Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday

Looks like Mayor Villaraigosa may have dodged a bullet.  Politico reports that local Mayors across the country are feeling the sting of voter rage against incumbents and many of the Hizzoners have been turfed out so far.  Even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may very well be in trouble in next week's election in the Big Apple. Stay tuned.

Word from Daily Variety via Franklin Avenue that like the daily fishwraps local TV news is in big trouble.  Legendary LA newsman John Beard is reduced to hosting happy talk in Buffalo, New York.  Boo hoo hoo. Those programs have been awful for decades.

Nanny state yet in full court press again.  The City wants to ban cigarette smoking in outdoor patios at restaurants.  Memo to Sleeping Greig Smith who is behind the measure "Cigarette's and smoking sucks but so does heavy handed totalitarian local government."  How working on a real issue? The Mayor seems to get it.

Thanks to Nuch terms around the name of his hometown, San Pedro have entered the local political lexicon.  Doug McIntyre writing in the Daily News says that the City Attorney is playing by "San Pedro Rules."

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

The most noteworthy event of his career for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is that he's going to be immortalized in wax by the legendary Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  Other than that, an LA Weekly piece by Patrick Range McDonald paints a dim picture of the Mayoralty under Villaraigosa, that of a Mayor consumed by photo ops, press events and ego stroking, without a single accomplishment (including that the one achievement the Mayor does tout may have been fudged) under his belt.  Other than the grass roots candidacy of Walter Moore, no one has yet sought to challenge the Mayor, who has perhaps left the City so broken no one wants it.

Though the majority of Republicans appear to support the effort to deny rights to same-sex couples, Proposition 8, there is a growing GOP effort to oppose the measure.  At the same time local Republicans are criticizing the leadership of the County GOP organization for sponsoring an event against marriage choice at a time when the party's focus should be on electing Republicans to local office.  We've said it before, but booting County Party Chair Linda Boyd is long overdue. 

Evidently we've put an end to crime in Los Angeles, we've filled all the potholes, we've brought lots and lots of high paying jobs to the city and we've balanced the budget.  Because besides banning plastic bags and fast food in Los Angeles, the City Council took to that veritable scourge of society, banning smoking at outdoor farmers markets.

If you live in one of  LA's tony hillside or canyon areas, you better not be voting for John McCain or more importantly, don't put up a sign supporting the Republican Presidential candidate.  Not only will local liberals deface your sign, the City will tell you to take it down - despite Supreme Court rulings that say a City cannot prohibit political speech on private property.

I didn't catch this earlier, but when John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his pick for his running mate, his daughter, blogger Meghan McCain blogged the event with lots of behind the scenes photos of the announcement event.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Zuma Dogg was chosen over Walter Moore to help write the ballot argument against the City's "affordable housing" measure which goes before the voters in November.  In a two part hosting here and here, Zuma Dogg gives a preview of his opposition to the measure: His claim that funds set aside for emergency housing for battered women, seniors and other people in need will actually go towards the construction of the controversial Grand Avenue project.

The story about former Presidential candidate John Edwards' rendezvous with his admitted mistress prior to a meeting with Mayor Villaraigosa gets weirder.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the meeting was arranged by Robert McGovern, a friend of Edwards' paramour, Rielle Hunter, and a self-described new age guru and spiritual healer.


Dennis Zine has joined with a group of Republicans who are opposing Proposition 8, the measure on the state ballot this November that would overturn the California Supreme Court's ruling to legalize gay marriage. Other Republicans joining the coalition include Governor Schwarzenegger and Ward Connerly, the African American conservative activist who sponsored Proposition 209 which overturned affirmative action in California.

Let me preface this by the fact that I absolute hate cigarette smoking and discourage anyone from doing it.  That being said we don't need to government to make this decision for people. Bitter Bernie is planning to introduce legislation to ban all outdoor smoking.

An animal activist blog is taking Mayor Villaraigosa to task for eating the delicacy foie gras.  Foie gras is the liver of a goose or duck that's been enlarged by force feeding the bird fattening food through a pipe.  The liver expands, the bird gets sick and then it's harvested for it's fat liver which is cooked up at restaurants like the Mayor's favorite, Patina.  We also learn from the blog that the Mayor allegedly drinks $140 bottles of wine on the city dime for his lunches.

Barack Obama's ten year old daughter Malia is apparently not a fan of Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.  According to the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Malia is quick to turn the channel if either of the pop culture divas show up on TV. On the other hand, Malia is a big fan of Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus and has forgiven her for her recent photo controversy.

If you didn't have a chance to catch the blog over the weekend, here are a few things you may have missed.  First off, Full Disclosure Network reports that the price tag for the LAUSD's school construction bond measure will actually be double that of the $7 billion that is being talked about now, as well, if the bond passes state law will require all California taxpayers to kick in another $7 billion for LAUSD construction.  Next, the LAUSD will pay $50 million to a company controlled by a political associate of Mayor Villaraigosa to purchase a school construction site.  And LA Times bloggers were instructed to not blog about the recent story about John Edwards and his visit to his now admitted mistress at a local hotel.  By the way the Times justifies their spiking of the story at their "Readers Representative" blog.