[Editor’s Note: Ms. Pleasant, whose essay below was posted this morning at the Wave Newspapers site, is perhaps the community’s most vivid, most precise commentator on the state of politics. Community activist Najee Ali deserves a bow for bringing this confrontational issue to our attention.]
[img]2398|right|Autumn Burke||no_popup[/img]Seven local politicians have come together to host a fundraising event for Autumn Burke, the ain’t-never-done-a-thing daughter of retired County Supervisor Yvonne Burke and her uber rich husband, Bill Burke, who is running for the 62nd Assembly District seat against water board director Gloria Gray, a woman who has spent her life in service to the people and who has been honored for her service on many occasions by the same politicians who now believe that the Burke daughter would make a better representative of the people than Gray. Do they really believe that? No. There are other motives and angles involved. I want to discuss a couple of them.
This slap in the people’s face by these seven politicians has so disturbed the community that their constituencies are now calling them The Seven Dwarfs. Just who are these seven dwarfs everybody is grumbling about? They are, in the order they list themselves in the invitation to their Burke fundraiser: Second District Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas; City Council President Herb Wesson; Assembly members Steve Bradford, Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Isadore Hall, Chris Holden and Sebastian Ridley-Thomas. Supervisor Ridley-Thomas is the most powerful of the seven and is the oddest of the Burke supporters, given that he has never been in the Yvonne Burke camp, which includes his most obnoxious foe, City Councilman Bernard Parks.
The supervisor personally presented Gray a commendation for her outstanding county service in 2011. Neither he nor anyone else on the Board of Supervisors has ever given one to Autumn Burke because she’s given no service — outstanding or otherwise. It should be noted that Gray has been given commendations and citations by former Gov. Gray Davis down through the ranks to Yvonne Burke, herself. She’s been commended by past and present Assembly members, including Bradford, Hall and Mike Davis; all our black congresswomen and state senators, the mayors of several cities, including Los Angeles and Inglewood, ad infinitum.
Since Supervisor Ridley-Thomas has always been at odds with the Burkes — and for good reasons — why is he suddenly the “No. 1 Autumn Burke Fan?” He said it is because he was unhappy with Gray’s campaign style and believed she would be beaten by Betsy Butler for the Assembly seat, thus causing the seat to pass out of black folks’ hands. Never mind the arguments from me and the people that, given his fears, he should unleash his mighty forces to help Gray win and retain the black seat. He ignored us and chose to back the unqualified black candidate rather than Gray, the one who has earned it and deserves to win it. But check this: The white candidate he feared has chosen not to seek the Assembly seat and is going for the state Senate instead. Yet, the supervisor is boldly professing his love for Burke person.
It’s understandable why 10th District Councilman Wesson, who has been shockingly blessed by having Koreatown — the most vibrant area in the city — designated a promise zone while the poorer sections of his district got nothing, would support the Burke daughter. Wesson served as Supervisor Burke’s chief of staff, and he owes his political career to her. Under the circumstances, the least he can do to show is gratitude is endorse her daughter for the Assembly — or for anything else her mama wants her to have.
The same is pretty much true of Assemblyman Holden, whose father, retired 10th District Councilman Nate Holden, is thicker than thieves with anything associated with the Burkes. The Holdens and the Burkes are close personal friends. Autumn calls the elder Holden “Uncle Nate,” and I suppose she calls the younger one, “Cousin Chris.”
Now, nobody really cares about the opinions of Assemblymen Bradford, Jones-Sawyer and Hall because they have no sway, and Assemblyman Ridley-Thomas just got into office, so . . .
I will conclude my rant this week with this: Those of you among the Seven Dwarfs who have some sway need to look out, because your constituents — the people — are re-evaluating their opinions of you and are saying things
