Negative mailers heat up 2nd District council race

In the final stretch of the Los Angeles City Council's 2nd District race, candidate Christine Essel has sent out a string of negative mailers attacking the ethics of two of her competitors while touting her proposals to strengthen city ethics rules.

But one of Essel’s own mailers includes a glaring misstatement about the position of her rival, Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, on a controversial proposal to develop the Verdugo Hills Golf Course in Tujunga, which is in the northern part of the district.

A recent mailer from Essel’s campaign claimed that Krekorian “voted for legislation that gave a Valley golf course away to a luxury condominium developer” and cites a May 2007 vote on Assembly Bill 212 as its source. But Krekorian says he never supported the project and has circulated an August 2007 letter he wrote to then-Councilwoman Wendy Greuel stating the golf course should be preserved as open space.

Krekorian notes that at the time he voted for AB 212 in May 2007, the bill was a briefly-worded state budget bill that did not include any language pertaining to the golf course project.

After the May 2007 vote, Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes gutted and amended the legislation, proposing planning process changes that would have allowed developers to build 229 homes on the 63-acre golf course in Tujunga.

“Saying that I voted for that is a lie,” Krekorian said in an interview this week. 

Fuentes killed the bill after The Times wrote an article about his ties to the developers of the project.

Essel’s campaign consultant, John Shallman, said he stands behind the mailer and noted that Fuentes is running ads — a week before the election — praising Krekorian’s work in the Assembly without mentioning his bid for the council seat.

“The information that we have suggests that Krekorian had been working with Fuentes on this issue and that AB 212 was the vehicle used by Fuentes to push this Verdugo Golf Course into development,” Shallman said.

Krekorian’s consultant, Eric Hacopian, said the Essel campaign “either knowingly misrepresented and lied about Paul‘s position on this issue, or they are so incompetent that they have no business in public life.”

With Tuesday’s special election just days away, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades also weighed in Thursday, announcing a $32,500 independent expenditure for television advertisements supporting Essel. The ad features Greuel, who is now the city controller, praising Essel’s credentials for the office.

—Maeve Reston at City Hall

Comments

[Suspicious in Valley Glen]

So Krekorian votes for the bill, then the bill gets changed, then he gets free TV advertising - the most valuable currency in campaign politics - from the bill's author? Sounds like a political deal to me.

[You lose]

Thanks Christine Essel. You just lost my vote.

[marcia]

If this means that part of the shake-up at the Times editorial board means the publisher is demanding more fairness all around, and no longer letting John Shallman keep his reputation for running the Times, it bodes well all around.

However, I do wonder why Fuentes is running an ad for Krekorian if he's really opposed to his bill as written to favor the development of the Golf Course. It's POSSIBLE it's just to support the devil he knows over the ones he doesn't.

[LA observer]

Believe it or not, members of the California State Assembly also deal with issues unrelated to the Verdugo golf course. Perhaps Mr. Fuentes has lent his support to Mr. Krekorian because he's impressed with his work on crime, environment, education or other non-golf related issues.

[David from Sherman Oaks]

I'm glad to see the Times was able to get a response from the Essel campaign regarding the misleading campaign materials. Having come to the same conclusion on the information (with two mouse clicks), I wanted to contact the campaign but could find no phone number on the materials or the web. A number was found (through another candidate's office), a call was made, and I was told by an uninformed worker that someone would call me back to discuss the issue. I'm still waiting. John Shallman can allude or prove to his heart’s content that Mr. Krekorian had been working with Mr. Fuentes on this issue, but that’s not what was claimed as fact in the materials sent. Is this supposed to be the "not politics as usual candidate"?