Is Bernard Parks In Trouble? Fundraiser Warns of Labor Clout

By Gene Maddaus Fri., Jan. 21 2011 at 11:55 AM

Forescee Hogan-Rowles

Compared to the slugfest in Council District 14, the race in District 8 has gotten relatively little attention. Bernard Parks is generally seen as a safe bet to win his third term.

But this one could be a sleeper. Forescee Hogan-Rowles picked up two endorsements last week from public employee groups. And now Parks' fundraisers are warning that labor plans to run an independent expenditure campaign against him.

"We have confirmed that the Union's [sic] are going to be running negative ad campaigns against Parks with their own I.E.," wrote fundraiser Cindie Bassett in an e-mail to Parks supporters. "We will need to be diligent in raising money for the Councilman to counter-attack."

Hogan-Rowles is the president of the Community Financial Resource Center and a former commissioner at the L.A. Department of Water and Power. She ran for the council office in 2003, finishing fourth in a field of five as Parks cruised to a resounding victory.

But Parks has lost a couple races since then, and Hogan-Rowles' campaign believes he is vulnerable.

"There's a great deal of dissatisfaction," Hogan-Rowles said. "There's not much responsiveness to community needs and services."

Parks holds a large fundraising advantage. In the latest report, Hogan-Rowles had raised just $17,000. But labor groups, which spent more than $8 million to defeat Parks in the supervisor's race, could dump several hundred thousand dollars into an independent campaign.

Parks has angered public employees by calling for layoffs and cuts to DWP pensions.

"I don't know where the hatred comes from," said Bernard Parks Jr., the campaign spokesman. "I understand the disagreement on issues, but there's a certain venom attached to it which I can't understand."

Parks Jr. rejected criticism of his father's handling of issues in the district, citing the recent approval of a new Fresh & Easy market as evidence of his attentiveness. But he said Parks is taking the challenge seriously.

"You gotta take everybody seriously," he said. "We've made up our mind to run a campaign."

One problem is that Parks' former campaign consultant, John Shallman, is suing him to collect a bill from the supervisor's race, which makes him unavailable. Shallman runs one of the top two campaign consulting firms in L.A. The other one -- SG&A Campaigns -- is working for Hogan-Rowles. Parks just hired Robert Kaplan as his campaign consultant within the last week.

The L.A. Democratic Party did not make an endorsement, which both sides claimed as a victory. Hogan-Rowles won 56% of the vote among the delegates, falling five votes short of the 60% threshold.

"He's having a tough go of it," said Eric Bauman, chair of the L.A. Democratic Party. "She certainly offers quite a contrast to him. I wouldn't venture a guess about the outcome, but he's the most vulnerable he's ever been."

Tags:

Bernard Parks, Forescee Hogan-Rowles

We Recommend

Yuval Kremer

Do NOT vote for Forescee Hogan-Rowles in the LA City Council District 8 race. She has been endorsed by (sold out to) the DWP Union (that repeatedly holds the City and us Residents/taxpayers hostage) and the SEIU City Employee Union.

I will now consider supporting the campaign of Councilman Bernard Parks, the only fiscal conservative who will stand up to the Powerful City Employee Unions and reign in the Ridiculous Pensions that are killing this City, now that Councilman Greig Smith is leaving.

I may even send him a check.

The DWP Union and its sister Electrician's union will now spend lots of $$$ to get rid of Parks and keep the other local politicians in fear, just like they spent roughly $50,000 on mailers to get Paul Koretz into office and roughly $150,000 to help Wendy Cruel become Controller (now both of them hype that they are tough with the DWP and the DWP Union, but their votes and actions or lack of actions show otherwise...they are really in bed with the DWP and the DWP Union). Independent Expenditures are supposed to be done without coordinating/consulting with a candidate's campaign (yeah, right...very hard to prove otherwise) and are UNLIMITED. Meanwhile Parks is limited to $500 contributions per person...NOT fair. I also like that he's on the Council, b/c as former LAPD Police Chief, he can ask the hard questions of the LAPD and the Police Officer's Union. The City Employee Unions own our local politicians and that is a big reason why our City is eliminating services, selling off assets at fire-sale prices, hiking fees/fines/taxes, and facing the prospect of Bankruptcy.

Dave

You should take a look at the pension that Parks collects from the city. He's a liar and you've believed his lie. Parks needs to be gone.

Robert

OMG thanks so much for reporting this. The LA Clean Sweep guys lost all their credibilty endorsing this clown. Parks hates Neighborhood Councils and voted against them every turn and to add insult to injury tried to pass a motion to cut their budget by 80%. Clean Sweep are made of NC reps. Some openly have come out against that endorsement on several blogs. Parks is as crooked as they come. He handed Magic Johhnson thanks to this paper reporting millions of dollars on a contract. Parkls is the biggest whimp and pretended he didn't know the council was voting takin over DWP jurisdiction and his vote would have passed the motion but he waited out of chambers like a snake until the vote was tallied and didn't pass. Parks is a failure and hates cops. 1,000 walked out the door because he was a dictator and failure at managing them.

Mark

Actually, LA Clean Sweep has perfect credibility that would stand up to an impartial scrutiny. Their decisions were sound, balanced, and fair.

Thanks for the Clean Sweep team hanging in their and putting in the time.

Clean Sweep is a bunch of anti-union, who have always been anti-union Republicans who never met a progressive position that they liked. They didn't ask anybody in CD8 what there experience is with Parks. Nor did they care.

James

Actually Clean Sweep got it right.

Even City Workers of SEIU were not happy with IBEW and DWP getting consecutive annual raises while they were getting furloughs and layoff threats.

Now I will concede that if what you say is true about Parks waiting outside of chambers, I will reconsider my statement. Parks was reported as running late from the ex-Chief Gates funeral.