ON LA POLITICS-For the past five months, the old town criers of the North East San Fernando Valley have engaged in a pathetic “whispering campaign,” as the late Rick Orlov put it, against Assemblywoman Patty Lopez.
Her inability to communicate effectively, close ties to Republicans, and underdeveloped views on local and state issues, Lopez’s detractors argue, render her unfit for state office. If the purported priests of political accountability had their way, the Democratic lawmaker would have resigned long ago.
But what do the concerned “activists,” the ones pressing for Ms. Lopez’s recall, think of the shady and self-aggrandizing behavior of their political darlings: Congressman Tony Cardenas, LA City Councilwoman Nury Martinez, and ex-Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra?
Surely their questionable actions over the past six months (and those of their staffers) deserve greater attention.
For starters, Congressman Cardenas has some explaining to do. As reported in various news outlets, a federal grand jury recently subpoenaed his district director (and FBI investigators met with her weeks ago, presumably to discuss whether Cardenas’s employees engaged in campaign-related activities during congressional work hours).
The two-term congressman isn’t saying much, but his constituents deserve to know why the FBI is talking to his field representatives.
Mr. Cardenas’s troubles should serve as a warning to his close ally, LA City Councilwoman Nury Martinez: the next time you run for reelection, make sure your staffers are not the ones collecting signatures so that you can qualify for the ballot.
Such was the case last November, when Martinez’s underlings fanned across Council District 6 over a period of two weekends and gathered 1,446 signatures (more than the required number to qualify for the ballot). Granted, her staffers were off the clock, but their full-fledged participation raises some basic, but interesting questions: Did Martinez put them up to it? What else is she encouraging her employees to do on their down time?
But that was so long ago!
Ah, yes, but leaders who lack a moral compass, who embrace the shady as facts of political life, are bound to do stupid things.
Which is why ex-Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra’s potential bid for his old seat, the one captured by Patty Lopez last November, raises some concerns. His 2014 campaign was awash in special interest money, from oil to real estate to tobacco to pharmaceuticals. What kind of access these entities hoped to have with Bocanegra in office, we’ll never know.
What we do know is that managing the cabal of interests associated with a one million dollar campaign requires the sort of cunning found in someone like Gerardo Guzman (the husband of Nury Martinez). He profited handsomely during his tenure as Bocanegra’s district director and campaign manager.
Furthermore, Mr. Guzman’s consulting firm, G7 Strategy, received more than $250,000 from an independent expenditure group, Keep CA Strong, to coordinate campaign activities during last year’s election cycle. Congressman Cardenas’s reelection campaign even paid the firm $14,000 for consulting work.
The interlocking nature of all these interests—money, man, and ego—makes you wonder who is influencing whom and what sort of machinations are taking place under the table.
All this brings us back to Assemblywoman Patty Lopez, who is not a member of the Northeast San Fernando Valley political machine (let’s just call it what it is) that includes Cardenas, Martinez, Bocanegra, LA City Councilman Felipe Fuentes, and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.
Lopez’s greatest sin, which explains some, but certainly not all, of the criticisms leveled against her by self-described “activists,” was that she knocked off the train one of our many “indispensable politicians.”
The problem with the indispensable politician—plug in any name here—is that he doesn’t know his expiration date. He believes we would be lost without him. He thinks he (and only he) knows what’s best for us.
Perhaps Bocanegra, who is contemplating a political comeback, and Cardenas, whose district office is under FBI scrutiny, should heed the advice of General Colin Powell: “Go in [to public life] with a commitment of selfless service, never selfish service. And cheerfully and with gratitude take your gold watch and plaque, [and] get off the train before somebody throws you off.”
(Dr. David M. Rodriguez is a freelance writer and historian. A resident of Sylmar, he holds degrees from the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 37
Pub: May 5, 2015
