LaLaLand Showdown
Barely three weeks to go in the L.A. Mayoral run off between incumbent Jimmy Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa and it is -- excuse the cliche-- a real yawner. Both guys are promising the moon when -- in fact-- thepost of Mayor of Los Angeles is a weak one. The real clout is in the City Council and even more in the imperial County Board of Supervisors.
The Hahn-Villaraigosa battle has been fairly nasty-- as that is Hahn's style. He beat the same challenger in 2001 by linking the former California Assembly Speaker to a crack pipe -- of all things.
This time around, Tony Rap, as Villaraigosa was known in high school, appears to be coasting to an easy May 17 victory. Some polls show him 20 points or more out in front with Hahn in freefall.
But only the most naive would call this bout already over. L.A. Observed's Kevin Roderick, writing on the Los Angeles Magazine website gives us Ten Things to still watch out for in the final days of the race. It's really smart stuff, even if he does mention me favorably!
April 26th, 2005 at 8:43 pm
Hello?
Wow…it’s true…nobody seems to care.
April 27th, 2005 at 6:58 am
How do you expect people to care when the participants make the campaign about that which they do not control? Mr V is now running ads saying he will work for smaller class sizes and hugher scores. Great, why doesn’t he run for the School Board, cause the last time I looked, the mayor had bupkis to do with LAUSD. But I’d like to know what his plans are for DWP, the Airport and the Harbor Dept. And what will he do about the LAPD – Reappoint Bratton? And what transit policies will his appointees follow on the MTA Board?
Incidently, don’t you just love what is going on in San Diego?
April 27th, 2005 at 9:27 am
San Diego ? Oh yeah…that’s what happens when you put the “adults” in charge. If I’m gonna have a fiscal meltdown, I’d like something to show for it other than souvenier T-Shirts from a long-ago GOP Convention.
April 27th, 2005 at 12:10 pm
When Standard & Poor pulls a city’s credit rating, it’s not a terribly good sign.
I knew San Diego should have gone with the surf shop chic for mayor.
Roderick’s piece was fun to read. Yet, I personally think the only thing that could turn the election now is if Hahn has some nuclear-level negative ad in his back pocket that he can unleash and make stick. But, as you and I know Antonio’s willing to escalate as hard, low and bad-ass as needed. And it would seem that this time ’round, Hahn’s more velcro than teflon.
Note to Richard LC. Yes, of course, Villaraigosa would rehire Bratton once the 5-year contract is up. (A rare glimpse at Antonio’s inner dialogue on the subject: “Rehire Bill Bratton? Or shoot self in head? Hmmmm…Shooting self would spoil handsome profile for photo ops……â€)
April 27th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
Left San Diego for a week and I come back and the mayor has resigned. And the deputy mayor, my councilman Mike Zucchet, is due to assume the position about the middle of his corruption trial in federal court. And yes, the “surf shop chick” is running again…Donna Frye. And I really believe that if she had a more aggressive post-election legal strategy [what a bizarre concept that is], she would be mayor now.
The last mayoral election was incredibly boring until Donna got into it about 2 months before the vote. This one will probably be lively, at least if the City Council does not take the incredibly wrong-headed step to appoint a mayor to complete the 4 year term. The rumored candidates are considerably more interesting than were Murphy and Roberts the last two elections.
Personally I say let Zucchet take the helm. Many great men have written memorable documents from the prison cell. There’s no compelling reason he couldn’t continue the tradition, using City of San Diego stationery.
If the election goes forward, Donna Frye will do very well. The establishment will probably coalesce behind someone, even a Democrat, to keep her out. The combination of her St. Francis of Assisian political approach with the ferocity of the new City Attorney Mike Aguirre (who is aligned with her on most issues), and the fact that a new “strong mayor” amendment to the city charter will give the current/next mayor much greater power, has the amorphous power structure in so much a panic that they are begging Pete Wilson to come back to town and run. Heehee.
April 27th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
Hey, why not have your Mayor in prison? It worked for James Michael Curley and we got a great novel out of it – “The Last Hurrah.” I guess San Diego’s could be called “The Last Wipeout!”
April 27th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
Don’t forget Ed King (or Mel King for that matter). What about Buddy Cianci? Yeah, sure, he took bribes and stuff and had his wife’s lover beat to a pulp, but have you been to Providence lately? It’s beautiful – and safe!
April 27th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Want to read about a Georgia Democrat who just died? And, you think that YOU have sorry politicians. Below is a very abbreviated version of his obituary. I’ve frequently said that change will come from people dying before people changing their minds.
___________________
White supremacist J.B. Stoner dead at 81
By SAEED AHMED, BILL MONTGOMERY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/27/05
J.B. Stoner, a demagogue who made a career of unvarnished, unashamed racial and anti-Semitic hatred, has died. He was 81.
Charles Wittenstein, who tracked Mr. Stoner as Southern civil rights director for the Anti-Defamation League, called him “a professional bigot [who] made a career of hating Jews and blacks and inciting other people to do the same. “If he had any redeeming features, I didn’t see them,” Mr. Wittenstein of Dunwoody said.
Mr. Stoner served three-and-a-half years in Alabama’s St. Clair Prison for the June 1958 bombing of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. The explosion caused no casualties, but Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley called Mr. Stoner “the most hardnosed guy of all” among Southern violent opponents of civil rights.
Mr. Stoner hated Jews and the Federal Bureau of Investigation the most, he said. Blacks, who he said never should have been brought to the American continent, rated a poor third.
Before his conviction, Mr. Stoner ran various races for the Democratic nomination for governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. senator, all unsuccessful. In 1974, he got 73,000 votes for lieutenant governor of Georgia.
At 18, Mr. Stoner was an officer of a Ku Klux Klan group in Tennessee. In his early 20s, he headed a neo-Nazi organization, the Stoner Christian Anti-Jewish Party whose platform suggested that “being a Jew be a crime punishable by death.”
Mr. Stoner once occupied a prison hospital cell with former Klansman Robert E. “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss, at the time the only person convicted of the deadly 16th Street Church explosion in Birmingham. Mr. Chambliss died in 1985.
A lifelong bachelor, Mr. Stoner once told an interviewer that any woman “would be too dumb” for him.
________________
Well, that’s enough. Now, do you appreciate your politicians any more?
April 27th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
Any relation to Saxby? Lester Maddox is my favorite Georgia pol, defending his chicken shack with an axe handle. On a brighter note I’ll be attending the Villarigosa/John Kerry rally in the valley on Saturday. Got an invite and ticket from John. Should be interesting.
April 27th, 2005 at 8:12 pm
Nice try Woody, but let’s just face the facts and be done with it. The racist Dixiecrats joined the GOP long ago…Jesse, Strom, et. al.
Honesty is the best policy.
April 27th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
Yup.
April 27th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
Marc, if the LA mayor doesn’t mean anything, why didn’t you say so in your printed pieces on the subj?
April 27th, 2005 at 10:54 pm
I’m sure if Kenneth were alive today he’d be proud of Jimi Hahn’s record of achievment, his unity-building campaign, his unvarnished ethics, and his impeccable, positive campaign.
Sure, Tony’s not perfect either, but for all the invoking of St. Kenneth’s name in this race, you’d think he’d at least try and keep it out of the gutter a little.
As it stands, if Hahn wins he’s going to have to give civil service jobs to Hal Netkin + Walter “Puppy Rights Before Property Rights” Moore. Say what one will about Tony, but at least those two won’t be getting gummint goodies come May 18th.
April 28th, 2005 at 7:41 am
reg, I wasn’t trying to make the point that Stoner was a Democrat but that he was a politician. That reference wasn’t thrown in there with the assumed intent, but it would make sense to take it that way.
Stoner was one of the choices for office for years, because he always ran in the Democratic primary, which was in essence the general election as the Republicans were inactive in the South. Also, Dixiecrats were disinfanchised Democrats (although, back then that descriptive word was not considered like it is today)–a break-off party. The radical racists didn’t join the Republicans but rather formed minority (they wouldn’t like that word) parties, which I’m not going to name because I don’t want to give them any publicity. Some of them still fight for secession.
An additional point is that some people will never change or understand changes, which means that a generation has to die out before the ideas of a new generation can be applied. A lot of the older segregationists just think separation is how things should be because that was how they were raised. I made the point here once about an older person I met as a child who would not vote Republican because that was the party of Abraham Lincoln. Talk abut grudges.
If you want to make references to racists, don’t forget that Democratic (intentional) Senator Robert Byrd used to be in the KKK. (Nice picture, but photoshopped.) http://tinyurl.com/apzrx
Anyway, I bet Stoner tops any politicians in California–past or present.
I didn’t mean to take away from the main discussion with this, so resume your appropriate postings.
April 28th, 2005 at 8:48 am
What a wonderful equivocation. All the Dixiecrat racists formed a hidden cabal and none are Republicans. I get the idea that this guy believes in the tooth fairy in real life. Maybe you should the “Dixiecrat Code”?
Byrd moved on and his long voting record redeems any past prejudices he once held. The record of the Republicans doesn’t quite match up. Return to your revisionist fantasy.
April 28th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Certainly I would defer to Woody on Georgia political history. His outline of the arcane zigs and zags (with a nod toward a more recent Georgia pol) of Southern party affiliations seems pretty accurate to me. I certainly have known of a number of white and black people in my life whose votes were dictated by attitudes toward Abraham Lincoln. Btw, was JB Stoner the guy who took some kind of a stand in front of Stone Mountain (or was that Lester or one of them other statesmen?)
April 28th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
Actually Stoner ran an outfit called the National States Rights Party, for what it’s worth…
I don’t think it was very successful, since there’s no record of Bill Frist’s friend at Family Research Council buying his mailing list like he did with David Duke.
May 14th, 2005 at 3:56 am
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