LA Times Confirms News About Villaraigosa's Cousin (John Perez) That Zuma Times/LA Daily Blog Broke Yesterday (Talk About Yesterday's Newspaper)

Aw man...how come the LA Times is always at least a day, if not a week behind Zuma Times. (They get paid to do their job...I don't! I should be following them, not leading them, those LAzy losers. I don't think there's a single fact in the article that wasn't already blogged here.)

From LAzy Times:

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Potential rival to mayor's cousin gets city appointment

NOTE: But if you have already read previous Zuma Times coverage over past two weeks there is no need to even look at this article from LAzy Times.
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Ricardo Lara is named to the Planning Commission days after he dropped out of the race for an Assembly seat coveted by Villaraigosa relative John Perez.

By David Zahniser
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 21 2008, 8:20 AM PDT

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has picked an aide to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to serve on the city Planning Commission, less than a week after the aide dropped out of a legislative campaign in which he would have been running against the mayor's cousin.

LA DAILY BLOG BREAKS THE NEWS TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA YESTERDAY
(I know this is a blog, but LAzy Times or Daily Snooze didn't break it on their websites, either.)

And does anyone know why Mayor Villaraigosa replaced Sabrina Kay (with Perez) in the first place? Why was Sabrina replaced, in the first place? Hmmm. Anyone hear anything? (ZumaDogg@gmail.com) Hey Antonio...muscling out candidate ain't very democratic, y'all. But what do YOU care about democracy? (Viva Villaraigosa!)

Thought of the Day: An alcoholic doesn't leave the bar, until the bartender cuts them off. A gambler doesn't walk away from the table until the dealer takes all their chips. And corrupt politicians don't stop their obsession until they are removed from office (one way or the other).

ZumaTimes.com
News before it happens!

Look for Nunez-Backed Candidate Ricardo Lara To Drop Out of ASSembly Race as Villaraigosa Guaranteed Him A Planning Commisoner Job Until 2011

FAMILY RESEMBLANCE?
Hopefully not in the areas of fraud, waste and abuse.
(left: Perez, right: his cousin)

Last week, Zuma Dogg broke the news on LA Daily Blog.com that Villaraigosa was going to muscle out the other two major candidates running for Nucklehead Nunez's Assembly seat. (Click here for original story.)

First, LA Daily Blog broke the news that ZD's amigos Arturo Chavez dropped out last week because he didn't want to be "divisive". (Code for, "It's not my turn, I have to wait in line like a good soldier and Antonio will take care of me down the line.)

Nucklehead Nunez denied in the Sacramento Bee that he knew anything about Ricardo Lara (Nucklehead Nunez's staffer) dropping out. (See this story for how these deals works.)

And Zuma Times doesn't know if Lara ACTUALLY dropped out yet, but that's just a matter of semantics...because:

LOS ANGELES MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA JUST APPOINTED RICARDO LARA TO THE BOARD OF PLANNING COMMISSIONERS...GUARANTEEING HIM A JOB UNTIL JUNE 30TH 2011 (pending City Council approval): So look for Lara to drop out, if he hasn't already at the time of this post (if he hasn't announced it yet) -- leaving Villaraigosa's own cousing, John Perez as the only major candidate.

AND TO MAKE MATTER EVEN MORE INTERESTING...LARA IS REPLACING SABRINA KAY AS THE PLANNING COMMISSIONER. Remember Sabrina Kay? She is the fashion designer who Villaraigosa also felt was a planning expert and flew her to Asia with him to help put her fashion line in retail outlets. (All in the name of the L.A. economy.) But she is also someone who has been rumored to be MUCH MORE than just a Planning Commissioner in Antonio's life. Maybe that's why she is being replaced. (I mean you couldn't have Mirthala working for the City, so maybe the mayor feels Sabrina shouldn't be an appointed commissioner for the same reason.)

ZumaTimes.com

(News before it happens)

SacBee: Political Circles Are Buzzing That More Candidates May Drop Out Of Assembly Race For Nunez' Seat (Villariagosa's Cousin Getting The Push)

Wonder if the comment -- "Political circles are buzzing that Lara, too, was dropping out" -- was based on LA Daily Blog's story? (Someone emailed me this story with the comment highlighted making note that they felt so.)

From SacBee

Field thins for Núñez Assembly seat

What was billed as a three-way surrogate struggle for the Assembly between Latino political powerhouses has thinned to two candidates, as a top aide to Sen. Gil Cedillo is dropping out of the race.

That leaves John Perez, the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Ricardo Lara, the district director for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez as the remaining politically connected candidates for the Assembly seat, which Núñez must vacate this year due to term limits.

Arturo Chavez, the district director for Cedillo, said in an interview that he was withdrawing because “we don’t need that kind of dissension within the community.”

“There’s a lot of folks involved in this particular race, a lot of family and friends and it would have been pretty divisive,” said Chavez..

Political circles are buzzing that Lara, too, was dropping out.

But Núñez, speaking after an education press conference on Wednesday morning, denied that, saying, “Huh? He hasn’t left anything."

Neither Lara nor Sanchez has responded to phone calls or e-mails (since being contacted).

The speaker said the key to the race would be the endorsement of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, to which both he and Villaraigosa are closely allied.

“We’re friends and at the end of the day we’d like to be together, if we could,” said Núñez of himself, Cedillo and Villaraigosa. “We’re going to sit with everybody after the labor fed endorsement and see who gets that endorsement. I think the person who gets that endorsement probably has best shot at winning and I think we need to figure out where you go from there. “

Perez is a former member of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which he recently left to launch his Assembly bid. His is also Villaraigosa’s first cousin.

Latino leaders in Los Angeles have tried to avoid open political warfare between factions before, often with benefits down the line for those who put their ambitions temporarily on hold. [But you can't trust Villaraigosa like you used to.)

In early 2007, three Latinos were eying a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, including newly elected Assemblyman Richard Alarcon, former Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and Felipe Fuentes, who served as chief of staff to Sen. Alex Padilla when he served on the city council.

Ultimately, though, the field thinned to one, with only Alarcon remaining in the race in what amounted to a waltz into the council. Fuentes then ran for the Assembly seat Alarcon vacated. And Montanez received two plum appointments, a seat on the Los Angeles Planning Commission made by the mayor, and a seat on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, made by the speaker. The latter job pays an annual $128,109 salary, according to the Sacramento Bee state workers’ database.

Full SacBee article (these were excerpts)

Previous story about Villaraigosa muscling out other candidates in favor of his cousin John Perez that may have caused the political buzz. (Sure hope not!)

ZumaTimes.com

Less Wages, More Taxes: Nunez Wants 6% Tax on Oil

UPDATE: It already died in Assembly, like Nuckelhead Nunez's political career and all the hopes and aspirations he carried with him.

What a great time to ask people to pay more for oil, when you are spending more money on wine, cheese and travel than P. Diddy! Tack on trash collection fees, bulky item fees, Prop S (cell phone tax), Gang Money Parcel Tax, and whatever else they have up their sleeve -- and who do you think you are fooling. People will no longer be able to afford to show up for work.

From Sacramento Bee (Cause local LA newspapers suck!)

Assembly Speaker Fabian "Knucklhead" Núñez has introduced a bill to divert some of the oil industry's profits to protect teachers from layoffs.

The disgraced, outgoing California Assembly Speaker is proposing levying a 6 percent tax on all oil produced within the state and imposing a 2 percent tax on windfall oil profits to protect teachers from layoffs.

Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat with close ties to education unions, is proposing a two-pronged approach by levying a 6 percent tax on all oil produced within the state, and imposing a 2 percent tax on windfall oil profits.

Together, the taxes would generate an estimated $1.2 billion a year for a cash-strapped state that still faces an $8 billion deficit for the fiscal year starting in July. Under the speaker's bill, ABX 9, oil tax revenues would be dedicated for schoolteachers, who are facing potential layoffs under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's across-the-board budget cuts.

The idea isn't new. Voters in 2006 rejected Proposition 87, which would have imposed a per-barrel tax of up to 6 percent of the value of oil produced in the state.

The bill, which requires a two-thirds vote, is expected to taken up by the Democratic-controlled Assembly this week, but was expected to fail. Assembly Republicans, who killed a governor-led effort to close a tax break for purchasers of yachts, recreational vehicles and planes, have vowed to oppose new taxes.

full artcile

Recent Stories on LA Daily Blog.com.

Villaraigosa's Cousin, John Perez Annointed New Assemblymember of AD 46 (Replacing Termed Out Nunez)

If anyone thinks you can just decide to run for elected office in Southern California is fooling themselves.

Unless you get tapped on the shoulder by the powers in charge -- either get out of the way -- or prepare for the wrath. In this case, unless you are on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's roster -- you're gonna get muscled out of the race.

That's what just happened in the "Battle of the Assembly Titans". A three way grudge match, that was over before first round bell.

Current termed-out Assembly Speaker, Fabian "Knuckhead" Nunez doesn't have enough political muscle anymore to hold his own in a nursery school sandbox, so that means his candidate -- Ricardo Lara has been knocked out of the race by Mayor Antonio. (Hey, he can't help it...he's not related to Villaraigosa.)

And Gil Cedillo's Deputy, Arturo Chavez hopefully negotiated a good deal for himself, before he steps/stepped out of the Assembly race. (Not that Villaraigosa is know for honoring deals. But better to be a small fish in Antonio's big pond...than your own fish in no pond, you can only hope.)

Oh yeah, Antonio's anointed candidate who will be your new Assemblymember pulling the levers for his cousin Antonio is John Perez. A politically savvy guy, but not a guy who is from the streets of the district and probably has zero street vibe compared to all the other candidates.

Michael Aldapa, a local hometown candidate from Boyle Heights is still in the race. He knows a lot of people in the community and I'm sure he has lots of grassroots support. But he isn't Antonio's cousin.

So to sum it up...Villaraigosa "negotiated" the upcoming Assembly election in AD 46 into a one man race.

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