Dateline Compton — The Los Angeles Times reported this afternoon that Compton City Councilman Isaac Galvan, hoping to move to Sacramento after a rocky term at City Hall, has walked into another embarrassing wall with his shaky campaign for the state Senate.
He stands accused of lying about endorsements.
Mr. Galvan, the first Latino elected to the Council, is running for the open 35th Senate District seat.
His campaign, the Times noted, went live last weekend with a website detailing his candidacy.
At least four Compton politicians listed on his endorsements page insist they have not endorsed him.
From his first moments in office two summers ago, it was evident Mr. Galvan was less than a public relations whiz. He swiftly buttressed a reputation for never returning telephone calls.
At that same early juncture, the city manager of Compton took the unusual step of firing Mr. Galvan’s liaison person, one Angel Gonzalez.
Before scraping the mud off his resume, Mr. Gonzalez was convicted of campaign shenanigans, a felony conspiracy charge, when he was in the employ of former South Gate treasurer Albert Robles, last seen going to prison for his role in a bribery scheme.
The Times said that City Councilwoman Janna Zurita told the newspaper: “I definitely did not endorse Isaac Galvan.”
No one in Compton with a pulse was surprised to learn that Mr. Galvan did not return a call or a text message Ms. Zurita sent him. However, he got the message. Her name was eventually taken off Mr. Galvan’s site.
“I was very upset about that,” Ms. Ziurita told the Times. “It creates a problem.
“This is serious. Politics is all about relationships. If you don’t keep good relations with others in the field you can’t maneuver.”
Compton Mayor Aja Brown, Carson City Councilman Jawane Hilton and Hawthorne City Councilman Alex Vargas also are listed as having endorsed Mr. Galvan even though that isn’t the case.
Messrs. Hilton and Vargas already had pledged their support to former Assemblyman Steven Bradford (D-Gardena).
“Someone had called me and said ‘Hey, I thought you were with Steve,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I am,'” Mr. Hilton told the Times.
Mr. Hilton said he texted with Mr. Galvan and asked to be removed. The candidate, he said, did not offer an explanation for the error.
“We are friends,” Mr. Hilton said. “Sometimes you do things and don’t ask your friends.
“Sometimes you automatically think your friends are with you.”
Mr. Vargas was perplexed when made aware that his name appears on the sites of both candidates.
“It is just a big mess,” he told the Times. “Hopefully, [Mr. Galvan] will take me off soon.”
Ms. Brown, the mayor of Compton, has not made an endorsement in the race, according to spokeswoman Jasmyne Cannick.
Former Los Angeles School Board President and Assemblyman Warren Furutani also is running for the seat.
