Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Saturday

The Grown Ups Now In Charge of CD2 | Photo by Mayor Sam

Members of the Police Protective League are baffled why their leadership spent nearly a half million dollars to elect Chris Essel to the City Council when eventual victor Paul Krekorian had a good record of supporting those in uniform.  Perhaps the PPL bosses listened to Phil Jennerjahn when the former mayoral candidate blogged that Krekorian wanted to be a gang member.

Is Michelle Mowrey, who heads up bicycle programs for the LA Department of Transportation saying that Los Angeles isn't white enough to be a bicycle friendly city? Metroblogs notes some racially tinged remarks by the official when comparing Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon in response to a question by Clowncilman Bill Rosendahl saying "With all due respect the City of Portland is 450,000 people. It’s a homogeneous community that is very white, and very progressive with respect to transportation."

Friday Team Krekorian began their first day of fumigating the CD 2 offices. It's nice to see the grown-ups in charge again in the Second District.

CurbedLA reports a developer in Santa Monica is causing NIMBY outrage for proposing a 71 foot high building near the new Expo Line on Olympic Boulevard.  As a Curbed reader  notes if the developer really wanted a 71 foot tall building they should have proposed one 142 feet.

Franklin Avenue blogs some cool old local television commercials from back in the day including those for stores who are no longer here such as Gemco and May Company.

And finally the Walt Disney Company proves it's family friendly mettle by resurrecting an homage to a now deceased alleged child molestor.

"Boss D'Arcy's" IBEW and Police Protective League Money Up for CD 2 Candidate Chris Essel

"Boss D'Arcy has made his choice for CD 2"

A Special Interest "Monetary Avalanche" is rolling into the CD 2 Special Election Runoff, courtesy of IBEW and the Police Protective League.

As reported from the Ethics Website, these numbers speak for themselves.

Local 18 Water and Power Defense League (IBEW) Los Angeles, CA 90004 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine Essel City Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 11/06/09 11/06/09
Printing, production, postage, research FLYER-1 $16,025.00

Local 18 Water and Power Defense League (IBEW) Los Angeles, CA 90004 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine EsselCity Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 11/09/09 11/09/09 Printing, production, postage, and research FLYER-2 $13,469.00

Local 18 Water and Power Defense League (IBEW) Los Angeles, CA 90004 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine EsselCity Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 11/10/09 11/10/09 Printing, production, postage, and research FLYER-3 $14,280.00

Los Angeles Police Protective League PAC Los Angeles, CA 90017 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine EsselCity Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 11/11/09 11/11/09 Radio Advertisement RADSC-4 $65,000.00

Los Angeles Police Protective League PAC Los Angeles, CA 90017 (Independent Expenditure) Support Christine EsselCity Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 11/11/09 11/11/09
Mailer MAIL-5 $10,201.00

Los Angeles Police Protective League PAC Los Angeles, CA 90017 (Independent Expenditure)
Support Christine EsselCity Council Member - District 02Chris Essel for City Council 2009 - General (1321633)[Election: 12/08/09] 11/11/09 11/11/09 Electronic opt-out, data list, series of 7 email advertisements OTHER-2 $4,800.00

Simply, Paul Krekorian is not going to win the money battle in this race, but Krekorian can offset the Essel monetary advantage with the efficient use of his "grass roots" resources.

What will be of interest in the days ahead is whether the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and SEIU, both Krekorian supporters, counter the IBEW and PPL expenditures with their own monetary resources.

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

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Sunday

As reported by Antonio Watch yesterday, at our fourth anniversary party longtime community activist David Hernandez announced his campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles.  Hernandez joins candidate Walter Moore in the race bringing the current total of candidates seeking to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to two.  Will we be making it three soon?

Good news for Mark Ridley-Thomas in his battle against Council Member Bernard Parks for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Ridley-Thomas received the endorsement of the LA Downtown News and this weekend the Police Protective League - no fan of Parks during his time as LAPD Chief - made a $50,000 radio buy on behalf of Ridley-Thomas.

Monday Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick will release her audit of the LAPD’s Forensic DNA Rape-kit Backlog.  It was widely reported in the media in August that the back-log of rape kits in the LAPD crime lab was continuing to grow.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres has bought $100,000 of television airtime to urge Californians to vote no on Proposition 8, which seeks to overturn the court's decision earlier this year to allow same-sex couples to legally marry. In the ads DeGeneres, who has had both succesful eponymous prime time sitcoms and a daytime talk show, tells viewers "Hi, I'm Ellen DeGeneres. I got to do something this year I never thought I'd ever be able to do: I got married."

Ron Kaye has a piece on opposition to the erection of cell phone towers on a new building in Echo Park.  But here's the issue - everyone wants a cell phone and reception in some areas is horrific.  If we don't build more towers what is the solution? I know the neighborhood types will scream, but I fundamentally believe government should not be allowed to intervene in commerce like this.   It's a reactive approach that is more about fighting something than it is in finding real solutions.

A newly released DVD of the Los Angeles Philharmonic offers a look back at the orchestra thirty years ago under then conductor Zubin Mehta.  In the the video from 1977, Mehta conducts the Phil in Bartók Concerto for Orchestra at the Dorothy Chandler.  Flash forward thirty years later as Director Designate Gustavo Dudamel "auditioned" for the role also leading Bartok, this time at the LA Phil's new home, the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Police Protective League to Taxpayers: Screw You

The Police Protective League has decided to join with and not fight the Mayor in efforts to stick it to the taxpayers and support the phone tax increase. A whopping $250,000 donation is coming to the Mayor's Yes on S campaign from the union. Wonder what kind of backslapping secured this support?

There was a time when the League was one of the no-nonsense public employee unions in Los Angeles back in the day when our favorite former motorcycle cop turned Clowncilman ran the show. But hey - he's descended into liberalism himself so why bother. Maybe Mayor Sam isn't going to be so likely to support the PPL in their fight against the Police Commissions mandate for certain officers to turn over financial records or their battle with Bitter Bernie on work schedules.