Jackie Lacey And Alan Jackson Vie For District Attorney; Race Shapes Up As Referendum On Steve Cooley

By Gene Maddaus Mon., Nov. 5 2012 at 10:50 AM

Jackie Lacey and Alan Jackson

For the first time since 1996, Steve Cooley is not on the ballot in the race for L.A. County District Attorney. But tomorrow's election is largely a referendum on his 12 years in office.

His chosen successor, Jackie Lacey, has the backing of the police and political establishment. Her opponent, Alan Jackson, is hoping that voters want something else: an outsider.

"She's saying, 'Vote for me because everyone says vote for me,'" said John Thomas, Jackson's consultant. "We're arguing that's precisely the problem. You want someone with an arm's length distance from the establishment."

Lacey, a Democrat, is embracing Cooley's support with both arms. Last week, the campaign sent out a robocall with a recording of Cooley's voice urging voters to back Lacey.

"It certainly helps that she's affiliated with Steve Cooley," said Parke Skelton, Lacey's consultant. "When I talk to people, that's the one thing they know about her. They say, 'That's the African-American woman who's supported by Steve Cooley.'"

Thomas, however, believes that voters have negative views of almost all their elected officials -- including Cooley. He has tried to portray Jackson, a Republican, as an independent-minded prosecutor, running against a establishment politician or a "bureaucrat."

"Lacey doesn't have to do as heavy a lift as we do," Thomas said. "We had to channel something we know exists, which is that voters don't like the establishment. We feel confident we have."

To get that across, the Jackson campaign has been running this TV ad.

Jackson spent about $300,000 on TV in the first three weeks of October -- not nearly enough to blanket the airwaves. (Update: Thomas says that Jackson spent another $225,000 since Oct. 20, but that figure is not yet reflected in a campaign filing.) Meanwhile, Lacey has stayed off the airwaves and stuck to direct mail.

"They functionally don't have a campaign," Skelton said. "I think we have a huge natural advantage."

Skelton predicted that Lacey would win by at least 10 points.

Thomas didn't venture a prediction, but said that to win Jackson must hold on to the Republican base and get a majority of independents.

"We feel as good as we could feel going into election day," Thomas said. "We think we have the right message. It's a question of were we able to drive that message home enough on paid media."

Tags:

Alan Jackson, D.A., district attorney, Jackie Lacey, John Thomas, Parke Skelton

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losangelesdragnet

Things were a lot easier when the choice was Carmen the Clown Trutanich or either Lacey or Jackson. Lacey and Jackson did a great public service in eradicating the serious threat of having a power-crazed egocentric liar like Trutanich as DA, but now that he is finished in politics, voters have to decide which of the two are best qualified to be DA. Jackson was always at a disadvantage, he's a great trial lawyer, but he lacks executive experience. His attempt to try to frame the election as being between a 'modern' prosecutor and the 'establishment' was flawed as pointed out elsewhere, in that the so-called 'establishment' has done a pretty good job for the past 12 years, modernizing and moving the office forward.

Jackson seriously mishandled the felon fundraiser scandal. Instead of admitting a rookie mistake, he tried to mislead the public about the true nature of the fundraiser. Worse, he claimed the host was bragging and boasting to friends. But Jackson woke up with egg on his face when the felon's invitation was published showing it was indeed a fundraiser. That is what voters should look at when making their choice - when a simple mea culpa would have been enough, he made things worse by trying to lie and cover up his mistake. It was a defining moment, and as we will see tomorrow after the polls close, Jackson will have made another mistake - taking voters for fools.

jodylax

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I'm voting for Lacey even though I HATE "Honest" Steve Cooley. Having dealt with Jackson in court, he is nothing more than Nancy Grace in a suit. Beware people.

Jack

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Jackson's ad makes no sense - how can he say Lacey is a nice person, and then say she's a liar and a political appointee? If he thought he was making Lacey look bad he was wrong. He made himself look stupid, even more so now that you have revealed that he only had $300k to run his ads. He should have given the money to a charity, he would have gotten more publicity.

Jackson also made a fool of himself being the top billing at a fundraiser hosted by a convicted felon who was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for the biggest mortgage fraud in LA's history. Instead of admitting he made a mistake not using Google to check out who this guy was, he then lied to the LA Times saying that it was not a fundraiser. But the LA Times had the felon's invitation, and guess what? It was a fundraiser. Very stupid indeed.

But the most stupid mistake Jackson made was to try to attack Steve Cooley. There is no doubt that if Cooley wasn't retiring, he would be re-elected for a fourth term in a heartbeat. Cooley may not be perfect, but he is the most popular and trusted DA that LA has had since the 1920's. But Jackson was too stupid to realize his strategy was fatally flawed, and tomorrow evening he will pay the price for his stupidity.

As for his lame claims that he has raised another $225k, it is interesting that he hasn't released any details at all on the County Registrar's website. He has done that in every round of fundraising so far, but this time, nothing, zip, nada, bupkas. If Jackson cannot be trusted to tell the truth about his felon fundraiser mistake, how can he be trusted to be telling the truth about any fundraising, and more importantly, how can he be trusted as DA? The so called modern prosecutor can't even use 'the Google.'

jodylax

@Jack NO - "Honest" Steve Cooley would NOT have been reelected. He LOST Los Angeles County BIG TIME in his run for AG. The taste of his special treatment of his good buddy disgraced Bell chief Randy Adams is what did him in. Cooley may talk the talk about honest and fair application of the law, but he showed his true colors by giving his close friend Adams a pass on the multiple felonies he committed in Bell, Glendale and Simi Valley. Screw COOLEY - he's a lying piece of shit.