Re “James Is Fast Closing the Gap with His Rivals for Mayor”
[img]1574|left|Kevin James||no_popup[/img]Seventy-eight days out from the Los Angeles primary election of March 5, the lone – but not lonely – Republican contender, Kevin James, is messing with the conventional chemistry.
By employing transparent, muscular, subtle, inoffensive but aggressive logic – each of his three rivals has held office and set City Hall policy for more than a decade, which explains the city’s desperate condition – he is methodically deconstructing the heart of the field.
Mr. James argues that they made the mess, which should disqualify them from claiming they are the right people to sweep the floor and make nicey while the stench of the teardown of the city lingers.
How He Is Different
As the single unelected candidate – whisper, whisper, a member of the hugely minority (as in fewer registered voters) party in Democratic Los Angeles – Mr. James contends he is the dominant logical option.
Not because he says he is but because for at least four months’ worth of these debates, the 49-year-old Oklahoma-born lawyer, speaking in stentorian tones, has produced an uninterrupted waterfall of panaceas – rather than listing achievements – for what ails Los Angeles.
By contrast, his opponents, uniformly and perhaps understandably, have centered heavily, if not exclusively, on their separate but also collective accomplishments since the turn of the century.
If they have been so powerful either in creating or influencing policies, why, then, Mr. James asks, is there a pension crisis, a stubborn, bankruptcy-adjacent fiscal crisis, a schools crisis, a jobs crisis, an infrastructure crisis, a credibility crisis, a transportation crisis, a traffic crisis?
You broke it, you own it, Mr. James, with increasing (but courteous) directness, is telling his much better known rivals.
Elevating His Image
On Saturday night in Little Tokyo at the Japanese Cultural Center before a packed auditorium of hundreds and a live ABC audience for the hour-long forum, Mr. James doubtless gained his widest community exposure yet.
He was at his sharpest, too. Quickly, precisely and with long research that was as obvious as a man with two heads, Mr. James, at worst, was an equal partner, perhaps even a winner on this evening.
He was supposed to have been a sightseer in a field dominated by three City Hall elected officials with strong name recognition, City Councilman Eric Garcetti, the putative favorite for his own accomplishments, City Controller and former Councilperson Wendy Greuel, the second choice or even co-favorite, and Councilperson Jan Perry, probably undisputed as the likely No. 3 finisher, no higher, no lower.
Because he is considerably behind the three stars in the race in fundraising, the ordained traditional soothsayers decree that to be a breaking point. Therefore they stamp him as a laggard.
Unless those are cardboard figures occupying the seats at the weekly mayoralty debates, unless his rivals a only are pretending to be concerned, calling Mr. James a laggard is like saying the sun only comes out at night because it also is round, like the moon.
Yes, We See a Trend
Those who have witnessed at least a half dozen of the candidate forums – many more loom in the new year – have detected, without trying hard, an inerrant pattern:
Mr. Garcetti, especially, has become known for regularly revisiting the introductory phrase, “I am proud to have authored…”
Ms. Greuel’s strategy is not dissimilar. Additionally, her young son gets almost as much exposure as she does at the forums, although Ms. Perry and her nearly as often celebrated 21-year-old daughter are not far back.
Mr. James, meanwhile, has, without seeking permission, made it his task to supply the needed policy-driven oxygen at each forum.
(To be continued)
