It is clear to me that the City of Los Angeles and it's obnoxious ballot requirements..(who wants to chase down 500 voters for their signatures... over Thanksgiving Holidays !!?).. are designed to keep people OUT of local elections. And they are doing a great job. In 2007, five of the sitting City Council Members had no opponent in the election. The way things are headed right now, it won't be a repeat of 2007, but it won't be much better, either.
As of right now, no challengers have qualified for the ballot to face The Dark Lord in CD 2.
Augusto Bisani may be the last hope for freedom and democracy in the Valley.
After I dropped out of the race due to signature issues, and Frank Sheftel followed me in leaving the race, it appears that the Al Bundy of CD 4 (Tom LaBonge) might only be challenged by two left-leaning foreigners, Stephen Box and Tomas O'Grady. They might be able to pull 30-40 % combined of the vote, but I think LaBonge has handed out too many City certificates and kissed too much butt to be denied another term by these newcomers.
I really like David Barron in CD 6. He is a man of character . His website is great.
Now, lets just hope he makes the ballot. Tony Cardenas should probably be in jail right now, but with the sorry state of Los Angeles politics, there is always the chance that he'll be re-elected instead.
Unfortunately, nobody has yet qualified to be on the ballot to face Betty Pleasants favorite politician : Bernard Parks. Betty, please put out a Soulvine alert!
In Council District 10, I am happy to say that a good option exists for voters. Austin Dragon has been involved with Republican politics for some time now. He's a million times better than Herb Wesson, the man I like to to call "The Little Rooster" for his continual preening and bravado while at the City Council meetings.
It will be difficult to stop the takeover in CD 12, where Mitch Englander has spent the last two years building for this race. Englander will probably have several challengers for the open seat of retiring Greig Smith, but it would not be smart to bet against him.
CD 14 looks to be the real bloodbath in this election, with businessman Rudy Martinez already having billboards and a campaign office open and ready to take down Jose Huizar. Mud is already flying between the two camps, and the ballot positions haven't even been drawn yet. This one is going to get very ugly. Some of my friends in the CD 14 area seem to be moving towards Martinez, based more on animosity towards Huizar than anything else.
