Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-It is the morning after Election Day 2020. The world awaits the outcome of the race between President Donald J. Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The Dow is up more than 800 points in the first few hours, liking what appears to be four more years of split federal government with the House remaining in Dem control and the Senate held by Republicans.
Meanwhile, LA has these reasons to smile.
Hit the road, Jack
Congratulations to Holly Mitchell, (photo above, right) the next LA County Supervisor of the 2nd District, for smoking LA City Council’s Herb Wesson 61% to 39% in a humiliating repudiation of the guy responsible more than anyone, including LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, for the downfall, degradation and suffering of people, animals and conditions in Los Angeles.
Those who have been abused, cheated, or silenced by Wesson smile today.
Los Angeles will be better without Wesson impacting 10 million LA County residents after treating the City government like a familial ATM and mistreating its 4 million residents for too many years while claiming “I didn’t know” with each scandal and failure.
See you, too, Ryu
Also predicted here, congrats are due for newcomer Nithya Raman, (photo above, left) who sent LA City Council’s David Ryu into the ignominious local political history books as an incumbent who squandered and lost his elected job.
As this column pointed out, a telltale predictor was Raman’s 28,500 Twitter followers to Ryu’s 7,745. Given Raman’s lack of name recognition outside of Council District 4, it was logical to assume that most of them are in-the-District voters, resulting in Ryu’s predictable ouster.
Raman got 52%, Ryu got 48% and his City Hall enablers got egg on their face for not seeing this coming. Ryu becomes only the third City Hall incumbent in the last several decades to lose his job, and the first in a much longer time to lose to a newbie.
That rarely happens in any election, anywhere, at any level and is healthy for LA.
Fresh Garcetti, LAPD Troubles
This column says there is a 0% chance that LA Mayor Eric Garcetti winds up in a Biden administration (if there is going to be one) as Housing and Urban Development Secretary or in D.C. as a replacement for Senator Kamala Harris.
There is scant relationship between Garcetti and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who will choose Harris’s temporary replacement if she elevates to Veep. And despite Garcetti serving as a campaign co-chair to Biden, controversy is swirling on his home front.
Also, the LA Times d’El Segundo finally touched upon an alleged domestic incident at Garcetti’s residence and implied the Mayor could face questions about it in a deposition for LAPD officer Matt Garza’s lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by Rick Jacobs, a close Garcetti aide. Others have made similar claims alleging Garcetti was present, giggling and titillated by Jacob’s mistreatment of others.
That spells trouble for the LAPD, which repeatedly dodged this column’s public records requests for Computer-Assisted Dispatch (CAD) records related to the alleged incident at La Casa de Garcetti. Until recently, the LAPD’s Internal Affairs group has denied knowing anything about the matter.
The LAPD may face an existential threat if it conspired to cover-up an alleged crime at Garcetti’s home and could draw the attention of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and perhaps the FBI and Justice Department. (Becerra is the likely successor to Kamala Harris’s Senate seat if she does wind up as Vice President.)
It is hardly the only alleged cover-up by the LAPD to protect a sitting politician, including a dubious car crash involving disgraced ex-Councilmember Jose Huizar a few years back.
If this story evolves as anticipated, look for LAPD names Art Sandoval and Debra McCarthy to be front and center. And nobody, from LAPD Chief Michel Moore to the LAPD Commissioners, will be able to claim ignorance for reasons that for now will remain unspoken.
If LA City Attorney Mike Feuer pays a bundle to Garza to protect Garcetti from a deeply embarrassing deposition, it will kill his teetering dream of becoming the next Mayor.
Garcetti’s newest controversy is like a fly on Mike Pence; it’s going to be here a while. A Biden administration needs Garcetti’s chaos like City Hall needs another typhus outbreak.
The sun shines on LA today for more reasons than usual.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
