Michael Trujillo's Controversial Pro-Buscaino Email Sent by Someone Else, He Says

By Dennis Romero Mon., Nov. 14 2011 at 3:16 PM

Joe Buscaino.

An email that appeared to have been sent by career campaign consultant Michael Trujillo has been causing a small stir among L.A. city politics watchers in recent days.

That's because it sounds like it's coming from a campaign hand who's gloating about a client's victory -- that of LAPD Officer Joe Buscaino, who last week made it into a runoff to fill the Harbor area City Council seat of now-Congresswoman Janice Hahn.

One problem:

As Councilman Richard Alarcon's appointee to the city's redistricting commission, Trujillo isn't supposed to be consulting or donating to city campaigns.

An excerpt of the email that came from Trujillo's account (via LAObserved):

Trujillo, at right.

Last night was my best professional day ever in my entire life. We showed that you dont need anything -- the democratic party, the county federation of labor, seiu, ibew, park skelton, john shallman, eric hacopian, the speaker, the mayor, all of the city council, all of the assembly, all of the senate -- years of making deals in city hall.
The Buscaino campaign just followed some simple words and did what we had to do to be in first place tonight.

The blog Mayor Sam's Sister City called it "a sad exercise in political delusion ......... or nefarious political trickery."

LAObserved noted that a Nov. 9 message posted on Trujillo's Facebook page at about the same time had similar wording: "Most awesome night of my professional career."

Facebook

It wouldn't be the first time an email from Trujillo caused some controversy.

Trujillo tells the Weekly that during the early morning victory celebrations Nov. 9 -- he says he's a Buscaino supporter, not an employee -- someone took over the keyboard of his computer and sent out the note:

My computer was open and my friend had some fun as a joke. It was hijinks and shenanigans with some friends late night. I was sitting on the sidelines praying for the guy and raising my pom poms on Facebook. That's about all I did.

Buscaino spokesman Brian VanRiper told the Weekly that Trujillo ...

... doesn't really have any formal involvement in this campaign. Mike is a supporter. He's not going to recveive any compensation. He hasn't donated. I guess you can call him a volunteer.

Earlier on election night Trujillo was among 300 Buscaino supporters celebrating his apparent victory at a Mexican Restaurant, VanRiper said.

"Mike's a good guy."

Buscaino will face Warren Furutani in a January runoff election.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com/@LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

campaign, City Hall, email, Janice Hahn, Joe Buscaino, Los Angeles, Michael Trujillo, politics, redistricting, Warran Furutani

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Yuval Kremer

Is Buscaino being set-up? (I just watched "The Ides of March") Think I'm gonna give the outsider candidate the benefit of the doubt...Trujillo looks like he's TRYING to sink Buscaino.

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Good Work. I am very happy to read this article. THIS article must be given ALL STARTS!!!!

It's A Set Up

This certainly doesn't pass the smell test. I think this is nothing more than a setup. Trujillo will never get over thanking Antonio for that driving gig he had and you can bet the farm that Skelton will be using this info in his attack mailers. Watch for a slick brochure coming out stating "Indicted Councilman Appointee Illegally Directing Buscaino's Campaign". It's already out ther Joe. The follow up mailer will be "Disgraced Political Operative Guilty of Terrorist Threats Behind the Scenes of Police Officer Campaign." Don't be so naive Joe - this is the big leagues.

Robert

Are you kidding me with that lame ass excuse "a friend was using my computer?" C'mon, Joe if you want to WIN you need to distance yourself from Mike. He has a horrible reputation all over the City. Let's not forget what he did in the CD14 race with Huizar and Martinez sending out a very negative hit piece. It will be guilt by association if Joe doesn't tell Mike to take a hike. Already constituents are saying if Joe can be that bad judge of character won't say much if he gets inside City Hall. Even though Mike is a volunteer, look who is getting all the publicity now, its not Joe.

What a Pendejo

Trujillo is a well known Parke Skelton hack - Skelton is the consultant for Furutani; he used to work for Antonio Villaraigosa who has endorsed Furutani; and he is an appointee of indicted councilman Richard Alarcon who endorsed McKosker. Politics is a dirty business Joe and it doesn't get any dirtier than Mike Trujillo. Watch your back, this guy will sink your campaign.