Richard Riordan Backs Wendy Greuel As His Third Choice For Mayor Of L.A.

By Gene Maddaus Wed., Mar. 20 2013 at 5:26 PM

Richard Riordan

Former Mayor Richard Riordan has had a rough go of it in this year's mayoral campaign. First, he enthusiastically backed Austin Beutner, whose campaign fizzled on the launchpad.

Then, he threw his clout behind a former radio talk show host, Kevin James, who lost in the March 5 primary. (In between, he also had time to blow $800,000 of his own money on a failed pension reform initiative.)

Perhaps the third time will be the charm. Today, Riordan announced his support for Controller Wendy Greuel.

Greuel was sufficiently pleased to be Riordan's third choice for mayor that she offered him the position of "senior adviser" to her campaign. If she is elected, Greuel vowed to make Riordan, 82, her first hire, bringing him on for $1 a year.

"Los Angeles, the city I love, is in a crisis - we need to bring business and labor together and I know ~~Austin Beutner Kevin James~~ Wendy Greuel is the right candidate for the job," Riordan said.

Greuel said that Riordan would be offering advice on economic issues. Riordan's advice, lately, has been that the city will go bankrupt by 2017 if it doesn't address the looming pension crisis. He's been pushing for 401(k)s. Greuel's labor supporters, meanwhile, argue that the more modest pension reforms already in place go too far and are illegal. Greuel's own views on the topic remain a bit confusing -- which is why the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce has invited her to come by Thursday to clarify things.

"Wendy Greuel is a strong supporter of pension reform," said spokesman Dave Jacobson, "and while she didn't agree with the 401(k) plan, she was the only mayoral candidate who actually reached out to Mayor Riordan to try and bring labor to the table in an attempt to resolve the city's fiscal crisis."

No luck yet on that front.

Staying on the theme of wealthy Republicans who have run for L.A. mayor, Steve Soboroff announced today that he is endorsing Greuel's opponent, Councilman Eric Garcetti. Soboroff, a real estate developer perhaps best known nowadays for his collection of typewriters, said in a statement that Garcetti would be "a great mayor for Los Angeles that appeals to my generation as well as the younger and hipper generation."

Apparently nobody told him that hipsters love typewriters. Nothing to apologize for there.

Tags:

Eric Garcetti, mayor, Richard Riordan, Steve Soboroff, Wendy Greuel

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VenturaCapitalist

What a freaking disaster.

abramsrl

Let's remember that Riordan wants to kill all public service employee "social security" pensions and instead to force them to give their money to his corrupt friends on Wall Street. People without a background in economics do not realize that "social security" from the Feds is only one form of social security pension. The essence of social security is that the government stands behind the promise to pay benefits rather than a single pension fund which can go bankrupt.

City employees, however, are not allowed to have federal social security. Instead, they have a smaller program which is backed by local taxpayers. [The fact that all government employees from all levels of government should be part of the national social security program is another discussion.) Thus, city, county, school district, and state employees have their own social security programs and they do not have to fear their private fund manager stealing all their money like Bernie Madoff or Goldman Sachs. Even if all their pension money is stolen, like Garcetti and his friends giving the city's contributions to the pension funds to their billionaire friends, the tax payers stand behind the pensions.

Riordan, who is the Big Daddy, who set up the massive corruption at City Hall starting in 1993, now sees that voters are angry that they have to pay the pensions which Riordan and his scions promised. Had the proper amount of contributions been made to the pension funds, then the taxpayers would not be facing such huge bills for pension pay-outs. Thus, Riordan and now Greuel want to cheat all the city workers by taking away their "social security" pensions and forcing them to take out 401 (k)'s where 30% goes to Wall Street advisers and who later steal all the pension funds by investing them in Credit Default Swaps.

All forms of Social Security are vital not only for the pensioners, but also for the entire nation especially when a recession hits. Social Security pensions continue to pay the pensioners during economic downturns, and thus, the pensioners can continue to spend and their spending props up the entire economy. If social security had been privatized by the Crash of 2008, the pensions would have been virtually worthless and the recession would have plunged us into the Greatest Depression ever.

Bryan Thomas

Well, there's an endorsement that essentially means everyone should run away from Wendy Greuel...

whatevas

Wendy Gruel loves playing Marco Polo with political positions as long as she can get someone to endorse her.

yjdraiman

Which of the two LA Mayoral candidates deserves to be the mayor in 2013?

The candidate that deserves to win is the one that has the people of Los Angeles interest at heart.

The candidate that can unify the City in a common goal for transparency and sincerely promote the city to the business world.

The candidate that can encompass the various factions within the city for a coalition government of all the parties, thereby representing all the people of Los Angeles.

The candidate that instills hope and confidence in the voters that his administration will improve the city’s financial and economic condition.

Do you think any of the run-off candidates has what it takes to do that?

YJ Draiman

VenturaCapitalist

Can't they both lose?

abramsrl

@yjdraiman

No, they are both suffused with corruption and incompetence

xavier99

Messy. Who would have thought that Wendy would have made such a hash of things so quickly.

Sagefromsouthweswood

More likely Riordan will be hiring Greuel for $1 come July 1st. I don't even know who shie is anymore. She seems to be taking every position and talking out of all side of her mouth.

SFValley

Looks like Wendy Greuel does the good old flip-flop. First, she tells Labor she wants to renegotiate pension reform passed by the council to get their endorsement and then when the Chamber hears this, she tells them that's not what she said. FLIP. FLOP. For pension reform before she was against it. WHO IS THE REAL WENDY GREUEL?