First in a series
[img]2682|right|Mark Ridley-Thomas and Alex Johnson||no_popup[/img]Going into the final week of LAUSD’s special election to fill the School Board’s District One seat vacated eight months ago today, the dominant, almost monopolistic, sounds have emanated from the camp of the popular favorite (is that redundant?) George McKenna.
No more, vows Fred MacFarlane, one of Southern California’s best known political consultants.
Next Tuesday’s runoff to replace the late Marguerite LaMotte pits a 33-year-old relative newcomer, Alex Johnson, against the 73-year-old Mr. McKenna, a widely liked retired administrator, whose support, befitting his 50 years in education, appears to span the community.
For Mr. Johnson, his interaction with education has been quite different. A lawyer by training, he has consulted with and represented schools.
“I have heard the McKenna campaign operatives talk about smears, and surrogates talking about slander,” said Mr. MacFarlane. “I have read week after week of newspaper columns and editorials, all of them detesting what they say are the tactics of the Alex Johnson campaign.
“The plain fact is, the McKenna campaign simply does not want to talk about Mr. McKenna’s record.”
The accompanying mailers from Mr. Johnson – who works for and is under the aegis of County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas – leave no doubt, even for a cloudy-minded person, what Mr. McKenna’s alleged condemnable failings are.
[img]2335|right|George McKenna||no_popup[/img]They hammer at Mr. McKenna for having been the educator in charge when child abuse occurred at several schools.
The Johnson mailers don’t leave a drop of doubt that Mr. McKenna’s shiny reputation should be considered deeply flawed by these crimes.
“It is pretty much a given that Mr. McKenna did a decent job as an administrator,” Mr. MacFarlane said, “at Washington Prep,” a waystop that inspired a well-received Denzel Washington motion picture.
“That is where the McKenna people would like to stop.”
But the Johnson campaign says that would be ignoring the strong downsides of Mr. McKenna’s half century of service.
(To be continued)
