Council District 3 Race: Frontrunner and Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield Secretly Amended Votes 89 Times in Sacramento

Bob Blumenfield

Correction: A previous version of this post stated that Blumenfield "switched" his vote 89 times. That was incorrect. The legislator missed a vast majority of votes and changed three of them. He later "added" or "changed" his vote 89 times, after knowing the outcomes of the bills. Corrections have been made throughout the post.

The Los Angeles Times may have glowingly endorsed California State Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield for the southwestern San Fernando Valley's L.A. City Council District 3 race -- he's one of those politicians looking for greener pastures and trying to turn L.A. into "Sacramento South" -- but he's picked up at least one bad habit during his stint up north.

You see, the Associated Press came out with a special report last fall, which examined how California State Assembly members change or add their votes after the official floor vote has been completed. It's totally legal, but such amending doesn't give a clear picture of where a legislator stands on an issue. Enter Democrat Blumenfield.

According to the Associated Press, Blumenfield added his vote 86 times during the 2012 legislative session after missing it that many times, and changed his vote three times. Among San Fernando Valley legislators who missed and added or changed votes, he doesn't top the list -- Felipe "Worst Legislator in California" Fuentes secretly amended his vote 138 times -- but it's still disturbing.

Blumenfield amends his votes more than Valley legislators Mike Feuer (32 times), Mike Gatto (59 times), Jeff Gorell (71 times) and Anthony Portantino (79 times).

The AP's analysis found that "lawmakers running for a new seat in November [2012] were the most likely to switch their votes. Of the top 15 vote-changers, 11 are seeking a new office outside of the Assembly."

The AP also found, "Lawmakers regularly changed their votes on bills dealing with powerful lobbies or hot-button social issues."

So will Blumenfield, who's considered a frontrunner in the CD 3 race and a "labor candidate," stand up for the average Joe, or will he cave to labor unions and other special interests when they start breathing down his neck?

Labor unions have supported Blumenfield, who's looking to replace termed-out Councilman Dennis Zine, with nearly $28,000 in independent expenditure money. They've spent zilch on the other candidates.

Blumenfield leads the six-person race in contributions. He's facing rivals Elizabeth Badger, Cary Iaccino, Joyce Pearson, Steven Presberg and Scott Silverstein.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

Tags:

amending votes, Associated Press, Bob Blumenfield, Council District 3, Patrick Range McDonald

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cyrusley

Let's talk about the amatuers, in this case 1 of the amateurs running against Bob, Cary Iaccino.

Cary who has been running as the nice guy, community first, honest guy, today posted a video, tagged to the pages he and his campaign employee Kevin Taylor, administer. Which pages? Reseda Centennial, Reseda Ride, and the Reseda Neighborhood Council.

All three then shared the video.

All three have been promoting Cary for city council.

Certainly, the Reseda NC promoting a candidate is a ethical violation.

Seems to me Cary is not a community first man when he is using his non profit connections for his own political gain.

Maybe Cary should tell us how he plans to be a responsible councilman when his campaign is a negative $17,000. That's right, he has spent $17K more than he has raised through contributions, matching funds, and personal contributions. He is the only campaign across all of the races to be in the red. How is he going to be part of managing a city, manage an officeholder's account, if he can't manage his own campaign finances?

RickTuttle

1 Like

I have great respect for the lively and informative political coverage of the L.A. Weekly. However, the Weekly’s story regarding supposed vote switches by Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield is inaccurate.

According to the web site, http://www.scpr.org/blogs/politics/2012/10/24/10671/california-legislators-can-change-voting-records-a/, Assemblymember Blumenfield switched his vote only three times. The other so-called switches were not switches at all. They were add on votes, something legislators are permitted to do if they miss a vote on a measure for some reason.

In the case of Assemblymember Blumenfield, many of the add on votes came on one day, when he was ill and not able to attend the legislative session. The rest were a combination of things, including instances of his being out of the room tending to budget negotiations (he’s chair of the budget committee), working on his own bills in the Senate, and other similar very innocent reasons.

Within hours of your story, two of Assemblymember Blumenfield’s opponents had produced “hit pieces” base on your story.

Now that you know the facts (check the web link above) I hope you will publish a correction.

patrick.range.mcdonald

@RickTuttle Hi Rick, Thanks for the heads up. I made corrections throughout. Take care, Patrick Range McDonald, LA Weekly

cyrusley

@RickTuttle I hope the Blumenfield team investigate today's actions by the Reseda NC?

As a former controller, I hope you agree that their actions today was an ethical violation.

This comment has been deleted

cyrusley

@strictlyna

@strictlyna I think you live in fantasy land.

Bob did not speak at the WHOA forum in January. The other 5 candidates, the amateurs, took shots at him since he was not there.

But lets talk about candidates not knowing the issues. At the forum at Westfield in Topanga, 5 candidates were against a parcel tax, which they admitted they knew nothing about. Meanwhile, Bob took the time to explain what the proposal was and why he was against it.

So in your fantasy land, Bob who does know the issues, is the wrong person for the job, but one of the 5 amateurs who doesn't know the issues is the right person for the job?