Los Angeles Primary Voters Need To Beware Of Imposters Laura Friedman, Elan Carr And Steve Napolitano

An actual endorsement

Fake endorsement by L.A.'s most dishonest politician

The other day I got a piece of mail disguised as a Democratic Party slate card with prominent pictures of President Obama, who isn't running for anything and Kamala Harris who is running for U.S. Senate. The "Democratic Voter Guide" is not put out by the Democratic Party at all and there's no indication of who paid for the mailing, which tries to imply that dishonest conservative candidates like Republicans Elan Carr and Steve Napolitano and the Walmart anti-public school candidate Laura Friedman are running on a Bernie Sanders slate.

A shady outfit called Voter Guide Slate Cards puts this garbage together mails these out to whomever pays them-- and circumvents the law by not reporting who their clients are. There are pull-out quotes from Supervisorial candidates Steve Napolitano, who says "I running for Supervisor for the 4th district to rethink, reinvent, and re-engage L.A. County" and Elan Carr referring to himself as "a criminal gang prosecutor and Iraq War veteran who will put gangs behind bars." Neither mentions he is a partisan right-wing Republican, since each is running in a district with far more Democrats than Republicans and each understands he can only win by stealth and by implying he is a Democrat or even a "Berniecrat." Both are vile Trumpists.

As I was driving home, I was listening to a Supervisorial debate on KPCC between the 6 top candidates. The Democratic Party is united behind Darrell Park for the ostensibly non-partisan office. The 5 right-wing Republicans running are state Sen. Robert Huff, Kathryn Barger, Elan Carr, Glendale Councilman Ara Najarian, L.A. City Councilman Mitchell Englander. The debate moderator asked the whole panel of candidates if any of them have publicly opposed Trump. Najarian mumbled some disjointed nonsense about not being happy with some of Trump's positions but made it clear that he would be voting for him. The other 4 Republicans in the race sat mum, hoping no one would notice. Carr's mailers presenting him as a Democrat speak to his lack of honesty and make it clear how unsuited he is for public office. (last year, running for the open congressional seat on the west side and South Bay-- not remotely near where he's running now-- he had his head handed to him by progressive Ted Lieu, who beat him 108,331 (59%) to 74,700 (41%), despite spending $1,575,540 and despite a barrage of expenditures on his behalf by a huge SuperPAC paid for by Mob-controlled Las Vegas gambling boss Sheldon Adelson ($506,407) and another financed by far right crackpot and wine seller John Jordan and the Koch brothers ($256,485).

Most voters are unaware about the deceptive practices used to trick them into voting for candidates whose agendas they oppose. The most dishonest campaign in Los Angeles is the Laura Friedman For Assembly campaign in Glendale, Burbank, the Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, East Hollywood, Silver Lake and La Crescenta (assembly District 43). Friedman, the corrupt conservative in the race, is being backed by gigantic expenditures from the Walton family (Walmart), which seeks to destroy teachers unions and end public education, replacing it with charter schools. The endless stream of mailers from Friedman and her charter school superPAC smear the progressive in the race, Ardy Kassakhian. Friedman, best known for her tendency to lie whenever she opens her mouth, implies in her campaign communications that she's been endorsed by Mayor Garcetti (who very forcefully endorsed Kassakhian and has made it clear what a disaster Friedman would be for Los Angeles). She also implies on all her posters and literature than she's been endorsed by the Democratic Party, which is another lie, the state and county Democratic Party (as well as the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and all the Democratic clubs in the district from the Stonewall Democratic Club and the Korean American Democratic Committee to the Glendale Democratic Club and the Hubert H. Humphrey Democratic Club) have all endorsed Kassakhian, as have the AFL-CIO, the California Labor Federation, AFSCME, SEIU and virtually every other labor union in the L.A. area. Since one of Friedman's big lies that all her literature and campaign signs spout is that she's supported by "teachers," it's worth mentioning that the California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, and the California School Employees Association have all endorsed Kassakhian and have been urgently warning their members that Friedman is the anti-education/anti-teacher conservative imposter in the race.

Yet the gigantic sums being spent by billionaires Eli Broad and the Waltons on her behalf are drowning out debate and deceiving voters into thinking Friedman is a progressive of some kind. And, it turns out, that it was her sleazy campaign that helped the Republicans-masquerading-as-Democrats pay for the Voter Guide Slate Cards mailing I mentioned up top. No, nothing will make Elan Carr and Steve Napolitano Democrats and nothing will separate them from Trump and Trumpism and nothing will ever make Laura Friedman a Berniecrat, no matter how much dark money she spends trying to persuade voters she is.