[Pictured: "Tons of Fun" Supervisor Candidate Bernard Parks]What a truly triumphant day it was in the City of Los Angeles as a diverse coatlition of City, County and State elected officials joined Zuma Dogg on stage to endorse "Bernard Parks for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, District 2!"
After showing up at City Hall for over two and a half years, and really turning up the heat over the past five months, with only one council meeting absense in five months; ZD wanted to try and channel some of the frenetic energy I have been putting out there; and focus it toward something out there, this election season.
And I found my cause in the most unlikely of places...Oh no, not Parks?!?!?
But Zuma Dogg is more confident, assured, passionate, pleased and fired-up over the decision to make quite a statement by deciding to push hard to help get a Councilmember ELECTED for higher office...when all these past two years, I was just chompin' at the bit to do everything humanly possible to PREVENT an LA City Councilmember from advancing into any thing else than the private sector.
ZD will be bringing attention to certain ballot measures and bonds on the ballot, this election...but the LA County Board of County Supervisors is an important as hell election, this November 4th, because the only time one of these positions turn over, is when the person retires. (Once your ass is in that seat, it's almost impossible for voters to pry your ass out. INCUMBENTS ALWAYS WIN!)
I was out of town during the first election which ended in this November run-off. But now that I am back in action, I wanted to get to the bottom of the Board of Supes race to see if I felt passionate, one way or the other between California State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas and Bernard Parks.
And of course, my intial first take was that the mayor was probably behind Parks and I would probably like Thomas, better.
So right away, I find out that Villaraigosa didn't endorse Parks (and insiders told me Villar wants Ridely-Thomas to win.)
That means, Parks is still in the ballgame. Because if Antonio was not endorsing Parks, that was a good sign to me, and something was up, and I needed to roll up my sleeves and check it out.
Bottom line: Yeah, Parks is the grass-roots candidate and Ridely-Thomas had all that shady labor money behind him, and suddenly it all came together!
FORGET ABOUT PARKS FOR A MINUTE...IF RIDLEY-THOMAS GETS IN THERE...things would be going the "Villaraiogsa" way on the legislation (and spending) -- AND I SERIOUSLY DO THINK, YOU MAY AS WELL FLUSH THE COUNTY (AND REGION) DOWN THE TOILET IF MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS WERE TO BE IN THAT SEAT!
So then, I was thinking back on CM Parks, since my attendance of the meetings. And although as a body, I am no fan of ANY councilmember since they all vote on the stuff I am against (including Parks).
But Ridley-Thomas wouldn't have been any maverick, either. And 99% of the time, you just aren't going to be gettting too excited about the perfection level of ANY politician, jsut by the nature of the game and what it takes to get elected in the first place.
But this election isn't about reforming the democratic system...it's about THIS ELECTION before us, that will have a long-standing effect on the City, County, region and State. (And as goes California, will go the rest of the nation.) SO THIS IS BIGGER THAN A COUNCIL ELECTION!
So when looking to see if a candidate is worthy of endorsement, ZD looks to see if they have distinguished themselves in at least ONE (or two) ways. Because, unfortunately, that IS all it takes to stand out from the pack of elected officials in this city and county.
And I can maintain credibilty by saying that Bernard Parks HAS distinguished himself in a way that I look for. In his case, the prudent, responsible, fiscal conservative who is the Councilmember you can expect to hit his buzzer, to warn the ir-responsible and juvenile behaving Los Angles City Council how their actions may have a negative financial impact in the future. (Aka: They're setting themseleves up for lawsuits.)
Remember, "Oh no...not Parks!" (One of the most viewed YouTubes and many people's favorite.) Well today, I was thinking about how the reason that I said, "Oh no, not Parks" is actually the reason I like him for Board of County Supervisor. Here's how "Oh no, not Parks" came about:
Zuma Dogg and Matt Dowd were in Van Nuys waiting to beam our public comment back to City Hall. A loooooooong agenda item was JUST wrapping up, and ZD even took to the podium in Van Nuys to be ready when they cut over...but then, President Pro-Tem Wendy Greuel pipes in, "Oh, Councilmember Parks would like to speak."
WHAT!?!?! I thought we were outta there and on to the next thing. But here comes Parks, just when the the students thought they were done for the day to say, "Oh yeah, we didn't review yesterday's assignment, so before we go for the day, let's go over it with a fine tooth comb."
JUST WHEN I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE, "OH NO, NOT PARKS!" (Knowing we were in for a long, prudent, fiscally responsible discussion of the pitfalls.)
And when I have popped into the SCAG meetings for a spot inspection of Councilmember attendance, out of the 15, he is one of only three who attend regularly. And I can tell you, I was never sure if Parks was just an empty headed-dummy, or not...but this guy sits there with his face in these fifteen inch thick reports and reads, reads, read, reads this stuff. (I've always joked, he HAS to read every bit of information, because it's free so he can't pass it up!)
So Councilmember Parks is no Tom LaBong. He may bore you to tears with the explanation of what he has learned, but when you look at the two candidates running for Board of County Supervisors this November 4th, Zuma Dogg feels if there is ONE ISSUE he can take on and try and squeeze as much energy out of himself to do all the things to rally the masses...
IT'S TO MAKE SURE BERNARD PARKS HAS HIS ASS IN THAT SEAT, ALL LEANED BACK AND COMFORTABLE NEXT TO ZEV AND ANTONOVICH!!! (And then ZD will be showing up to make Parks as un-comfortable as possible. Cause there's nothing shadier and impossible to move through than the beuaratic-saturated Board of County Stupidvisors! And I hope ZD welcomes CM Parks to the club!
NEXT: LA Daily Blog covers Parks for Supervisor election kick-off rally event.
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