Councilman-elect Paul Krekorian: “The
voters of CD2 demanded profound change and soundly rejected the
domination of this city by Downtown insiders. This
victory is the
beginning of a fundamental transformation of the government of Los
Angeles, and it sends a strong signal that the people of the San
Fernando Valley are not satisifed with business as usual. The task now
ahead of us is to build a city government that will work for the people
and that is marked by integrity, honesty
and accountability. To succeed, we need to start healing the divisions
that have resulted from this campaign and begin bringing our community
together.”
It’s not been a good year for Antonio Villaraigosa.
His scheme to rip off the public with a phony solar energy plan called Measure B was snuffed by voters. His stooge candidate for City Attorney was beaten by outsider Carmen Trutanich. And now the compliant Chris Essel got trounced by Paul Krekorian in the CD2 Council race in the East San Fernando Valley.
It’s a new day in LA.
Community activists played the key role in all three humiliating defeats for the mayor and the creaky political machine he heads. There ought to be a law that bans three-time losers from serving in political office for the rest of their lives.
Antonio had the chance to be somebody, to bring LA together and achieve great things. But he’s become a cartoon figure, a lame duck out of touch with the people who quacks irrelevantly while the city sinks deeper into a financial crisis and the discontent of the people grows.
He knew what had to be done but lacked the courage to stand up to the entrenched interests. Instead, he chose to live like a king, drink $500 bottles of wines on other people’s tabs, chase women like he’s Tiger Woods and hide behind a brigade of gofers and bodyguards while flitting from one staged PR event to another and promising great schools, great public transit, great jobs and a green city sometime way off in the future.
All the while billboards and pot shops blighted the city’s neighborhoods, the infrastructure rotted from lack of investment and maintenance, poverty soared, corruption flourished and the city treasury was depleted to the point where services are being slashed and only bankruptcy or the sale of assets like parking structures, the airport or DWP can stop the flood of red ink.
Voters have finally rebelled.
When will the business, labor and civic leaders of the city wake up to what’s going on and see the Antonio’s promises are nothing but fool’s gold?
The viciousness of the campaign Antonio’s pals ran against Krekorian could turn out to be a turning point. They may have turned a knee-jerk liberal Democrat into a true democrat who has the passion to challenge the lemming-like unanimity of the City Council.
Surely, he owes his election to the grassroots activists from Sherman Oaks to Sunland-Tujunga who rallied behind him in the hope he would stand up for them and be the voice of the anger and frustration of people all over the city.
Krekorian has a mandate to lead. If he betrays that trust and becomes just another hollow man in the go-along world of City Hall, it will soon be clear enough and he will pay the price when he comes up for re-election in little more than a year.
He may turn out to be just another gear in the machine as he appeared to be at the outset of this election campaign or he can join with Trutanich and become the cornerstone of the movement to change the political and civic culture of LA.
I may see things darkly but I’m an eternal optimist and I believe Krekorian is made of the right stuff. Of course, I thought that about Antonio so I could be wrong as I so often am.
The sleazy campaign run against Krekorian with a record-shattering amount of dirty special interest money has freed him from control of the machine.
He needs to make community leaders like Mary Benson, Judy Price and Ellen Vuikovich an integral part of his team and build a grassroots organization that gives him the power to stand up to the special interests and serves a base for bringing activists all over the city together.
LA is at a turning point and the Measure B, Trutanich and Krekorian elections show there is a groundswell for reform that is growing.
The dirty political machine of downtown that includes Antonio, Wendy, D`Arcy, Maria Elena Durazo, CCA, AEG, CIM, to name a few, got a rude awakening last nite. The revolution has begun. Like Howard Beale , we are screaming ” I`m mad as hell and I`m not going to take this anymore”
You choose to omit that Trutanich endorsed Essel and v.v., his first big endorsement is Epic Fail, blame just Wendy and Antonio all you wnat. The kind of “change” he brought. a rightwing puppet for his handler Steve Cooley who’s been called a “bully, thug, liar and demagogue, Carmen the Clown, Carmen the Soap Opera, Tailgunner Nuch in Freefall, the Arrest! Arrest! Zombie of the City Hall House of Horrors. Nutty but Cage-rattling,” are just a few direct quotes from SUPPORTERS. He’s been finally ordered by the cowardly Council to “put up or shut up,” his behavior is so crass and embarrassing even Zine has distanced somewhat. He’s so despised and distrusted he’s ineffective.
We need CHANGE that WORKS FOR THE PEOPLE, and that comes with intelligence, civility, and graciousness in victory, all qualities Carmen lacks. The sort of uniting force we’d all hoped Antonio would be. Hopefully Paul will be a step in that direction, above ethnicity and race and gender and political party – a REAL uniter.
I think 8:15 has issues.
This win should remind the Neighborhood Councils that they have more power than they think. When the NC’s and the other local clubs can unite behind a candidate their efforts of walking the precincts and making calls can overwhelm even millions of dollars.
I think the hardest part is finding a decent candidate. Once you have that then getting people mobilized can be done pretty easily. There are lots of people in the city who fervently care about local politics. Give them something to do to create change and they will do it.
Yay us!
Guaranteed 8:15 = city employee.
This win should remind the Neighborhood Councils that they have more power than they think. When the NC’s and the other local clubs can unite behind a candidate their efforts of walking the precincts and making calls can overwhelm even millions of dollars.
I think the hardest part is finding a decent candidate. Once you have that then getting people mobilized can be done pretty easily. There are lots of people in the city who fervently care about local politics. Give them something to do to create change and they will do it.
Yay us!
Hi Ron
Perhaps one take-home lesson will be that low turnout elections are now playing into the hands of neighborhood activists. When it doesn’t take many votes to win, and getting out votes is difficult, the angry, involved voters are the swing votes. This was the case for Prop B and it looks like it was also the case for Krekorian.
It’s interesting that the turnout of 15 percent was similar to the turnout in the city primary election, the one in which Prop B was defeated. The margin of victory for Paul Krekorian was actually pretty close to the margin of defeat for Prop B.
In rough numbers, we have to turn out something like 20,000 votes in a citywide election and perhaps one-tenth that number in a local election.
Krekorian is not made of the right stuff. I guarantee you that.
Carol Schatz and the Downtown Association, which pushed through SB 1818 with the “leadership” of Essel, are crying over the election results today. They will not have Essel to push through more stuff that attacks the well-being of our neighborhoods: Bladerunner flashing billboards, “elegant density” with parking reductions justified by proximity of 2 miles to each subway station, pothead shops located along “safe passages” to elementary and middle schools, SB 1818 density intensity giveaways to developers, and “let’s double the population with granny flats” dead thinking. The Downtown Association is an embarrassment.
We get now an encore to Broidy`s admission of corruption. LAWA`s cesspool lid was just opened. Little by little the machine will crumble.
Ron, since I live in Sherman Oaks, which is a gerrymandered district (Koretz represents Ventura Blvd. South and Krekorian to the North), the last year has been agony since both of our Council Members were up for election.
First we saw the narrow defeat of the first-ever community activist candidate, Ty Vahedi, lose by just 700 votes to Paul Koretz. Then, we had to sweat it out until last night when, finally, a Sacramento politician (of all people!) beats downtown. And, that’s what is so incredible about this race. That it was downtown interests against the Valley folks. And, once again, “they” underestimated our ability to spread the word and see right through the campaign rhetoric.
As you know, I got to know both candidates pretty well. Essel lacked that fire in her belly, which burned right through Krekorian thanks to the mudslinging and his gradual education about the CD2 District. He grew to understand that if the Second District was lost, then what’s left of our Valley lifestyle would crumble.
I am not saying that we can sit back and take a breather. The hard work begins now – making sure Krekorian lives up to the commitments made to Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, on behalf of the entire District.
Happy happy!
For now….
Time to go to work on behalf of THE PEOPLE, Paul.
Spiffy is right. Now is the time for us to create a Candidates Academy to find good but electable grass roots candidates and not the vanity ego wannabe pols like Walter Moore. Combine this new “machine” with folks like Louis Pugliese, Armineh Chelebian and others and the success we had with Paul can be replicated Citywide.
A WIN FOR THE PEOPLE. What a SLAP in the face to corrupt money and personal agendas. A toast to all of the NC’s, community members, bloggers, Ron and his gang and everyone who did their part to help Paul get in. I hope the Police Policital league idiots aren’t stupid enough to continue to use cops money to endorse candidates. They gave Essel $400,000 without even their cops knowing where their hard earned dues were going. dumb asses couldn’t even get their cops a raise and look where they waste money. Councilmembers like Huizar are up for re election next year and Police Political League gave him money last time. I’m sure those council members are quaking in their shoes today. GREAT JOB EVERYONE
8:15 a.m. is a nut case.
Gee I wonder if Essel’s loss scared the hell out of city council today.
L.A. council puts off DWP pay raise vote
12:20 (the third time at least you’ve piped up to say the same stupid thing which you can’t refute) and the rest of the Trutanich SLAPPERS: Your guy lost big-time, being a prominent endorser for his fellow Shallman candidate, and the fact that you refuse to admit it and just name-call anyone who points out the obvious shows how much it stings. Your guy is as nasty and ungracious in victory as he was in his whole campaign, is a thug and bully to anyone the second they switch from kissing his feet to holding them to the fire and expecting him to actually deliver.
What’s pathetic is the Shallman Spin Team trying to claim that Krekorian was ungracious in HIS victory speech, when in fact he spoke about reaching out and healing the ugliness of the campaign. (Of course, Shallman’s campaign.)
He couldn’t be more the OPPOSITE of Trutanich, whose crass chest-thumping and ignorance have earned him more sarcastic nicknames and genuine anger at betrayal in their trust, in shorter time than anyone who’s ever been in office in L A.
The fact that he, Berger and Kevin James advertised themselves together as supporters of Essel on Google Ads including on this blog, and that silly ruff-ruff kept harping on himself joining them and Zine and Rosendahl in pushing for her, had a far greater impact on the race than the Mayor who knew enough to stay out of the way and isn’t even in the country. Trutanich’s first big Endorsement was a thud.
So for that matter was the Council’s: except for the ones who didn’t endorse her, they avoided mentioning Krekorian as though he were a foreshadowing of their own doom, the first of the opponents who would take them down one by one. It felt like a funeral at City Hall today.
Spiffy, your spirit is to be commended, and it’s important to emphasize that while the NC’s can make for a wonderful example of how the ‘Goliath’ that is City Hall can be tamed and brought to accountability through grass roots empowerment, but having NC’s engage directly in political campaigns may limit their presumption of objectivity, and there could be repercussions from those who currently hold our purse strings.
Measure B was an example where there was shared information, facilitated by individuals coming together in coalitions to gather information and engage in advocacy. In many cases, those individuals were people empowered through the NC system, but it was only when the information was shared with NC Boards at Public Meetings that specific determinations were made; either along the lines of recommendations to Stakeholders, Resolutions in support of the dwpCommittee, or even Community Impact Statements.
But when it comes to City Council candidates, or filling recently vacated Assembly seats for that matter, NC’s may find some would try to undermine their status if they were to start to resemble PAC’s. If the DWP MOU Oversight Committee was chastised for engaging in ‘advocacy’, then perhaps its not only more appropriate, but safer, to delineate roles, such as has been done with the creation of the juggernaut dwpCommittee.
Clearly, the mandate of the NC system should include having candidate forums, and hopefully veterans of such grass roots groups would make a good showing. And even the idea of a Candidates Academy could be rightfully considered to be in the realm of Empowerment, but independent coalitions such as SLAP could have more latitude in expending resources to identify and groom the agents of change which we need.
But you all know that…where do we sign up?
2:07 PM Sure, D`Arcy is poison now to be sprayed on all candidates he`s touched or will touch in the future. There is always a day of reckoning, the law of nature..
Article in the Slimes online up an hour ago: “Council Delays Acting on DWP Rate Hikes.” Coincidence, right?
How sweet is this: RonKayeLA endorsement of Krekorian trumps LA Times endorsement of Essel!
2:58PM, it is going to get much more worse for those have already drunk D`Arcy`s poison. They might as well look for new employment. The ratepayers are catching up and will hold the sold outs accountable.
Labonge is next.
Your days are numbered, Mr. High School Football.
2:35PM is THE nut case.
Please note: While wildly flailing at perceived villains with reckless verbosity is hauntingly familiar to those who are familiar with a supposedly fictional character ascribed to Cervantes, it should be noted that the lack of chivalry and honor would make certain other rantings, such as those reiterated yet again at 8:15 and 2:35, are in a different category completely.
2:35, it is three different persons who are tired of your lunatic ravings. This is the first time I’m seeing someone continue to shamelessly beat up on a candidate who won, and who is supported by majority of the people. You have been advised several times to have your own personal blog where you can rave & rant, and like-minded people can join you. Why sully our clean blog?
Make that FOUR persons tired of the lunatic: 12:20, 4:23, 4:39 and 5:27. I sure as heck was not any of the other three.
So Feuer, Karen Bass, Perez, de Leon, Koretz, Alarcon and the SEIU beat D’Arcy, PPL, Casden, AV and others.
‘Not sure if this is a victory or just a victorious statement. I hope it’s both. Time will tell.
Wendy is toast, toasted by her buddy Shallman. Well, it was good while it lasted, her Mayoral ambitions that is.
I agree with you that Antonio was taught a lesson. Let’s pressure him to step down and let a real leader take charge, Eric Garcetti. Real leadership to resolve LA’s problems.
9:48 PM, I agree with you. She is part of the defeated ,disgraced status quo. She is done. Her raw political ambitions did her in. Garcetti looks better and better every day. I hope he has the smarts to stay away from Wendy`s Don, D`Arcy.
Eric Garcetti has sullied his own name with a gun pointed to his foot and his foot in his mouth. Elegant density does not work in the low rise neighborhoods, and yet he has the nerve to add density everywhere.
9:48, Wendy is doing a good job of that anyway by NOT doing a good job at Controller.
How much time does it take to get an audit of note out there?
9:22 you know damn well that Nuch the Bamboozler is keeping her from doing “an audit of note” by refusing to settle or dismiss the lawsuit like he’d promised Laura Chick and lawyer Fred Woocher to get her support when he needed her. By tying her up in court and having forced the council to even fire Woocher by arguing that she Had TO take one of the lawyers who report to him or else (just ordered rerversed by the Presiding Judge Mooney as control-freak nuts) he hopes to prevent her from auditing elected officials LIKE HIM indefinitely (“inviting” her to audit Rocky’s worker’s comp books because he hates Rocky is NOT the same).
If Nuch can prevent her from auditing elected officials, her wings are so clipped it hurts her political ambitions. Gee, what a coincidence. And now you Trutanich Brainwashed minions blame Wendy for that, in a circle of duplicity that Nuch has built a career out of.
And stop blaming just Wendy for Vessel sinking – he was out there for her front and center big-time since he and Essel serve the same masters.
To quote Saturday Nite Live, 11:19 you are an ignorant slut!
Trutanich did endorse Essel (a mistake if you ask me), but he was definitely NOT out there campaigning for her or taping Robo Calls which is what Greuel was doing.
As far as the Chick lawsuit – dismissing it or not is pointless. The judge already issued a preliminary ruling that the Controller cannot audit elected officials. If you dismiss the lawsuit now, then that preliminary ruling will be used against the controller by the next target of an audit. The ONLY sane approach is to amend the City Charter to make it EXPLICIT that the controller can audit anyone. THAT IS WHAT Trutanich is supporting.
More Trutanich Troll lies. “You ignorant slut” is a nice touch, classy as always. The implosion of your tool, paid for with almost $5 million in campaign and IE funds, hurts so much you have to lash out and lie to defend him, sad.
You don’t answer (because you can’t) the underlying behaviors, but to try to sidestep his treachery by claiming he just discovered that amending the charter is the way to go is another deceit showing he either lied to her in the first place (as he did, and she said so many times) or is just showing his ignorance once again (like shaking down AEG when they have NO contractual obligation to pay and in fact he’s acting illegally, as confirmed by lawyers on ALL sides of the political spectrum incl. Walter Moore) for not having stated THIS position instead of endorsing hers, to fight Rocky’s suit.
When the Ballot Measure issue was discussed, neither Chick nor the Council wanted to wait to resolve the matter by putting a $1.5 Million (at LEAST – the council wanted the two sides to agree to mediation to try to avoid the nastiness and expense of a lawsuit, with her having to hire outside counsel because it was clear upfront to THAT council and even Rocky, that the city attorney couldn’t both sue her and defend her) ballot measure out for voters to decide — she didn’t want to wait that long or put the city through the expense, and Trutanich told her there was no need because “when” he became City Attorney he’d see to it that she’d get her way.
And trying to weasel out of the fact that Nuch supported Essel and campaigned for his is more underhanded behavior. Win at all costs, or dump your “friends” under the train if they lose. He sure WAS out there as best he could, prevented from doing more because he ate or got himself sick during Thanksgiving, and was out of commission for a while except by phone. But he sure was featured in ads and had his mouthpieces including Berger (who doesn’t take a breath on his own without permission from his MASTER Nuch) pushing for her on their behalf.
Wendy had better continue to watch her back and anyone who keeps throwing her to him like a sheep to the slaughter, as they did on the outside counsel issue until Judge Mooney chewed them out, had better be prepared to be next, just like Woocher warned them and Jan Perry already found that out. While she and most of the rest of them may be stupid, that’s not a jailable offense, nor is speaking your mind.
12:40 p.m, excellent response, but as you can see it is fruitless. We are all stuck with this propaganda vermin, who until exposed will continue with her lies and slander.
Argument is based on the premise that we both believe “I’m right and you are wrong”, but we both respect each other’s intelligence and have the humility to accept that the other may have a valid point, and may even be right. We engage in an exchange of opinions in the expectation that we will both at least gain a better understanding of the issue.
Propaganda is based on the arrogant premise that “I know the truth and you don’t, and you have sinister motives or are a fool if you don’t see it. Either way, I have no interest in your opinion”. Debating a propagandist is an oxymoron.
1:46 get lost. Surely you are intelligent enough to understand that.
There are alot of problems facing the City of LA. There isn’t one City Employee, including councilmembers that can fix the problems facing LA. The time for bickering is over. Audit the books, file for bankruptcy and move forward.