The Ugly Face Of Republican Racism Rears Its Head In California Politics Again

Lancaster's multimillionaire right-wing mayor, Rex Parris, hasn't been a big Blue America cause célèbre despite a record that has painted him as one of California's more unsavory and fringy mayors. We learned that in 2008 he fired the Lancaster Planning Commission because it had refused to rubber stamp an application from WalMart to build a mega-store selling alcohol, ammunition and weapons next to a school in Quartz Hill, an unincorporated area of Lancaster. Last year we ran across him again, the guy who tried to ban dogs he says are favored by gangs and who proposed restrictions on landlords who want to rent to tenants with Section 8 federal housing vouchers, while helping fund a program to bus homeless people out of town and shut down a local motel to prevent the notorious Mongols motorcycle club from meeting in Lancaster... and kicking aside roadblocks for developers wanting to do business in town... [C]ritics say Parris, who was elected [in 2008], is an arrogant bully and an unstoppable control freak. 'King Rex' they call him, or 'T. Rex.' This time he was building a "drone force" in the Antelope Valley at the behest of his bribery-obsessed crony, Buck McKeon, whose political career has been financed by weapons manufacturers.

But in the Antelope Valley, people know T Rex for something else as well. A trial attorney, Parris is known to be lawsuit happy with local municipalities. He has sued the neighboring cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita for what he claims is racially polarized voting in both cities, costing taxpayers there millions of dollars. He has sued local school districts within his own city, mandating they move to district elections. Mayor Parris has allegedly raked in millions in fees for suing local governments. And, of course, money that could have been used for local services have had to be diverted too his self-serving frivolous law suits. Those Republicans are such hypocrites!

Residents of the Antelope Valley-- and throughout CA-25-- have come to expect outlandish statements from Parris but this week many people think he really has gone too far-- attacking an Iraq War Veteran who is running for Lancaster City Council in a recent negative mailer. Johnathon Ervin has served over 16 years in the United States Air Force, and is currently a Master Sergeant in the Air Force Reserves stationed at March Air Reserve Base in California. Ervin is also an aerospace engineer at Palmdale Plant 42 and a proud father and husband. Ervin, though, is African-American and Parris refers to him in the already notorious mailer, as the “Gang Candidate” and “Anti Law-Enforcement,” warning Lancaster families that Johnathon Ervin would “Green Light” gang activities in the city of Lancaster. Can you hear the dog whistle? Here is Ervin at the event speaking to Sheriff’s Deputies.



Gang candidate? The march referred to in the mailer is from a 2012 rally against stereotypes in light of the Trayvon Martin shooting titled, “The Hoodie March.” Oh the irony! Parris even supported the rally in 2012 according to message sent through emeritus former-Mayor Henry Hearns. Parris proclaim he wants Lancaster to be a Christian City. I do not see anything Christian-like in lying and slandering a United States veteran and upstanding family man in a smear campaign.

In the Republican Party's disruptive and toxic local civil war, Parris has endorsed corrupt carpetbagger Tony Strickland and opposed the local candidate, state Senator Steve Knight. Knight-- like Parris, a crazed right-wing extremist-- has opposed the mayor politically and has publicly disagreed with his conduct at city hall. Lancaster was narrowly carried by President Obama in 2012 and the Republican Stronghold in Lancaster is not crumbling. Every governing body in Lancaster now seats at least one Democrat... except the City Council, which has not had a Democrat elected to it ever. Lancaster was incorporated in 1977. Johnathon Ervin is the first Democrat to have a chance at picking up a seat in the City Council and Parris is willing to use every whistle in the book to attack this decorated military veteran.

If you would like to help send Johnathon Ervin to City Hall and defeat this racist, anti-veteran, bigoted Mayor, you can contribute here. And if you want to make sure Parris sleazy carpetbagger ally, Tony Strickland, doesn't replace Buck McKeon in Congress, you can contribute to Lee Rogers' campaign here.

Johnathon Ervin, Rex Parris' idea of a "gang candidate"