Poor Carmen Trutanich, we loved him so because he wasn’t Jack Weiss and because he promised to be the “people’s lawyer” — now he’s just another bum who betrayed us.
Oh, the inexorable laws of karma, why does anyone think they can beat their destiny?
Even staid LA Times reporters and editors are going to have a laugh or two this morning at 9 a.m. at LA Now Live Chat.
“Times reporter Jack Leonard will be joining us on L.A. Now Live to chat about a judge’s decision not to allow City Atty. Carmen Trutanich to call himself “Los Angeles chief prosecutor” on the June election ballot.
“Trutanich is running for district attorney in what is shaping up to be a contentious battle to replace Steve Cooley. The ruling sided with one of Trutanich’s main rivals in the race for district attorney, Alan Jackson.”
Trutanich had tried to get the ballot designation :chief prosecutor” or “chief criminal prosecutor” but the judge rules those titles were “misleading” and “create confusion” so he wound up with the title “LA city prosecutor,” which could apply to hundreds of city lawyers
Jackson, a deputy DA, accused Trutanich of trying “to mislead and deceive the voters with aconcocted ballot designation.”
“This guy is a pathological liar,” added Jackson’s political strategist, John Thomas, after the hearing. “Now we have a judge who is agreeing with us.”
For her part Chief Deputy DA Jackie Lacey, who has the endorsement of DA Steve Cooley, announced her campaign raised more money in the latest reporting period than Trutanich.
“Last week, I made a mistake in this newsletter,” she said. “We didn’t match the financial donations of the City Attorney for the last reporting period. We exceeded them! We raised more than $129,000 between January 1, 2012, and March 17, 2012. The City Attorney reported raising approximately $118,000. We moved to 2nd place in overall funds raised among declared candidates in the race.”
With Cooley retiring, the DA’s race has drawn six candidates in a healthy competition — a sharp contrast to the county supervisors races where Don Knabe, Mike Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas have all the money and the power of incumbency.
No supervisor has lost a race in more than 30 years and that toxic tradition will continue with Knabe and Ridley-Thomas facing no opponents and Antonovich challenged by a Palmdale convenience store owner who promises to spend less than $1,000 reaching the 2 million people in the sprawling district.
Still, just to be safe Knabe raised $352,000 f:rom an array of contractors, builders, developers and casinos, even though no major challenger was on the horizon and he’s now running unopposed,” according to the Times.
“Antonovich has collected nearly $364,000 with many contributions coming from developers in his district, along with engineers and contractors. Mark Ridley-Thomas has collected $444,000 with donations from numerous unions, healthcare workers and physicians, and attorneys…
“Political experts said the big campaign funds that the supervisors often build up early, partly from those with financial interests in their decisions, serve as another deterrent. By collecting large sums before opponents emerge or when they face even token opposition, the supervisors can discourage potential challengers and the donors who might otherwise consider backing them.”
All of which goes to show you that you get the government they pay for.
In Order to Run for District Attorney, (If I were to Run for that Office) I would want a winning record first at the City Level. Take baseball. A guy goes to Minors, but he’s not good for the pro’s so he is released. It’s ok, many guys try to win but if you lose too many cases, how could he justify such a decision. Oh, the Ego! That’s too bad. What a crime ridden city. I don’t get it….how does the City Attorney reconcile all the FBI investigations, in his back yard? Oh LORD!. we sure do get the Govt., that they Pay For! OH LORD!
So, I take it it will be the same bunch of supervisors again? Why don’t they have term limits?
All this brings to mind a comment by an activist friend from 15 or more years ago about the prodding of one potential candidate to challenge Supervisor Gloria Molina’s re-election. The response by that prospective opponent was simple enough, paraphrasing it as I recall from that time, “I would need $1,000,000 of campaign funds or it’s not going to be worth trying.” That’s about what’s shown here.
Another factory is the value of being the incumbent allows the built-ins of :
1. Name recognition
2. Access to public money that gets put into local and visible benefits to bootstrap the “look at what I’ve done for you” side of the campaign.
3. Having the cultivated re-election support of unions and other special interests by delivering on “quid pro quo” deals during existing term.
There’s probably other items that can be added but you get the idea. The challenger is not able to do any of this and, in truth, ANY incumbent would be doing what the incumbent here claims to be the result of his or her UNIQUENESS.
Many elections ago, Gloria Molina said, in a moment of typical self-delusion, that “I must be doing a great job since no one wants to run against me.” Great job, yeah. Especially using that stored millions per year of discretionary funds to get the Latino cultural museum established when other wide ranging and direct public benefit-producing endeavors might have been attempted. So vain. And that’s one project that’s floundering in management and support through attendance.
But her former pal, Antonio Villaraigosa, the best friend of Gloria’s husband, has that same vanity streak- actually it’s his dominant characteristic, heightened to a level of narcissism that’s terminal, with all energy going to support it.
In elections, “Merit” loses to “Perception” but sometimes, not too often, we see that the perception becomes an accurate one and reflects the merit that’s there.
Ron – The truth is Trutanich will wipe the floor with those other delussional goofballs who seek to be D.A. Before any votes are cast, the community votes with their wallets. As you wrote, usually only the stakeholders support these races. If you compare the support each candidate has received thus far, as I have done, you will see that 3-4 times more people have chosen to support Trutanich than any of the other candidates. He also has way more endorsements than any of the other candidates. His only real competition, if you can call it that is Jackie Lacey, who has shown to have perjured herself in a Federal Court case (automatically disqualifies her) and Alan Jackson (a corrupt Deputy D.A.) supported by Pete Wilson. FYI – A Pete Wilson endorsement is the kiss of death in L.A. County. Ask Steve Cooley & Meg Whitman.
Granted Trutanich is not perfect and he has had his share of mistakes in this campaign, but comparitively speaking, he is far better than any of the other candidates running in this race, and the support he has received thus far bares that out.
Thank you “In Eagle Rock.” You summed it up quite well. Yes, the “look what I’ve done for you” is the incumbent using our tax dollars, not to represent us, but to represent the incumbent and his/her backers, which ensures donations and endorsements. Then, as they continue to lose touch with “the people,” they have the audacity to think “I must be doing a great job since no one wants to run against me.”
It takes a narcissist to run, campaign, give away our money, lie, get re-elected and actually think he/she represents the will of the people. While the elimination of campaign financing and PAC ads/mailers will help-I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath.
Nuch has unfortunately gotten too big for his britches. No one can tell him anything. He started with such promise to be a gamechanger but once the community folks who helped in get elected could no longer write a campaign contribution check for the maximum amount during each election cycle, he ditched them. He is deluded into thinking that he can just raise a bunch of money and that is how he will get elected. It won’t work that way when you owe your election to so many community activists. They will not lift a finger to help now because he alienated his base.
“Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Trutanich is an embarassment for LA. He should just fade away into the hole he came out of. Don’t vote for this half-wit.
There’s deafening silence from the 131,777 Los Angeles voters who were conned into believing in Carmen the Clown Trutanich in 2009. Why isn’t even one of them stepping forward and saying something like ‘well, for all his faults, he’s still a good guy’? It’s because he isn’t a ‘good guy,’ and speaking as one of the 131,777 who voted for him, I will never trust this conman again – with anything.
Now Nuch is left with three choices for ballot designation:
1/ WHORE
2/ SCUMBAG
3/ BACK-STABBER
It’s going to be a tough pick for the Campaign!
Anybody but Trutanich for LA County DA.
WE NEED HELP IN OUR CITY AND COUNTY.
Will those who think they can help please help. Office-holding
is not easy and is not meant as an easy trip to riches and power.
It is because good leadership is always a need in human families.
This is a huge family (drive the 101 to the 405 as I was taken yesterday)
it is bumper to bumper every work day.
We need candidates, not for their sake, but for our own, so that our budget is
for needs and not to make someone rich. We do not need more buildings and
arenas down town. We do not neeed to make our fwys wider to accomodate
more traffic downtown, we need to branch out to where the workers live.
Cooley is a complete embarrassment and his side kick purjuring Jackey Lacey is just as bad. The only reason Cooley says he endorses her is so that he can claim he isn’t racist. Cooley is really backing Jackson in the inner Republican circles. He is running a smear campaign on our dime out of the DAs office and allowing his two little lackie fools to blog on county time. Lacey is a loser with no mind of her own who is kissing Cooley’s ring even though it means convicting innocent people. Jackson is a suck up to the Republican party with no brains and no ideas, but sure can pucker up to the Republicans so that he can continue as a political climber. Jackson says Trutanich lied and took back his pledge not to run. Who cares. So did Cooley, but do you see the media going after Cooley and his failed office? Danette Meyers and Truntanich are the only ones worth voting for. Jackson is hated by victims after he violated Marsy’s law and gave a murderer who should have gotten death 6 years without notifying the victim. Schwarzenneger did the same thing with his staffers son. Jackson is a tool in the victim community and the word is out, they can’t stand him.
Anybody but Trutanich, I mean ANYBODY.
Just say NO to habitual liars who have no sense of morality or ethics when they try to deceit the public like Trutanich did.
What has Trutanich accomplished except being the Council’s lapdog?