Another night, another Council District 2 candidates forum in the Valley. This Forum was sponsored by the Laurel Grove and Valley Glen Neighborhood Associations, and the Valley Village Homeowners Association. Judging from the tone of the night, Tamar Galatzan must be making some major progress in the race because for several other candidates, it seemed like it was "Let's team up on Tamar" night.
Local businessman Frank Sheftel landed some serious blows by calling out Paul Krekorian and Tamar Galatzan about not finishing the political terms that they were elected to. He said something like "Come on Tamar...you're a lawyer...you know what a contract is!" Sheftel is being managed by David Hernandez and David seems to have Frank ready with great stuff at all these events.
One of the biggest laughs of the night came courtesy of David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg, when in a reply to a question about accepting money from developers, Zuma said, jokingly, that "I have turned down millions from developers!" The room roared in laughter. Zuma piled on the abuse of Tamar by haranguing her over an answer about whether she would vote to raise taxes. "Answer the question...yes or no!" Zuma demanded.
Tamar fought back reasonably well and stated, in a response about accepting money, that " I'm not accepting money from developers in CD 2." Christine Essel was not so lucky tonight. She seemed to bungle some questions about her fundraising and money lead. She was being portrayed as a carpetbagger and a phony by some of the other candidates. On occasion, the moderator gave candidates the chance to respond when attacked. Essel turned down the chance to respond to an attack at least once.
It was clear that there was no love for Essel at this event. Most of her responses were met by silence.
When she told the crowd about her fundraising, she said the limit for a contribution is $500... and added "My vote can't be bought for $500.!" The unspoken understanding of the crowd was that her vote actually costs a lot more.
This answer actually seemed to make the crowd angry. Sometimes, I'm not really sure what Essel is doing in this race.
Mary Benson and Joe Essavi were trying to catch the Big 3, but they need help. Benson had a rather good answer about Measure Q, stating how "There was a fatal flaw in the assumption. It was unreasonable at best, and fraud at the worst". But I wasn't sure everyone was following Benson on the answer. Essavi had a good answer about stopping more Medical Marijuana sites from opening.
Carpetbagger Krekorian seemed also to turn into BandWagonJumper Krekorian whenever someone gave a good answer. He would say..."Not only do I support that statement...but also...I will go one better..."
His insincerity bothered me. Typical hack politician.
Unfortunately for Augusto Bisani, Michael McCue, and Pete Sanchez, their campaigns seem to be circling the drain as they cannot seem to find issues to electrify the voters. Most of their replies received a tepid response.
It is still Krekorian, Essel, and Galatzan right now.
The others are trying to fight to pass one of these 3 candidates.
But after a few more good forums like this .... that might change.
