Trutanich leads Weiss in fundraising for L.A. city attorney

In a new twist to the Los Angeles city attorney’s race, San Pedro attorney Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich has edged out his opponent, Westside Councilman Jack Weiss, in the first phase of fundraising for the general election campaign.

City rules required both men to begin raising money from scratch after the March 3 primary. In the period ending April 4, Trutanich reported cash contributions of $410,068 and a matching funds grant of $122,203. Weiss, who declined matching funds, raised $408,815. While Weiss reported that all his campaign bills had been paid, Trutanich’s reported $86,000 in unpaid bills this period.
 
The new figures erase the substantial cash advantage that Weiss had in the primary phase of the campaign when he raised $1.8 million to Trutanich’s nearly $862,000. In the five-candidate primary race, Weiss led Trutanich 36% to 27%.

Weiss’s campaign consultant Ace Smith said in a news release late Thursday night that the Weiss campaign was filing a complaint with the ethics commission asking the entity to review Trutanich’s finance report, which they said contained errors. In one instance, Smith noted that Trutanich’s campaign publicly released survey data from a polling firm known as EMC in mid-March but did not report that expenditure on its report.

Trutanich’s campaign consultant John Shallman said in an e-mail that EMC had submitted its invoice late and that the report had already been amended, adding it was “much ado about nothing.”  The amended report was not immediately available online.

In the race for the Westside council district covering neighborhoods including Bel-Air, Beverlywood, Cheviot Hills, Encino and Westwood, former state Assemblyman Paul Koretz and Neighborhood Council member David T. Vahedi were evenly matched in fundraising. Koretz has nearly $92,000 in cash on hand, while Vahedi has more than $96,000 available.
  
Vahedi raised $70,161 in contributions and lent $10,000 to his campaign. Koretz raised $63,694 and lent $25,000 to his campaign. Both Koretz and Vahedi received $25,000 in matching funds from the city. In the primary, the two men were separated by two-tenths of a percentage point in the final tallies.

-- Maeve Reston

Comments

[David Berger]

This is only the first phase of fundraising, and while it's encouraging that Nuch has taken the lead, we cannot underestimate Weiss's penchant for taking money from whoever and whatever wants to get a seat at his table.

Weiss had lost the support of many in his council district because of what was seen as an overly cozy relationship with developers. As much as Weiss tries to deny it, he does count on the support of developers, indeed as the Times recently reported one of LA's biggest developers, Rick Caruso, is throwing a $1000 a plate fundraiser for Weiss.

I hope that Trutanich supporters will rally to the cause and continue to support Trutanich because freedom does have a price, and if we want the City Attorney's Office to be free from special interests we need Nuch more than ever.

[mickey]

I see perennial sore loser Berger is at it again -- but neglects to mention that Trutanich's main backer Cooley was chief among those trying to get Caruso to run against Villaraigosa -- and he'd have loved his support for Truanich. But now that Caruso's supporting Weiss, they're trying to spin sour grapes into another baseless anti-Weiss attack.

Meanwhile it remains the fact that they're currently about tied in fundraising, with a mere thousand dollars or so difference which is negligible in sums over $400,000 each (despite the misleading/biased headline implying it's a significant difference), and despite Trutanich's side managing to not report their poll expenses within the relevant time period.

[mickey]

The initial comment re: misleading headline and disparity in how City Attorney and CD5 council races were reported seems to have disappeared into cyberspace, so the rest of my comment pointed out that while a mere $1000 difference in a matter of over $400,000 (less than 1/4%) was hailed with a headline "Trutanich leads," the CD5 candidates are some $7000 apart -- which represents around 10% of their smaller totals, yet Reston writes that they are "evenly matched." It that's not pure biased and uneven reporting I'd appreciate an explanation.

[Lisa]

Jack Weiss is probably the most corrupt politician in Los Angeles. I'm a CD 5 resident and I can tell you first hand that Weiss doesn't just take money from developers, he takes direction from them. He's allowed our neighborhoods to become playgrounds for digital billboard companies (after taking their money), for skyscraper developers (after taking their money) and for oil companies (after taking their money). I don't know Trutanich but I can tell you that it doesn't matter who he is. If he's been endorsed by the Times, Cooley and Baca, that's all I need to know. Weiss must be stopped. Don't let him do to the entire City, what he has done to our neighborhoods in CD 5. Shame on you Jack Weiss.

[anonymous]

"Mickey"

Check you figures. Trutanich has over 520k cash on had. Weiss has about 310k. That more than a 20 percent advantage.

[Phred]

It would seem that Jack Weiss is having more trouble raising funds from his Real Estate developer pals than he anticipated. That would explain the two developer gifts Weiss engineered this week in City Council:

1.- Ordinance lengthening the life of discretionary entitlements by one year: a huge free gift to Developers that Jack proposed and City Council - perceptive as usual - approved Wednesday.

2.- A gift worth at least $250,000 to developer Casden, via a motion to waive the traffic mitigation measures imposed on the developer as part of a project in Westwood. Jack did not have the gonads to face his outraged constituents at the hearing for his motion, and sent some underlings instead. Remember also that Casden was the source of the laundered campaign contributions to Weiss, that the Ethics Commission said Jack had to return and he refused.

[David Berger]

"mickey" wants an explanation? Well here's one even a Weiss campaign worker can understand. Nobody with an ounce of sense likes Weiss, and anyone who knows Weiss's true record of accepting illegal campaign contributions from developers and contractors knows what a developer fundraiser means, Ace Smith can try as hard as likes to paint the almost recalled Weiss as a super-hero crime fighter, but Weiss's lack of action and absence from 38% of City Hall and Public Safety Committee meetings suggests Weiss is more concerned about his weakening political future than public safety. You do realize that Jack is working full on his campaign and not attending his duties in City Hall, don't you? And the sore looser line "mickey?" I'd say it's yet another case of Weiss calling the kettle black.