Hillel Aron

Joe Buscaino (and mystified daughter) as he thumps Warren Furutani for Los Angeles City Council.

​By Hillel Aron

It seemed as if half of San Pedro packed the Crowne Plaza Hotel ballroom late last night for a blowout victory party for local boy Joe Buscaino who won the Los Angeles City Council District 15 race. Things got wild as newcomer Buscaino beat dull lifer politician Warren Furutani. Furutani, backed by the massive Los Angeles County Democratic Party establishment, was humiliated with a thumping 20-point loss to Buscaino.

"I think the rest of San Pedro is deserted," said Doug Epperhart, a member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. "This would be a good night to burglarize."

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European Vacation

​A day off just to go vote in California?

It could happen. Not that some public employees need another excuse to take a day off on our dime. Unfortunately the people who could really use the paid time off will probably be working anyway.

Still, a proposal for a statewide November voting holiday during even numbered election years got one step closer to reality this week:

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By David Futch

Rudy Martinez's worst nightmare

​The feud that could see an outsider (Rudy Martinez) unseat a Los Angeles City Council incumbent for the first time in 24 years all got started over ... an over-sized patio?

That's what it looks like in the Martinez Vs. Jose Huizar race for Council District 14, judging from paperwork handed to L.A.Weekly by Martinez's camp. It shows that Martinez started getting a hard time for his restaurant upgrade plan from L.A. Building and Safety officials after he told Huizar he was running against him for City Council. Here's more:

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Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council still sit on millions of dollars in personal fat.

​Finally, a big coalition is urging approval of Measure L on the March 8 ballot, which would save the decimated Los Angeles public library system from anti-library Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who, as mentioned in the past, reads mostly menus.

Measure L, sponsored by Councilman Bernard Parks, undoes Villaraigosa's attack on libraries, reopening 73 of them on Mondays and maybe Sundays. Measure L boosts the libraries' share of existing funds. The $8 million to $10 million should come from Villaraigosa's record-high staff of 220 aides who accomplish nada, and from the 20-person entourages of the ineffective L.A. City Council. Here's why:

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L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar pats a back other than his own.

​Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar might be the first incumbent ousted by an outsider (Rudy Martinez, profiled here) since the 1980s if he isn't careful. The MayorSam watchdog blog is following La Opinion in exposing that Huizar funneled $1.5 million from a fund for offsetting air pollution on L.A.'s Eastside -- and Huizar used it to pay his huge personal staff's salaries and to "repair streets."

Last year, Huizar got caught by Colleen Williams at KNBC-4 spending $3,000 in public funds to go to the East Coast -- where he just happened to attend his school reunion. He repaid the money only after learning of KNBC's report.

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Emerson MIddle School

Emerson Middle School students have been without a librarian this year

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Los Angeles Unified schools are in a funk - some libraries may have their hours slashed while other libraries will be shut down altogether, leaving school children with fewer places to turn to for help with their homework.

These will be some of the sobering facts that Emerson Middle School children will be learning about at this afternoon's "Save the Libaries" protest.

To bring attention to their plight, students, parents, the PTA, LAUSD Board member Steve Zimmer and others will be on hand for

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By Hillel Aron

California's "Ribbon of Shame" Congressional District 23 stretches more than 200 miles from outside Camarillo to the Monterey Co. border, narrows to 100 yards and is said to "disappear at high tide

​Update: Before Nov. 2, read about shadowy Michael Berman, a map-making guru who was paid $1.3 million to gerrymander California here, read about a billionaire's son at Stanford who dropped $10 million to stop him here, read how filthy-rich Haim Saban got snookered by the Berman boys here, read why it's "the perfect crime" here, and view absurdly gerrymandered "voting districts" like Rabbit on Skateboard here.

Nobody normal ever asks any questions about gerrymandering, the subject of California Propositions 20 and 27. But if they did ask, here's what the FAQs would be:

Q: What the #&*! is gerrymandering?
A: The word gerrymander, or gerry+mander, was coined by the Boston Gazette in 1812 to describe the bizarre shapes Governor Elbridge Gerry drew for new Massachusetts state senate districts. The "mander" comes from the word salamander. Get it?

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Lightstorm Entertainment

Rest easy, Jake: Big oil has no chance against our gentle Creator

​As if "Avatar" didn't hit us over the head hard enough, director James Cameron is taking his devotion to Mother Nature a step further by pumping $1 million into the campaign against California's Proposition 23, the Sacramento Bee reports.

The proposition would suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which requires that the state's greenhouse-gas emissions be cut to 1990 levels by 2020. In other words, it would throw all steps toward righting California's crimes against the universe directly out the window. (Or out the hole in the ozone, to be precise.)

But not even the richest director in the world can wage war against the contributions of Texas oil companies Valero and Tesoro:

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By Hillel Aron

Mastering the Politburo

​Haim Saban is different than you and me: he's the 287th richest man in the world, worth $3.3 billion.

The Egyptian Jew, who looks an Ian McShane/Silvio Berlusconi cross, created The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. And he's the biggest giver to Proposition 27, the measure to keep California gerrymandered to within an inch of its life and protect those delicate incumbents.

As the New Yorker details, Saban is cozy with the Democratic Party and the Clintons (not the Obamas). He's "a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel." He says things like: "You tell that fucking guy to stay out of my face! I was driving a fucking tank in the Israeli Army ... when he was watching 'Scooby-Doo'!"

But what do California's fixed elections, so grotesque that they've inspired comparisons to the Politburo, have to do with Israel?

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A&E

Rudy Martinez on reality show "Flip This House"

​Updated after the jump: Competitor Jose Huizar one-ups Martinez. Originally posted at 1:52 p.m.

Finally -- an L.A. City Council candidate who can rack up airline miles on his own credit card, instead of mooching off the public fund.

With a $202,620 campaign budget -- $150,000 of which came from his own pocket -- TV personality and man-about-town Rudy Martinez might actually have the means to shake voters from their sleepy allegiance to Council District 14 shoo-in Jose Huizar next May.

While Huizar was fuddling around in Boyle Heights housing projects, go-getter Martinez sauntered in:

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​Two California lawmakers are using the excitement surrounding the World Cup to raise money for their re-election bids, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Assemblyman Bill Monning of Carmel and Sen. Lois Wolk of Davis (both Democrats) invited supporters this morning to gather at local pubs to watch the match between the U.S. and Algeria.

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​It didn't take long after Meg Whitman snatched the GOP nomination for fellow gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown to challenge her to ten town hall debates around the state to discuss employment, education, and the state's fiscal crisis. The Democrat argued that the town hall debates would bring variety to a race that he says has so far been dominated by Whitman's scripted advertisements.

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State Assemblyman Tom Torlakson

​The San Francisco Chronicle has called the statewide race for superintendent of public instruction, with retired public school superintendent Larry Aceves and state Assemblyman Tom Torlakson facing each other in a November run-off.

State Senator Gloria Romero of Los Angeles finished a somewhat surprising third and won't move ahead.

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Wow, California voters really, really hate Proposition 15 and the idea of publicly financing political campaigns, despite the $105 million spent by Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, and the up to $300 million Jerry Brown and Whitman will now spend thrashing each other.

littlestar.info

Whose cash gets eaten?

​

The big Dem blogs like firedoglake quickly blamed Republican voters in California today, saying too many GOPs went to the polls due to excitement over Whitman and Carly Fiorina, and thus skewed the outcome of the huge loser yesterday, Proposition 15.

That's bull. Here's what good-government types don't seem to get about California:

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Retired public school superintendent Larry Aceves

​In an extremely close race that is still not official, retired public school superintendent Larry Aceves and state Assemblyman Tom Torlakson appear to be heading for a run-off in the November general election for California Superintendent of Public Instruction.

With not all of the votes counted, newspapers have not yet called the race. But if the numbers hold, Aceves will have pulled off something of an unexpected win yesterday, pushing better-known state Senator Gloria Romero out of the picture.

So far, Romero, an education reformer, stands in third place in the non-partisan primary.

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L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley

​The primaries are over, and now Los Angeles Country District Attorney Steve Cooley will face San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris in the California Attorney General race.

Cooley, a moderate Republican from Southern California, is expected to give Harris, a liberal Democrat from San Francisco, a run for her money in the November general election.

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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom

​San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom glided easily through the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor yesterday, and now readies himself for a competitive general election race against Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado, a former state senator from Santa Maria.

The charismatic mayor will undoubtedly be relying upon the statewide name recognition, and social networking contacts, he built up during his aborted run for governor in 2009.

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​On Tuesday, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 14, the "open primary" ballot measure, which totally changes the primary election system in the Golden State.

Widely seen as a strong statement of voter frustration with big-time politics in California, Proposition 14 will allow anyone, regardless of party affiliation, to vote in a given statewide and congressional primary contest.

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Patrick Range McDonald

S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom walks in the L.A. Gay Pride Parade in June, 2009.

​San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, beating out Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

With 25 percent of statewide precincts reporting, Hahn has just released a concession statement, congratulating Newsom on his inevitable victory.

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L.A. County D.A. Steve Cooley

​With 24 precent of statewide precincts reporting, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley has won the Republican nomination for California Attorney General, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The close, hard-hitting race is turning out to be a landslide for Cooley, a moderate Republican who faced conservatives Tom Harman and John Eastman. So far, the L.A. County prosecutor has received 50 percent of the vote, with Eastman grabbing 31 percent and Harman holding at 20 percent.

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