[img]1742|left|Mr. Eric Garcetti||no_popup[/img]The difference between the Los Angeles mayoral debates before last month’s weeding-out primary election and the run-up to the May 21 finals is a pound more of candor.
Not nearly enough honesty to wipe out the bulk of the self-serving bluster that Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel robotically spew when handed a microphone and at least one listener.
Enough candor, though, to be more entertaining, more mean-spirited than last winter when all five original candidates were on the same stage and they spent evenings emptily curtseying toward each other.
The latest widespread perception of the tight race is that Ms. Greuel, the city controller, is almost desperately scrambling on the margin of ethics to overcome Mr. Garcetti’s slim but seemingly iron lead.
[img]1566|right|Ms. Wendy Greuel||no_popup[/img]This, despite her blatant flirtations with the Dept. of Water and Power, and the huge financial backing she has received from DWP union leadership, in the record-breaking $3 million neighborhood.
In their newest duel last evening at Notre Dame High School, Sherman Oaks, before a packed audience of 200 homeowners, Mr. Garcetti pounded Ms. Greuel for her shadowy DWP relationships harder than he ever has.
Not that new reasons are needed, but the following report from Alice Walton, The City Maven from KPCC-FM (89.3), was a motivating factor:
A website criticizing mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti as “a trust fund kid who never had to work a day in his life” went dark after the Daily News asked the Wendy Greuel campaign about the site. A disclaimer on the website identified it as paid for by the Greuel campaign. “Shortly after the Daily News asked the Greuel campaign about the site, a password system was put in place, making the pages inaccessible,” according to the newspaper.
Going on the attack from his usually tame opening statement, Mr. Garcetti put civility aside for a moment and told the SRO crowd:
“I am the independent candidate who will make the tough choices that the next mayor needs to make, a balanced budget, pension reform, to create jobs and to solve problems to get the city back on track. In contrast, my opponent is the handpicked candidate of DWP.”
Ms. Greuel, who winced has heard that accusation plenty of times, but the strength and length of the fusillade were new.
No question that Ms. Greuel is the oratorical match of City Councilman Garcetti. But her content last evening was ineffective mainly because her responses were tired and vague.
Mr. Garcetti also hammered away at a half-dozen other instances in which he said she has shown deference toward her DWP sponsors. Separately, none was new. He has accused her before of pointedly neglecting to include the DWP’s numbers when listing salaries of all city workers.
But when the charges were rounded up and tied together – including her discovery of the allegedly bloated $160 million “in waste, fraud and abuse” by city employees – they may have had the desired effect on a crowd who saw the two finalists as similar.
