The upcoming March elections are going to be an absolute catastrophe for the voters here in the City of Los Angeles.
The results? Well, to borrow a line from "Star Wars", we are going to end up with an even more wretched hive of scum and villainy down at City Hall.
Follow along and see if you can argue that I'm wrong....
MAYOR
Eric Garcetti/Wendy Greuel
There will be some noise about this from the Perry and James camps, but Garcetti and Greuel have larger built-in constituencies than Perry or James. And their voters get out there and elect them. Garcetti will get the largest share of votes, but Greuel will be close behind him. They will go to the runoff in May. Both of them have spent years being part of the problem here in L.A. Neither one will fix anything. Most likely -- based on their track record -- they will make things worse.
CITY ATTORNEY
Most TJR readers know that I support Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich for my own reasons, and I will be happy to see his victory here. Nuch has been tough as a City Attorney, and the city needs tough men to deal with tough problems. Mike Feuer couldn't beat that degenerate Rocky Delgadillo. He won't be beating Nuch.
CONTROLLER
Dennis Zine is the favorite here, but Galperin, Bornstein and Brazeman are all businessmen with money -- and that will complicate things for Zine. I fully expect that one of them will force Zine into a runoff in May. I actually like Zine, who has a few Conservative tendencies, but he also has a bad habit of voting in lockstep with the other Socialists downtown. So I don't know that him being in charge of the City purse strings will help anything.
Council District 1
"One Bill Gil" Cedillo will probably be the winner here. A vile, detestable man whose one act in the State Legislature every year was to bring up a bill to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.
Council District 2
The Dark Lord (a.k.a. Paul Krekorian) will continue his reign of terror over CD 2 until he sees another grandstanding political move to make. Krekorian is a wretched and vile political figure. A soap box pimp who will say and do anything to stay in power. And by the way CD 2 voters... when you have local activists dancing around and cheering for The Dark Lord, your section of the city has gone to a very dark place, morally and ethically.
Council District 3
Council Distict 3 has their own version of The Dark Lord... State Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield. "Two-Job Bob" as his critics like to call him, is an individual so vile and depraved that he is running for this position without leaving his State Assembly seat. Morally and ethically, he is by far the most repulsive of all candidates in this District. But with this being corrupt Los Angeles politics, naturally, he will win.
Council District 4
Touchdown Tommy LaBonge continues to build that million dollar pension at taxpayer expense. Pretty sweet work if you can get it. Getting a real job is for suckers. Being a "public servant" is where the money is at!
Council District 5
The Cat Whisperer (a.k.a. Paul Koretz) will win his lightly contested race. He will continue to make the world a safe place for kitties. If that's your type of thing.....
Council District 6
Gangster Tony Cardenas was about to be shown the door and become Private Citizen Cardenas when the redistricting commission went and gift-wrapped him a Latino Congressional District in the northeast Valley that was so terrifying demographically that Howard Berman abandoned any chance to run for re-election there and ran against the vile Brad Sherman out in the West Valley. A replacement has not been found for Tony Cardenas yet, but the villains will come out of the woodwork for that May election.
Council District 7
Voters in CD 7 are about to suffer from the election of the repulsive Felipe Fuentes. If there was any District that deserved to be punished with a job-hopping career politician, it would be CD 7. They put up with Richard Alarcons lies and open villainy for years without asking him to leave. Again, when your voters greatest hope is that their Councilman doesn't leave office under indictment, you have gone to a very dark place.
Council District 8
Bernard Parks will hang around here, double dipping into City funds for payroll and pension at the same time. But his career is over. He has been neutered by Herb Wesson, and has little power left. Much like Tom La Bonge, Parks is just killing time and building himself a fat pension.
Council District 9
Another depressing result. Job-hopping scumbags Mike Davis and Curren Price are the two favorites here. Typical political figures who treat their oaths of office as some type of joke. Well, it's not going to be very funny for the voters of CD 9 to live with one of these villains for the next 12 years. No matter how awful or corrupt they are, they won't be beaten in subsequent elections.
Council District 10
Gangster Herb "Boss" Wesson is starting to run this city like his own personal fiefdom. I actually like it that a true villain is operating out in the open, with out any pretenses or disguises. Boss Wesson will show this city exactly what it is like when a true gangster is in charge. I'm also happy that he screwed Jan Perry and Bernard Parks. Wesson showed them that they were just useful idiots to him. They were just along for the ride, and when the time came to dump them, Boss Wesson didn't blink an eye.
Council District 11
The physically ill Bill Rosendahl could have kept his seat here, but when faced with life-threatening health battles, he decided to gift wrap the seat for his lieutenant, Mike Bonin. I doubt any of the challengers will make even a dent here. Bonin wins in March without having to face a runoff in May.
Council District 12
Mitch Englander showed flashes of potential before he got elected. But he's been assimilated. He's just part of the Borg now. Don't expect much from him.
Council District 13
CD 13 will be the most entertaining race in the election, with a dozen candidates having qualified for the March ballot. There is no obvious professional villain here, with Mayor Villaraigosas henchman Matt Szabo being about as close as you can get. But even he is not an elected official, so he doesn't have any goodies to hand out to the voters. I have no prediction here, except that it sounds like John Choi is getting the money and labor behind him, so most likely he makes a runoff and wins in May.
Council District 14
Jose Huizar is not currently under indictment. Not yet.
Council District 15
Joe Buscaino is still somewhat popular in his district, and he won't be defeated by his lone challenger.
