Eric Garcetti Parties With Winklevoss Twins at Hollywood Hills Fundraiser

By Gene Maddaus Wed., Dec. 19 2012 at 12:36 PM

The Winklevii

Mayoral contender Eric Garcetti longs to be the candidate of Silicon Beach. He's the candidate who pulls out his iPhone and brags that he "has an app for that."

Seeking to bolster his tech cred, Garcetti held a fundraiser last night at the Winklevoss estate. Yes, those Winklevii: Cameron and Tyler, most famous from The Social Network as the guys who claimed they had the idea for Facebook.

The twins won $65 million in an intellectual property lawsuit ($20 million in cash, $45 million in Facebook stock), and recently used $18 million of it to buy an 8,000-square-foot mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

Here, via @DigitalLA, is an image of last night's festivities at the Winklevoss manor:

@DigitalLA

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (or is it Tyler and Cameron?) with Eric Garcetti

According to TMZ, Tyler Winklevoss recently moved into the mansion and is eyeing Silicon Beach investment opportunities. (Cameron lives in New York.) The twins have launched Winklevoss Capital, which is looking to get into the whole tech start-up VC scene.

Most recently, the Winklevosses invested in something called Hukkster -- which allows you to "hukk" things in an online fashion bazaar. They also put $1 million into SumZero, a social network for hedge-fund types.

Garcetti also is interested in the tech space. He claims 10,600 Facebook fans, more than any other candidate (perhaps a sore subject with the Winklevosses), as well as 7,800 Twitter followers. He's also eager to get into an Ask Me Anything on Reddit -- and not just because Obama did it. If elected, he has vowed to hire a Chief Technology Officer to come up with tech-y ways to deliver municipal services.

"The tech community is rallying around Eric Garcetti because they know he's an innovator with an economic agenda that will launch L.A. forward," said Jeff Millman, a Garcetti spokesman.

Via Curbed LA

The Winklevoss living room

In other Garcetti news, his campaign is still working hard to get the backing of the L.A. County Democratic Party. In a letter to Democratic central committee members last week, he tried to present himself as a better Democrat than Controller Wendy Greuel -- who grew up in a Republican family and did not become a Democrat until 1992, when she was 31.

"When others wouldn't take a stand, I proudly authored the resolution that made L.A. the nation's largest city to oppose the Bush Administration's pending invasion of Iraq," Garcetti wrote.

Garcetti authored the anti-war resolution in February 2003. Greuel voted no.

The county Democratic Party is expected to make its endorsement in early January, but with three Democrats in the race it may be difficult for any one of them to achieve the 60% threshold needed for victory.

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abramsrl

If Garcetti is such a hot shot techie guy, why did he allow the 911 system be the worst in the nation leading to thousands of deaths due to the long response times -- When your 911 call first goes to the LAPD and then the LAPD has to transfer it to the LAFD, but the LAFD has no way to distinguish an emergency 911 call from the 911 operator's mom calling to see if her daughter is coming to dinner next Thursday, you DIE waiting for the paramedics to get the message. That is the antiquated 911 system LA had all the while that Garcetti was Council Prez. And what did Mr. Techie do his last year as Council Prez? Up grade the LAFD 911 system? No! He took $200 Million out of the First Responders budget. As a result response times increased and people died.

Two weeks ago, a 98 year woman on our street feel an broke her hip -- we are less than a 5 minute walk from FS 82, but it took about 15 minutes for the paramedics to arrive. FS 82 was out of area due to Garcetti's reducing paramedics. A regular fire engine appeared quicker, but a fire engine is not an ambulance. And what happens when there's a fire? The fire engine is stuck waiting for the ambulance which is over in FS 35 area.

Maybe the Winkelvii should learn more about people before trusting them. Huh, Winkelvii? Is there a pattern here? Garcetti makes Zuckerberg look like Prince Charming.

karetha

@abramsrl That's not quite the way it works. A 911's mom can't call her daughter and speak with her. Additionally, all calls for paramedics are immediately transferred to LAFD by the 911 dispatcher unless the line to the paramedics is busy. The LAFD are the ones who dispatch the paramedics and give emergency instructions if needed. Garcetti did furlough 911 operators resulting in a shortage of operators answering calls.

scottzwartz topcommenter

@karetha @abramsrl In 2001, the LAPD 911 was up-graded but the LAFD 911 was not. For at least 11 years, the 911 calls for LAFD went first to the LAPD or CHP and stayed there for up to a minute and then it is transferred to the LAFD.

Garcetti knew about this problem since 2001 when the LAPD 911 was upgraded and again in 2005 when the US Today wrote its article about Angelenos dying due to our Too Slow Response Times. http://usat.ly/Qhh4Ab

In 2006, Garcetti cut FS 82 by 75%, and in 2011, he used falsified data to take another $200 M from paramedics and firemen. After that fraud was uncovered and publicized in the LA Times and local news channel, the city decided to fix the LAFD 911 system

StuckInTheCloset

Where have his tech ideas been for his last 10 years on City Council and as City Council President...that's right he's been too busy driving the City into bankruptcy with his business killing policies. Why would any business, tech included ever support this guy? Oh wait I know why! Because he created an iphone app for parking spaces that would force you to illegally use your phone while driving in order to utilize it, also creating a public safety issue. That sure is tech savvy.

I also find the constant emails I've received touting his grass routes campaign and fundraising to be hypocritical and misleading. Look at the house he is in?!!? I've even seen him condemn "millionaires and billionaires" raising money for the one republican candidates' campaign. REALLY!?!? Ok for you, but no one else. And the fact that he is associating himself w/ the D listers of Facebook is kinda sad. The real creator of FB would never support this clown.