Villaraigosa's Cousin, John Perez Most Likely To Be New ASSembly Speaker Now That Uber-Loser Kevin "I'm Fabian Nunez's BEST FRIEND" De Leon Bowed Out

[Pictured: "You spend your life waiting for a moment, that just don't come." - Bruce Springsteen "Badland" - He will NEVER achieve his dream of Assembly speaker or any other higher office. Maybe he can run for something in San Diego, like Neighborhood Council when he is termed-out.]

Good boy, Kevin De Leon. You dropped out of consideration for CA State ASSEmbly Speaker because you know (and everyone else knows) you don't have what it takes. Fabian Nunez is NO WHERE to be seen in the California political scene (as in EVER AGAIN), so GOT NOTHING SON!!! Shady-as-hell, Fabian Nunez "bitch puppet" (and who knows WHAT those two have done together) DROPPED OUT of consideration to be the next State ASSEMBLY speaker, because Nunez is out of juice, everyone recognizes De Leon as a nice kiss-ass, but not too sharp.

Remember when John Perez was running for Assembly in the first place and they had to "bounce" the competition out of the way. (The competition dropped out, CAPISHE!)

AND NOW HE WILL BE ASSEMBLY SPEAKER!

There IS no REAL democracy in California. Just political thuggery.

SAC BEE:

Assemblyman John A. Perez's final opponent has bowed out, setting the stage for the first-term Democrat to be selected Assembly speaker today -- the first openly gay man to hold the post. [If De Leon won, he would have been, too...right?]

After behind-closed-door talks this week with Perez and other political leaders, Assemblyman Kevin de Leon agreed to bow out and is expected to nominate Perez in an Assembly Democratic Caucus today, Capitol sources said.

De Leon's decision ends one of the nastiest battles over the Assembly's top job in recent history, with allegations of backstabbing, double crossing and political deceit. [CAT FIGHT!]

Perez, cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will replace current Speaker Karen Bass, who will be forced out of the Legislature by term limits next year.

Democratic colleagues praised Perez, who has served this year as caucus chairman, helping steer the 51-member group through often bitter disagreement as California's reeling economy forced billions in cuts to education and other public services. [I THOUGHT THE WHOLE BUDGET MESS WAS A DISASTER. SOME STEERING?]

"He's fair, he's inclusive, he's articulate, he's focused, he's a team player, and he's friends with everybody," said Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Los Angeles. [BUT MOSTLY, HE'S THE MAYOR OF L.A.'s COUSIN -- AND DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GET IN HIS WAY IN A POLITICAL BATTLE?]

Lowenthal said that Perez's status as a first-year legislator was an asset because he can serve five years as Assembly leader before being termed out.

"I trust him," Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, said of Perez. "If he says that he's going to do something, I believe that he will." ["I TRUST HIM." SOMETHING YOU SHOULD NEVER BE QUOTED AS SAYING WHEN REFERRING TO AN ASSEMBLYMEMBER.]

The final days marked a political whirlwind that apparently pulled the rug from under de Leon, who was regarded as the clear frontrunner but never won commitments from a majority of the 51-member Democratic Caucus. (SO SORRY, KEVIN DE LEON...AND REMEMBER YOU SHADY BITCH...WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH..ZUMA DOGG HEARS IT..SO KEEP IT SHUT WHEN TALKING ABOUT ME, YOU CHUMPED OUT LOSER. Have fun doing what your boy "The Mayor's Cousin" tells you to do, and go cry to Fabian about it. HE HAS NOTHING BUT TIME TO CONSOLE AND COMFORT YOU.

Behind the scenes, the race appeared over shortly before Thanksgiving, when Villaraigosa hosted a private meeting of Perez, de Leon and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, de Leon's childhood buddy and lifelong friend, Capitol officials said.

The session ended over a bottle of wine and Trojan condoms, officials said, with de Leon expected to become speaker and Perez targeted to run with no major Democratic opposition for the Senate seat of Cedillo, who has long coveted a move to the Assembly once he is termed out next year.

Despite the apparent understanding, de Leon was not able to quickly muster the caucus majority necessary to secure the post. [BECAUSE HE IS NOT A LEADER, AS HE HAS JUST PROVEN. ONLY A BOY IN THE SHADOW OF FABIAN, WHO IS NO LONGER THERE TO HOLD HIS (HAND?)

Torrico said many Democratic colleagues simply felt that de Leon, chairman of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee, had not led committees focused on major policy issues and was not "up to the job" of speaker. [I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM SPEAK AT A MEETING HE DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO RUN, LAWFULLY.]

"Too many people believe that he didn't earn his stripes, that Fabian Nunez did all the heavy lifting for him," Torrico said. [OH SEE, that's what Zuma Dogg thought, too!]

SORRY KEVIN...COULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED TO A MORE DESERVING LOSER! And next time I decide to attend a meeting you are holding, make sure you take your head out of your ass, shut up...and MAKE SURE THAT DOOR IS OPEN AND UNLOCKED AND NO THUGS BLOCKING ME, because KEVIN, there is NO SUCH THING AS A PRIVATE MEETING IN A PUBLIC SPACE WITH A STATE ASSEMBLYMAN. SORRY, CHUMP! I CAN SEE WHY THEY HAD NO CONFIDENCE IN YOU.

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:

--------------------
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.
--------------------

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

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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Shady Mayor's Cousin Is Running For Knucklehead Nunez's Assembly Seat

Shady Mayor's Cousin Perez

It's bad enough that Villar's sister is LA County Judge (appointed by Gov. Schwarznegger/wonder what that deal between Arnie & Antonio was like)...

Now, John Perez, cousin of shady Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says that he is running for Fabian "Knucklehead" Nunez's Assembly seat for the June 3, 2008 election. He will run against Nucklehead's aide, Ricardo Lara and Gil Cedillo's District Director Arturo Chavez.

Perez was Villar's mayoral appointee for the past two years as board member of LA CRA, but stepped down this week and now blesses the community with the announcement that he wants to run for Assembly. Why not? The Mayor is your cousin. And although he doesn't want to piss off his cahoots partner Nunez with an endorsement of Perzez, since Nuckelhead is endorsing his assistant Ricardo Lara -- do you think Villar cares about pissing off an "out of power, disgraced politician like Fabian Nunez?" DOUBT IT!

The Mayor of Los Angeles not only has has his cousin on the board of CRA (and now Assembly candidate), but cut a deal with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to have his his sister, L.A. Mary Lou Villar appointed LA County Supervisor Judge. (Hope Antonio doesn't have any more relatives. The coffers can't take it!)

Here's a comment from an LA Blogger who isn't so sure about the political capital of the former rising superstar Gubernatorial hopeful:

Word around the city is Villaraigosa's disapproval rating is in the low 20's and even lower in the nation. No accomplishments in two years, told illegals to go against the gov't "you have rights", is against gang injunctions, supports illegal vendors, traffic worst in his administration then ever, more special interest in city hall after he said he would "clean it up." Has hired more deputy mayors, more staff, more city cars, has spent more money then any other mayor, city is in HUGE deficit crisis, gives money to corrupt gang intervention/prevention orgs. has taken money from LA Bridges for his campaigns, lied about Prop S, and the list goes on. NEVER WILL ANTONIO EVER BE RE-ELECTED.

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zumadogg@gmail.com


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