at an individual who is not a developer but a fashion designer and City Planning Commissioner who accompanied the Mayor on his Asian junket some months back (you can still buy Mayor Villaraigosa travel gear here by the way).

As we mentioned yesterday, it was the relationship with this new woman that led the Mayor's admitted squeeze - benched television reporter Mirthala Salinas - to rat out the Mayor and tip off the media to their own relationship. We have also been told that Salinas contacted the Mayor's soon to be ex-wife Corina Raigosa and commiserated on the topic of being dumped by Antonio.

By the way, while this whole Tony Villar Summer of Love has been going on our eyeballs have been easily diverted from the antics of Rocky Delgadillo, the City Council, Chief Bratton, etc. They do not need to assume the Sister City has given them a pass.

And speaking of Rocky Delgadillo, former staffers for the Mayor are telling us that Councilman Villaraigosa allegedly regularly used his Council staff during his 2005 Mayoral campaign for personal errands.

In other news...

Pundits debate the effect of the affair(s) on the Mayor's future career over at the LA Times. Some think it could damage the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.

A Hispanic, pro-MECHA writer from El Paso is disgusted with the Mayor and his infidelity as well as the Mayor overlooking fellow Hispanic Bill Richardson's Presidential campaign.

Apparently the Mayor failed to show up to the opening of Hillary Clinton's Los Angeles headquarters today. Odd given not only his close relationship with the Clintons but that Antonio is one of the National Chairs of Hillary's campaign.

Some are speculating the Mayor any day now will enter into spiritual "rehab" with Cardinal Roger Mahoney a la Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton following the Lewinsky scandal. Yea we know how that turned out for Jesse later on.

And finally, the idea of a Bloomberg-Villaraigosa (two biggest city Mayors in US) Presidential ticket is ridiculous; still the LA Business Journal decided to waste some ink or at least bytes on it. By the way folks I know the MSM isn't really on top of these things lately but the California Gubenatorial election is in 2010, not 2009.