League of Conservation Voters Moves to Silence Eight Candidates in Los Angeles City Council District 15 Election

monkeybuddha.com

A consultant for the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters chooses the top three L.A. City Council candidates.

It's discomfiting to watch leaders of the Los Angeles League of Conservations Voters awkwardly try to play king-maker and repress debate in the wide-open Los Angeles City Council District 15 race to replace the quickly forgotten Janice Hahn.

The League thinks it knows who the front-runners are. It has decided the public should not hear from the eight others at an upcoming debate. Sad times for the once-vibrant League. As pointed out by Scott Johnson at MayorSam blog, and by Ken Draper at CityWatchLA, and by Council District 15 candidate (and cop) Joe Buscaino, there's a "freshness" and "creative" wave of ideas from the 11 Angelenos running for this power job in City Hall. The League of Conservation Voters has no clue what's unfolding in L.A. Zero.

Time was, the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters was pro-transparency and pro-grassroots.

Lately, it has begun to show its ossified soul.

That League's regression shows up particularly in sponsoring a Council District 15 "debate" leading up to the November 8 to fill Hahn's seat in which the League is featuring just three of the 11 official candidates.

Bikeside L.A.

L.A. City Council District 15 needs many voices, as seen above. The League of Conservation Voters wants fewer.

As if the League knows what's best for L.A. In contrast, groups like Bikeside L.A. reached out to all 20 candidates (before the field was narrowed when the final 11 officially filed). Good for Bikeside L.A. That's the way to fix L.A.'s myriad troubles.

The Council District 15 2011 election winner, unlike the smiling but ineffective and easily distracted Hahn, could be a serious member of the community who shakes up the L.A. City Council -- one of the more ill-informed municipal governing bodies in the nation.

Sometime soon, a sleeper candidate will win a Los Angeles City Council seat, instead of a veteran political hack.

We can hope for that day, when a new face arrives who attacks the Los Angeles City Council's wrong-headed unanimous voting system (set up by misguided City Council President Eric Garcetti) in which the council's thousands upon thousands of annual votes cast end up unanimous 99.993 percent of the time.

Apparently the Los Angeles League of Conservation Votes is keen to continue that 99.993% voting record, a mark of how little serious thought goes into decisions by the Los Angeles City Council.

But why has the League taken this path? Does it cost the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters $50 more to rent eight extra chairs?