Friday, April 24, 2009

Get To Know Carmen Trutanich For City Attorney!

I know we just got done with an big election only in March, including the City Attorney election. But next month, we have to go back to the polls, not only for the slate of State propositions (1A and all the 1's), BUT, because there IS a very important run-off in the City Attorney's election, left over from last month:

Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich pulled off a huge upset and forced Los Angeles City Councilmember -- and Los Angeles Mayor Anotnio Villaragiosa-backed candidate Jack (Jackass) Weiss (Weissass) into a run-off.

Early, early on, Dennis Zine pulled me over in chambers one day, last year, and introduced me to Trutanich, feeling that it would be good for both of us to get to know each other.

And I was glad Dennis introduced us. Because right away, I took "Nuch" up on his offer to call him and fire away with questions to "get to know" him and hear what he had to say.

And I did spend hours in person and on the phone last year speaking to Nuch about what the City Attorney's office would be like with him as City Attorney. I liked what he had to say a hell of a lot, and he was able to articulate with passion the problems with the city attorney's office and what he was going to do about it.

So it was "all systems go" and Nuch was down for the ride, and he showed up at the Casa Princesa events, last year (see videos below...Nuch has gotten a lot better in front of the cameras since this was filmed) .

Then it was off to the SLAP meeting, then to the DWP meeting and I was hooking Nuch up with people who wanted to speak with him personally, and Nuch never turned down a chance to meet with ZD's friends from across the community.

WELL, now the rest is history, and Trutanich amazed Zuma Dogg when the L.A. Times broke ranks of their usual pro-Villar candidate endorsements, and endorsed Trutanich, instead of the usual slam-dunk for a Villar-backed candidate (Jack Weiss).

Not only because Nuch has all the endorsements any "non-politican" candidate could possibly get (including Daily News, along WITH L.A. Times); and not only because Nuch has been able to articulate "sell" his plan and vision to the people of L.A. and to the L.A. Times, Daily News and overall grassroots community members.

Now, the reason Jack is in the political fight of this career is because he is just simply such an odd and off-putting character to say the least, and we can leave it at that.

Because the reason I wanted to blog this post about Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich is because, although I wasn't going to put energy into this round of city attorney election (the run-off) because some of you know I am burnt out as hell, and there is SO MUCH coverage of the city attorney's race, ZD has been putting ANY energy toward the uncovered issues he isn't seeing covered elsewhere.

And something that has been bothering me about the coverage of this election has been it has been so negative. All I am hearing are bad things about Jack Weiss, and not enough of the GOOD things about Carmen that is what got me excited about his candidacy; and inspired me to alert the masses about him.

And again, more of the reason is that I am burnt out; but last night on Kevin James' KRLA (AM 870) radio show in the 9:00pm hour, Councilman Dennis Zine was discussing the election and was explaining why he was breaking ranks from endorsing his fellow councilmember (Weiss) and endorsing Trutanich.

He DID speak at great length as to why he felt Jack Weiss would be bad for City Attorney (but it was GOOD negative stuff, not alot of the "bad energy" attack stuff on Jack that has been turning me off with some of the activists). AND, Dennis went on to give his own personal account as to why he felt NUCH was so good.

And I absolutely, 100% HATE TO ADMIT, Zine did one HELL of a sales job for Trutanich and did so in such a way that inspired me quite a bit to (as I am saying), "Want to do MORE to help the Trutanich campaign!"

So I started by calling Nuch on his cell phone at 10pm to ask him if he heard Dennis on Kevin's show and Nuch told me he was just about to go on with Kevin in the 10pm hour (like in 5 minutes).

But Nuch was in no hurry (he puts his cell phone on his campaign business card and picks up the phone, obviously), so I told him, "Maaaaaaan, Dennis really did a great job selling you out there and it really inspired me to "want to do more for your campaign!" And I explained that I am really burnt, but I'm gonna try to do more.

So for me, "doing more" means doing more to talk about all the "issue oriented" and "personality-driven" reasons I like Carmen Trutanich! Because the negative stuff is only going to intensify on TV and in fliers as we get closer to the election next month.

So I called Kevin James to let him know how much Dennis kicked-ass and how I "want to do more" and I started by reminding people a couple of the POSITIVE reasons I liked Nuch in the first place. And Kevin reminded me to "blog it, Zuma!"

I'm outta computer time for now, so start with some of these videos!

Here are two videos from 11/03/08:

Zuma Dogg with Carmen Trutanich (LA City Attorney Candidate)


Zuma Dogg, Ron Kaye & Carmen Trutanich (LA City Attorney Candidate)


MORE VIDEOS INCLUDING "TRUTANICH vs WEISS" RECENT DEBATE:

Carmen Trutanich - My Life
Description: TRU09 Media: Trutanich for Los Angeles City Attorney Campaign Media. ...

Carmen Trutanich - A True Crimefighter LA Times Endorsement
Fight for what is true! Elect Carmen Trutanich for 2009 Los Angeles City Attorney....

Carmen Trutanich - A True Crimefighter
Carmen Trutanich 2009 Official Los Angeles City Attorney Campaign Website. Vote Tr...

Carmen Trutanich Holds Press Conference Unveiling Blueprint for Cha...
TRU09 Media: Carmen Trutanich Holds Press Conference Unveiling Blueprint for Chang...

Carmen Trutanich Holds Press Conference Unveiling Blueprint for Cha...
TRU09 Media: Carmen Trutanich Holds Press Conference Unveiling Blueprint for Chang...

CA DEBATE PART FOUR - CANDIDATES FOR CITY ATTORNEY TRUTANICH VS WEISS
CANDIDATES CARMEN TRUTANICH AND JACK WEISS SQUARE OFF FOR SOHA CITY ...

CA DEBATE PART THREE CANDIDATES CITY ATTORNEY
CANDIDATES CARMEN TRUTANICH AND JACK WEISS SQUARE OFF FOR SOHA CITY ...

CA DEBATE PART TWO - CANDIDATES FOR CITY ATTORNEY TRUTANICH VS WEISS
CANDIDATES CARMEN TRUTANICH AND JACK WEISS SQUARE OFF FOR SOHA CITY ...

CA DEBATE PART ONE - CANDIDATES FOR CITY
CANDIDATES CARMEN TRUTANICH AND JACK WEISS SQUARE OFF FOR SOHA CITY ...

There IS and will CONTINUE TO BE videos, fliers and TV commercials, some already on YouTube "going negative" on Carmen. And it can all be addressed and "spun" -- and then you can look at all the negative stuff on Jack Weiss (and there is PA-LEN-TEE) -- and decide who you are going to vote for based on who scares you to death less.

But I really don't think Carmen Trutanich is sent here to be some evil force against the people of Los Angeles. It IS scary, because all you have to do is put out a flier or commercial and some of the people are going to buy it. And some of the bad stuff may, or may not piss you off, in reality anyway. BUT THIS IS AN ELECTION OF TWO VERY DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES, CHARACTERS AND POLITICAL ALLIES.

We have all heard about the danger of Jack Weiss as City Attorney with his long-time pal Jackass Weiss as City Attorney. But besides that, just basing it on the two individuals themselves and their vision and "priorities" (direction of the city) -- especially in relation to the District Attorney's office and their vision and direction for public safety enforcement -- compared to the direction of the city under Villaraigosa, then Nuch is DEFINITELY your choice for City Attorney.

More to come.