Tuesday night was the night that many people in Council District 2 had been waiting for. CD 2 candidate Christine Essel finally agreed to go on Kevin James' radio show on KRLA 870 talk radio. The meeting was highly anticipated because Kevin James had been bashing Christine Essel quite hard on his show for refusing to come on his show and talk to the voters...even though all the other candidates had chosen to do so in the past.
Fans of the show were curious to see what would happen and if sparks would fly between them. Kevin James had been previously going on his show and saying "I wouldn't vote for Christine Essel if she were the only name on the ballot!" Christine Essel was probably being a bit guarded because of this fact, but the appearance on the show went well for both of them.
James pointed out that she had outraised Krekorian. He pointed out that she is still behind Krekorian in name recognition. Chris said she was very happy to go from 3% at the beginning of the campaign to almost matching Paul at the end of the primary.
Talking about the endorsements from former rivals, Kevin James quoted the Mayor Sam blog!!
"Essel 4 Krekorian 0!!" Thanks Kevin!
Chris kind of waffled on a question concerning unpaid wages and lawsuits. She said she would look into it.
She needs a better answer than that.
Kevin asked her about the Neighborhood Council embezzlement scandal involving people blowing through all the NC budgets without reporting properly. He asked if Paul Krekorian was opposed to financial disclosures, and Chris said he was the last time they had a forum together.
James asked her about runaway film production and asked her to respond to his criticisms of her.
Christine gave a great answer about how studios search for a location with a bottom line price that fits their budget. She talked about her frustrations dealing with Sacramento over this issue. Kevin asked how we could bring the jobs back to this City. Christine said the city was not friendly to business or to the studios. She talked about how she could work between the State and the studios to keep jobs here.
James mentioned Krekorians boasts about saving jobs from up in Sacramento. He asked if Chris thought Krekorian was overplaying his impact, Chris said yes.
James mentioned how Christine would be back on KRLA for a debate with Paul Krekorian in the future.
