Third in a series
Re “James Can Thank Greuel for Timely, Unintended (?) Assist”
Underdog Los Angeles mayoralty candidate Kevin James says “I don’t know who I am going to be in the runoff with after March 5, but I am absolutely confident I will be.
“Early polling suggests it would be Eric Garcetti.”
Not that polling matters.
“In a low-turnout race” – which the primary election is a cinch to be – “it is not who comes or who was polled.”
Mr. James, the only one of a kind (conservative Republican, lawyer, unelected, gay) in the five-person field says his campaign is hoping to influence the size and type of voter who participates in the primary.
“We are talking to targeted folks,” he says.
“Meanwhile, Mr. Garcetti and Ms. (Wendy) Greuel I suspect will spend millions on network television talking watching C.S.I. in Orange County. Those are not voters.
“We are focusing our efforts tightly. We have volunteers on the phones. We have walkers. We have a targeted message that we get out.”
He is hoping to tap into a significant number of the 300,000 registered Republicans in Los Angeles County. If they vote in meaningful numbers, he could be positioned to knock out Ms. Greuel or Mr. Garcetti and qualify for the May 21 finals.
Mr. James said his mission 2½ weeks before Election Day is “to let the voters of Los Angeles know there is a viable alternative to the same old City Hall insiders who got us into this mess.
“We have to talk to our base, especially through the radio. I have been doing a lot of that, and of course it is free.
“We also have to talk to people whop have not voted in prior city elections. The reason they have not voted is because they have not felt as if they had a choice.”
