Skip to main content

City Attorney Race: Is it Really About the Mayor?

Support Provided By
KCETVillaweissI.jpg

Next week is the runoff election for Los Angeles City Attorney, between former city councilman Jack Weiss and former prosecutor Carmen Trutanich. But hanging in the balance might be more than just their fates--it might be Mayor Villaraigosa's political clout.

The Los Angeles Times gives the Weiss/Trutanich dustup this spin that makes it about the mayor:

"The mayor's raised money for Jack. The mayor's campaigning for him. He's doing everything he can for Jack," said Richard Katz, a Villaraigosa appointee on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority....Trutanich campaign consultant John Shallman warned that if Weiss wins the general election on Tuesday, it will show that "old-school corrupt machine politics is alive and well" in Los Angeles. Trutanich himself said Weiss, who faced lukewarm reviews from his colleagues and a failed recall attempt from a group of constituents in his Westside district, would never have gotten this far, financially or politically, without aggressive advocacy by the mayor.

Not that the mayor's support has been all pluses for Weiss, who is going into the Tuesday May 19 runoff vote with less money than Trutanich:

Two weeks ago, one of Villaraigosa's pension board appointees was forced to resign after he held a fundraiser for Weiss in violation of the city's ethics law. Weiss said he returned the contributions.

Councilman Dennis P. Zine is openly anti-Weiss, though, publicly callingfor an investigation into his fundraising. As the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports:

Joined by Deputy District Attorney David Berger, a candidate for city attorney in the primary election...Zine told a small but vocal crowd of Trutanich supporters that Weiss lacked the "integrity," "ethics," and "diligence" to become the city's chief prosecutor."I know, after sitting next to Jack Weiss for eight years, Mr. Trutanich is the man I strongly support," he said......Zine also said that when he was in the council chambers he would often find Weiss' seat empty, claiming that the candidate had "missed hundreds" of meetings and was "not attending to the duties [he was] sworn to do."..... Kevin James, a onetime assistant U.S. attorney who now hosts a radio show and said he lives in Weiss' council district, said "some law enforcement agency with appropriate jurisdiction" should investigate Weiss' campaign fundraising..... Weiss' campaign manager Ace Smith, who was in the audience yesterday, dismissed the statements made during the press conference as "just reckless, frankly close to libelous charges launches by a campaign on the decline."

The Times' story also reports that a Villaraigosa supporter told a council member vacillating in support for Weiss "that a Weiss victory was critical for Villaraigosa to show that he has clout in a potential race for governor." As his own city's lifestyle and politics mag Los Angeles is about to unveil a new issue baldly declaring the mayor a "failure," Villaraigosa needs all the shows of political clout he can get.

Past City of Angles blogging on the Weiss/Trutanich wars here and here.

(Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.