Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Ron Kaye and I were both interviewed for a piece by T.A. Frank in The New Republic about Tuesday's elections. Frank keenly observes how screwed up our City is when he notes that the election "failed to make the front of The Los Angeles Times."


Calitics deftly wraps up why Tuesday's election was a dismal failure for the Mayor.

He ended up with just 56% of the vote after running a dismissive non-campaign where he refused to debate and spent almost no time in the city. One of his top lieutenants, Jack Weiss, is now in a runoff for city attorney despite spending millions on his campaign. And Measure B, the solar power initiative which the mayor backed, is too close to call at this hour, as provisionals and late absentees are tabulated.

To top that off one of the Mayor's picks for school board has either narrowly won or perhaps narrowly lost a race that should have been a cakewalk for her.

Continuing on this theme, our friend Jill Stewart at the LA Weekly says "The anti-Villaragiosa blogosphere will now have bragging rights to say Villaraigosa's key opponent was his own record." I guess we just did.

And it appears, just like Dick Nixon, we may not have Walter Moore to kick around any more.

Another Mayoral candidate we probably won't hear from again anytime soon is Craig X. Rubin. Rubin held his "victory" party appropriately at "The Comedy Store" and told supporters "The party starts at 9 p.m. and is expected to last until Rubin and his supporters hear the words, 'And the winner is Rubin'" No word if the party is still going on at this time.

Following the election, LA's leaders are dealing with what could be a ominous budget situation. Rick Orlov reports that "Interim City Administrative Officer Ray Ciranna predicted the budget deficit - $430 million this year - will worsen as revenue declines in virtually all areas, including taxes on sales, hotel rooms and parking." Of course the Mayor and City Clowncil have been spending like drunken sailors for the last four years so they only have themselves to blame.

Speaking of City spending, LA Weekly readers are not too happy about our $300,000 a year Council members. One reader, Nick Antonicello of Venice Beach chimes in with the following question, "How does Bill Rosendahl, with his bombastic and clownlike approach to government service, earn more than a U.S. senator or member of Congress?"