CommentsTHE EASTSIDER - Recently, I’ve made a number of train trips to and from Los Angeles and New Mexico.
While looking out at the vastness of our country, the ‘importance’ of our LA City Council and Mayor shrinks into the small and petty reality that they represent.
Let’s get real. For whatever reasons, the Council has devolved into a 15-0 vote trading system that has nothing to do with the 4 million or so Angelenos that live here and that they pretend to represent.
Not to mention Eric Garcetti, the son who could never quite live up to his dad Gil’s expectations of great things. You know, the same Gil Garcetti who was a poor excuse for an LA County District Attorney, and who just happened to Chair the LA City Ethics Commission as his son ran for Mayor.
Anyhow, as all us political junkies know, in a low turnout election, incumbents are at risk because it doesn’t take as many votes for a non-mainstream candidate to be competitive or even win. I think this primary is a good example of how an increasing number of Angelenos are disgusted with the often illegal vote trading system that has existed in the City Council for too long.
For example, if the latest LAVOTE data is accurate, outsider Hydee Feldstein Soto may well be in a runoff against Corporate Democrat Faisal Gill. Also interesting, Mayoral lackey Kevin James, despite TV ads, got less than 10%.
For Controller,Kenneth Mejia is running ahead of the old political hack Paul Koretz by about 20%!
In CD 1 Eunisses Hernandez, a DSA-LA candidate, appears to have been elected in the primary to replace Gil Cedillo! Wow!
In CD 13, another DSA-LA candidate, Hugo Soto-Martinez, is leading Mitch O’Farrell by some 9 percent, headed for a runoff! And DSA-LA are absolute whizzes at Social Media, unlike the incumbent.
Finally, in the Mayor’s race, while Karen Bass led outsider Rick Caruso, it was by a margin of 43% to almost 36%. It’s going to be very very interesting come November, and it will be a clear choice Corporate Democrat lobbyist/developer money machine against a self-funded candidate who can’t be bought!
I’m not familiar enough with the inner workings of the other Council Districts to handicap them, but this is starting to look like a real movement against the corrupt bought by developers LA City Council. Who knows, there could be more indictments!
The City Council shenanigans between now and November should be a writers dream.
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
