Big gun will run L.A. transportation tax push
The Times' traffic guru, Steve Hymon, provides some analysis about the big fish brought in to run the campaign for a tax hike. He's well-known political guru Ace Smith:
What makes this interesting is twofold: Smith has long worked for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is one of the chief proponents of Measure R and its most visible public face. He also ran Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign in several states, and Smith has long been known for opposition research, something I think is interesting given the fact that three of the five Los Angeles County supervisors (Mike Antonovich, Don Knabe and Gloria Molina) have come out against the half-cent sales tax proposed in Measure R to pay for more mass-transit and road projects. I spoke to Smith this morning. Here are the five questions I asked him and his answers:
1. What will the campaign look like? "I think the message is very simple," Smith said. "Here's an opportunity to create a comprehensive plan to get traffic moving again in Los Angeles County and [Measure R] captures every part of the county. It's not just a bunch of huge projects."
Read more of Steve's interview with Smith on The Bottleneck Blog.
Photo: Karen Tam / For The Times
