KRLA-870 talk show show host Kevin James will run for mayor of Los Angeles with a formal campaign launch event at 10 a.m. Wednesday on the City Hall south lawn.
James, an attorney and former prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office, has specialized in local coverage of City Hall issues and politics, covering diverse points of view and giving voice to the city’s network of 93 Neighborhood Councils.
City Controller Wendy Greuel also has launched her campaign for the 2013 election with other potential mayoral contenders including developer Rick Caruso, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, City Council members Jan
Perry and Eric Garcetti, and First Deputy
Mayor Austin Beutner.
“I’m running because I think I can bring a
common-sense approach to city problems,” James told the Daily News’ Rick Orlov. “I have been talking about these issues for years and I think
we can bring Democrats and Republicans together to deal with the
issues.”
“One of the secrets to Kevin’s candidacy is going to be his ability to build a broad-based coalition,” political consultant John Thomas told Gene Maddaus in the LA Weekly.
So do the other candidates now each get three hours on his radio station?
I’m going against the lean of the readers here and say that I’m not going to rush to support James yet even though I will compliment his role in being the only on-air talk show host covering City Hall extensively.
As for the rest of the candidates, I will eliminate some of those mentioned in the Times article and borrowing from the idea of Wayne Katersky:
1. Eric “Katersky” Garcetti – No unless he was in a runoff with Caruso. I think the “Katersky” name summarizes the issues of making deals with crooks and being a two-face on Campaign finance and renter’s issues.
2. Rick “Corporate Welfare” “The Crook” Caruso – Caruso, like his father is a crook. But he is enabled by stupid elected officials that enable him and buy into his deal, just like Garcetti bought into Katersky. Caruso, the Billionaire had to go crying to the Glendale City Council to get them to use Eminent Domain as a threat against a small business owner.
3. Jan “Leiweke” Perry: Has financial conflicts all over the map. Doesn’t even know how to properly recuse herself when she says “out of an abundance of caution” and then adds the killer “but I am extremely supportive.” She had conflicts with her ownership of a residence near the Grand Avenue project, and she thinks tax funds are hers to give away when she was acting Mayor and offered to pay for the Jackson funeral without a vote of the Council.
4. Wendy “IBEW” Greuel: One of the biggest BS artists when it came to releasing salaries. And she is not aggressive like her predecessors – She has been a mediocre Controller.
5. Austin “Whitman” Beutner: Another Meg Whitman trying to buy his way into the office. But he has already been tested and failed as Deputy Mayor of “everything” for the past two years.
The air time issue that you are referring to was covered in the various articles. James will leave the program 3 months before election day. Apparently that is what the law allows.
But Mr. Middlebrook shouldn’t have any complaints about someone taking advantage of the law. Just look at his boss Caruso who took advantage of the law in Glendale and used the City as his own personal hired gun.
At least he’s not Walter Moore.
Kevin might be a good-guy, but the City doesn’t need another lawyer, radio entertainer. It certainly doesn’t need another CA Assemblyman \…they’ve f&!@#d-up the City enough. And it doesn’t need a politician, investor, or businessman, either. The future mayor needs to have more depth. I’m hopeful that a leader of more substance can come forward.
Although James has been right-on about a lot of issues, some of his over-the-top, assinine, ultra conservative, TeaBagger lies and half-truths are going to come back to haunt him during the campaign.
Of course, stupid, craven actions by the others who are running do out-trump idiotic radio bloviaters opinions.
5:15
Ok but what if there is no other candidate, just a bunch of crooks and Kevin James? What are you going to do? Same stupidity as in 2009 when there was an excellent opportunity to get rid of Villar and send a strong message to the clowncil but no, Walter Moore was not a perfect candidate. Funny considering how much damage Villar has done and will still do. So wait for a perfect candidate, meanwhile the city will go to he’ll. But you will be proud of yourself.
A disclaimer– I never listened to Kevins show and have no idea about his views but because he 1) is not a clowncil; 2) is not a developer; 3) is not a CA assemblyman or another Sac critter; 4) is not a union organizer; 5) has real world job experience — all of this makes him a good choice for me.
5:15
Ok but what if there is no other candidate, just a bunch of crooks and Kevin James? What are you going to do? Same stupidity as in 2009 when there was an excellent opportunity to get rid of Villar and send a strong message to the clowncil but no, Walter Moore was not a perfect candidate. Funny considering how much damage Villar has done and will still do. So wait for a perfect candidate, meanwhile the city will go to he’ll. But you will be proud of yourself.
A disclaimer– I never listened to Kevins show and have no idea about his views but because he 1) is not a clowncil; 2) is not a developer; 3) is not a CA assemblyman or another Sac critter; 4) is not a union organizer; 5) has real world job experience — all of this makes him a good choice for me.
9:02
Ok, what if traffic gets worse, the budget deficit gets worse, unemployment increases, and the sky falls. What if? Kevin is absolutely qualified to be mayor as much as the current band of misfit candidates. I’m not sure that’s good company to keep but I admire KJ’s courage to speak up and challenge the City Hall establishment. Best luck to him…I hope more people gain the same courage.
BTW, on Election Day, I’m voting for the person who will best represent the people of the City.
Knowing how pathetic LA voters are (plenty of evidence to their lack if brain function – re-electing all the incumbents now and re-electing Villar 2 years ago),I wouldn’t be surprised if they go for this bs — a first woman mayor. Say hello to mAyor perry or greul. The only good thing is that either of these two will bring the inevitable bankruptcy so much sooner
The just concluded City Council elections convinced me that the general public here is as dumb as they get. Good luck to KJ to convince a mostly brain-dead public to pay attention to any issues.
Good luck to Kevin. Why he’d want to jump into this meat grinder of politics is beyond me, but he certainly has an uphill battle here.
The voters of L.A. have shown that merit or qualifications for the job don’t have much to do with being elected. It’s usually some career politician that average voters think are the ones to get their votes- after all, “they have experience” don’t they? (And that experience often is why things start to go south on us.)
That view is what keeps bringing us bad government since the same cast of characters circulates from the state level to local levels, like a virus that contaminates the entire system and bringing all the same symptoms of the illness down to us, just in case the state impact was not felt by us the first time around.
When you see the Assembly has produced so many shady characters that are responsible for much of the shape the state is in, why would you want them? You have seen them in action, creating many of the burdensome regulations and laws and with “feel-good” ideas that have hurt the condition of the state and pushed many businesses out of California.
Moving into city level governments brings the same poor management decisions and social engineering ideas with them. Cardenas, Alarcon, Wesson, Koretz, Krekorian are former assembly members who don’t seem to have any knack of correcting our problems but further muddying up whatever is before them.
Name recognition and self-promotion on the taxpayer dollar seem to be what gets one elected.
Kevin might have some good ideas that many will not consider just because he’s not a career politician and the “conservative” nature of his views, that might also be viewed as “reasonable” approaches, will scare many away simply as a reflex action and conditioning.
If people accept Villaraigosa’s mediocre performance as suitable in the Mayor’s role you might think anyone could be a contender. But this Mayor rolled into office by selling out his alliances to special interests that produced votes for him and he pushed the emotional button on other voters as some kind of new direction for the city. Well, the direction turned out to be horribly bad and costly to us all, handled by him as if he was taking a part-time job while he cavorted nationally for one campaign or another returning to L.A. to log in photo ops and then off again. About all he’s done is to payback for his election and re-election with favors aplenty.
Any sensible approach to running city government in a different way is going to meet much resistence and criticism just for the sake of not being like past approaches. Even with all the corruption in plain view and the rest only a little less visible, under the surface in most dealings, the status quo will be hard to change.
Still there are those in the majority of voters who do not vote, over 80% in most city elections. It’s an untapped resource that continues in a dormant state. If there are enough who do vote who become fed up with all this, they can vote for candidates who are not in the pocket of special interests but really are concerned for the city’s quality of life.
The last election result was no mandate and the better of the candidates did not prevail. It was just about who voted and who got the most votes. Any merit was in the eye of the beholder and there was no consensus. What the last election showed was that a lot did not either think there was a choice they could influence or that life was fine for them now.
A lot of other reasons are around, too, but the 2013 elections will see much of these same mentioned spots of negativity present now. And that’s what Kevin will have to face.
Stil, if any think he’s not suitable for the job, then WHAT or WHO do you see out there that will work?- and I remind you that “work” means sticking around the city to do the job and putting in some time for action that produces some good for the city. All of that was missing during Villaraigosa’s terms.
Hooray, another Zuma Dogg
I see Kevin James as a viable candidate, as long as he drops the republican social baggage, the really repugnant nonsense against human dignity the party espouses. If I want to live in a backward society in the dark ages, I’ll vote for an ass who deprives me of all the joys of living in a forward looking society. Hey, why vote, I’ll just move to Saudi Arabia. I could not be more blatant about everything that is a turn-off about the Republican party. By the way, I make enough money to be counted as their base and profit from, but am not. The republican party is lost just as the Democratic party is equally sick. I’ll vote for a candidate who is neither.
5:00pm — this is the mayor of LA, what does it have to do with your precious social agenda? Nobody is going to take away your civil rights and if Kevin James is against gay marriage and for abortion, who gives a rats ass? As long as he works diligently to fix the *city* problems and is not in the pocket of special interests, I don’t give a damn. Your attitude is exactly what brought Villar to power. He told you he was against Prop 8 but why did you believe him? He lies to everybody anyways. And what power does he have to affect your precious social agenda? None.
Whoa Paul Blart Mall Cop is running for mayor? Sweet!!!!!!
YJ Draiman files papers running for Mayor of Los Angeles – 2013 – Press release
Motivated by the desire to serve the Los Angeles community and to hold City Hall accountable for it’s actions, I have decided the best way to accomplish my goal is to run for and become the next Mayor of Los Angeles As Mayor, it would be my duty and goal to not just protect the quality of life in Los Angeles, but to improve it. More importantly, as Mayor I intend to protect and improve the quality of life for ALL the people of Los Angeles, not just a select few.
The most consistent complaint I heard from some residents of Los Angeles when I ran for City Council was that no one knows what City Hall is doing anymore. The good of the common people seems to have been lost in the process. City Hall has become self-serving with little or no accountability, which is why I have adopted and will instill a policy of “transparency and accountability” in City Hall. A government “for the people” must be held accountable by the people.
One of my biggest goals would be to make City Hall account for every single cent spent. Some of my more specific goals are balancing the budget, encouraging economic vitality, preserving and improving the City infrastructure, protecting the quality of our neighborhoods, supporting our open space and bicycle trails programs, working with the Neighborhood Councils and the Chamber to encourage local, innovative green businesses, and proper Urban Planning for Los Angeles, among others.
Without question some will raise the issue of my not being a politician. Quite honestly, I am proud not to be another well-polished, slick-oiled career politician. At this junction of difficult times for most, I do not believe the people of Los Angeles would best be served by yet another politician. What is needed is a Mayor who truly understands the needs of the common people. What is needed is a Mayor willing to put City Hall in a glass building for all to watch while working diligently to serve the interests of the common people and not just the interests of a select few.
While I am not a politician, I am proud to state I am a family man. I am married to a darling wife for over 40 years, we have two grown children – my oldest son is David Draiman a famous Rock Star with a Band by the name Disturbed, my younger son Benjamin Draiman is a Psychologist doing research and playing music.
Current Elected Member of the Northridge East Community Council
I am currently working on my PHD in Energy Conservation.
A dedicated family man with an extensive business background including but not limited to mechanical engineer, healthcare administrator, real estate developer with neighborhood gentrification, project manager of a major 5 star hotel construction, operator of a chain of retail electronic stores, reseller of deregulated energy sources, energy efficiency implementation, utility audits and consulting services.
I have over 25 years experience in energy efficiency. I am a strong proponent of Energy Independence.
I am looking forward to being elected and serving the people of the City of Los Angeles.
We must work together as a cohesive force to improve our city.
“Transparency and accountability is my motto”
Draiman for Mayor of Los Angeles – http://www.draimanformayor.net
“A vote for DRAIMAN is a vote for you”
Current Elected Member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council
You just gotta be fond of this idea. I wrote a similar post and got a fantastic amount of feedback. It is a rare post that is both interesting and informative.