People I know and respect tell me Bob Blumenfield is a nice man who has helped them solve problems for some of the charities they support, some of the causes they believe in and some of the business and union interests that they care about.
But he’s a career politician who never wanted to be anything but a career politician from the age of 12 and never had a job as an adult that wasn’t a political job: Aide to New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, aide to Congressman Howard Berman, San Fernando Valley coordinator of Bill Clinton for President 1992 and 1996, California Democratic Party Central Committee member and Assemblyman for a big chunk of the Valley 2008 to present.
That’s his resume of political experience, according to the highly respected non-partisan guide Project Vote Smart.
Under the category labeled “Professional Experience,” Project Vote Smart reports in italics: “No professional information on file.”
That’s right Bob Blumenfield has been on the public dole his entire life, never had a job in the private sector. What life is like for the other 99.9 percent is just hearsay to him. All he knows is what he read in books and the gamesmanship he learned at the feet of other politicians.
What is truly amazing is that his lack of experience was just what the Assembly leadership was looking for in 2008 he became “first, first-term Democratic Assemblymember” ever to be named Chairman of the powerful Assembly Budget Committee and the “first Assemblymember ever to serve as Budget Chair and a member of the Appropriations Committee simultaneously,” according to his official Assembly biography.
In that capacity, Blumenfield is fully responsible for four state budgets that were based on phony revenue estimates and fictitious cuts that jeopardize the future of 40 million Californians for the next generation or beyond.
Even more incredibly, Blumenfield doesn’t just want one political job, a third term in the Assembly, he is running for a second political job as well — Councilman for the Third District in my neighborhood in the Southwest Valley, succeeding Dennis Zine.
Simultaneously.
That’s about as audacious and arrogant as a professional politician can get even for a two-faced politician who has put self-service and service to special interests ahead of public service.
Based on his failure in public office Bob Blumenfield is not qualified for either job he is running for. His understanding of what life is really like for people who are on their own without a safety net, struggling to make ends meet in tough times is distorted by his years in the underworld of politics.
Get a job, Bob. In the real world where pensions have disappeared and health benefits have been decimated and opportunity no longer is knocking for ordinary people.
Get a job, Bob, and get out of the way of people who want to put public service back into public office.
A little over the top don’t you think. A group of community leaders have approached Blumenfield and asked him to run for this seat and with LA’s weird public financing law, if he doesn’t start now, he would be at a big disadvantage if another serious contender jumped in. He is simply playing it safe which given what the system is probably is about all you can do.
oh great… so reassuring…
“a group of community leaders”…
beware…
You beat me, anonymous.
Who wants to live in the community where the community leaders advocate for blumenfield.
It’d be about time if he gets a serious challenger. You know the problem though–this challenger may not be the one who the community leaders prefer, that is not their lackey.
There was a former aide to Richard Alarcon who was looking at this seat as well as a former community college trustee and several other well known politico’s. Any of them would have won the seat over any of the local talent that is trying to put together support. Blumenfield was approached by multiple business leaders and homeowner groups and asked to run for the seat. At the very least he has stopped any of the other insiders from tying up support and if he does win the seat, then it is safe to say the locals couldn’t have beaten another insider either.
the other politicos you mention
are just as odious as Blumenfield…
you fail to comprehend the
sentiments & objectives of
“clean sweep” & “anyone but”…
your attempt to rationalize corruption
is pathetic…
Just what we do not need – a professional bureaucrat!!!!
This is close to home – Zine’s seat is in the far west SFV.
Ron Kaye, we need you to help fix our city.
Will you please run for Zine’s seat on the City Council?
Thank you for all you do to help us understand what
goes on every day in City Hall. You already are well
qualified to help make the big changes that are necesary.
“As a community leader”–haha, I’m requesting Ron to run for the position. There will be a lot of people who’ll support Ron. City Hall needs cleaning and BB, a career pol is not the person.
Ron, run against this idiot.
If running for two jobs at once is “as audacious and arrogant as a professional politician can get” — well, what does that say about Paul Ryan, who’s running for both VP and Congress? And what does it say about the man who chose him, Mitt Romney, who apparently thinks being “audacious and arrogant” is a good thing?
In 2008 Biden ran for re-election even as he was chosen as vp
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Delaware,_2008
What does it tell us about the man who chose him? The one who thought that being arrogant in Biden’s case was allright?
Don’t worry nobody will vote for romney in la anyways.
but what happens if he wins both elections? has he given any indication which office he will choose?
P.>S. Run, Ron, Run……no sense tossing stones from the sidelines, make that change.
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