Zuma Dogg on Austin Beutner vs Kevin James as L.A. Mayoral Candidates

[Pictured: (L) Beutner, (R) James -- not based on political slant. Just how it uploaded.]

I know people might expect ZD to be excited about Kevin James running for mayor, and it would be fun to be able to jump on that bandwagon and throw it against the city council candidates. But two things:
1) I do NOT begrudge Austin Beutner for being a brilliant, genius businessman who became a billionaire. When I hear him speak, I am always inspired -- despite his mild-mannered, shy/inward, lack-of-charisma delivery. AND, I do not begrudge him for being brought on board by the mayor to help get a handle on things. IT PROVIDED BEUTNER WITH THE MOST INSIDE WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF THE CITY, AT ALL DEPARTMENTAL LEVELS. And he has an amazing aptitude for assessing the situation and figuring out the TRUE/non-crybaby solution. YOU CAN'T TOUCH THAT!

2) Just because Kevin James is a good talk show host, does not qualify him for mayor. I think a talk show host COULD be a great mayor. But, for all of Kevin's knowledge, it's about the same as any other city watch dogg/activist/blogger. He showed up at city hall for public comment, once or twice...and attended neighborhood council meetings. But how are you going to step in and hit the ground running. (It's a pretty complex/complicated gig. And that's just to find the bathroom!) On the air, if you listen to his show, he just reads articles out of the Daily News and L.A. Times, then comments on how bad the situation is, and how we can change it at the polls. BUT, after listening for five years, I am still yet to hear Kevin offer a solution to anything besides, "vote them out." I am yet to hear him expose anything he took upon himself to investigate. (Again, reading an article out of the newspaper is mostly of benefit to the blind.) His show DOES serve a good purpose, anyway, cause it's further exposure and raises further awareness.

So listen to Kevin's show, Mon-Fri @12mid on 870 KRLA and Sunday morning @ 9am. I listen to it as much as possible. (Here's the link to his podcast page.) BUT, that doesn't mean he would make a good mayor, just cause he's a good demagogue. I would be ALL OVER Kevin's campaign...supporting it to the nutty-fullest. Because having a "grass roots/outsider" is something nice to have in the election, cause he will raise awareness and bring things up. But, when you listen to Austin Beutner, and answers he gives to problems, after overseeing all city departments at a doctor's/mechanic's inside view...I can't turn myself into a joke, just cause I like the other guy's radio show.
Since I gave a link to Kevin's page, here's one for Austin: http://AustinBeutnerForMayor.com.

Radio Talk Show Host on Zuma Dogg as City Council Candidate (Vote TUESDAY!)

Thanks to L.A. radio talk show host, Kevin James (who has been covering the CD 2 City Council election) for his amazing comments during his Friday night show.

"Zuma Dogg is a good candidate. Zuma Dogg understands City Hall. Zuma Dogg is passionate. Zuma Dogg would be a good representative. It would be great to have the tenacity and bravery of Zuma Dogg in the horseshoe. I could support Zuma Dogg, too!" - Kevin James (September 18, 2009)

I really DON'T understand City Hall, but I know what Kevin means. THANKS, bro!

And don't want Dennis Zine to get jealous, because I know he likes to see his name in the press, too. So here's some press DZ!: "Zuma Dogg has done a lot of good for the people of Los Angeles. He's a good man." - Dennis Zine

Thanks Dennis! You're alright. (At least for an L.A. City Councilmember.)

ALRIGHT, the election is TUESDAY. Tell everyone to vote.

http://electzuma.com/

WILL BE POSTING MORE ON THIS BLOG THROUGHOUT SUNDAY.

LISTEN NOW: Audio of City Council Candidate Zuma Dogg on KRLA (Candidate Forum) And SPECIAL GUEST on KABC

Thanks so much to AM 870 - KRLA's KEVIN JAMES, who did a really great job running the station's L.A. City Council CD 2 (On-Air) Candidate Forum over the past two nights.

Doug McIntyre of KABC is having each of the candidates on in his 9am hour for a few minutes (and it's just about done), but Kevin dedicated over an hour, two nights in a row, with all the candidates (except Essel and Krekorian who didn't make it for whatever reasons) and it gave anyone who is interested in the city and district a chance to at least hear each candidate to "kick the tires" for the election. It's probably the MOST people will have to decide from, besides the fliers they don't trust. So thanks to Kevin James for doing this. Forget about whether you agree with him, or not, on the issues. He's a real machine to be able to crank out a show like he does, day in and day out in that lonely studio at night. (SAME WITH DOUG MCINTYRE...THEY ARE TWO AMAZING BROADCASTERS just in their ability to carry a show for hours, day in and day out.)

AND MCINTYRE...YOU MANIAC!!! What better way to cap off a FIVE (5) HOUR radio show (that starts at FIVE (5) AM, by topping it off with an "all night" show, on the overnight tonight.

SO IT'S KEVIN FROM 9pm-12mid...then DOUG on 790 KABC, tonight around midnight (after Dodger Talk). So tune in, cause hopefully ZD, Rita and a lot of other callers will call in on Doug's free format show tonight.

BUT, back to Kevin...great job on the forum, and you know ZD LOVES being INSIDE the studio, instead of INSIDE my car, on hold for 2 hours, like I was this week to get my couple minutes on the air.

AND, ZD was all jacked up on too much coffee, with not enough sleep, and ran in there without eating...so it was a very frenetic energy ZD was putting out there for the calm Kevin. (I'M SURE HE COULDN'T WAIT TO GET ME OUT OF THERE! LOL!)

But it was ZD's magic 12 hours from 9pm (Kevin's show) and 9am for Doug's KABC show!!! Topped it off with a loooooooong council meeting with a lot of time on TV 35, and it's been a BLAST for a regular guy like me, anyway. I've always LOVED radio, went into radio for a career, and it's VERY, VERY gratifying to be showing up as a guest, instead of an employee to say what I have to say.

HERE'S THE AUDIO FROM LAST NIGHT'S FORUM AND CD 2 CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE ZUMA DOGG ON MCINTYRE'S KABC MORNING SHOW TODAY:

A MUST LISTEN: CD City Council Candidate Zuma Dogg on KABC/McIntyre. Hit "download" and "open with" and your player should pop up the clip.

Kevin James Show 09-10-09 Hour 1 Seg 1

Length: 00:11:08

Kevin James Show 09-10-09 Hour 1 Seg 2

Length: 00:10:59

Kevin James Show 09-10-09 Hour 1 Seg 3

Length: 00:08:53

Kevin James Show 09-10-09 Hour 1 Seg 4 Length: 00:10:04 Kevin James Show 09-10-09 Hour 2 Seg 1 Length: 00:08:53 Kevin James Show 09-10-09 Hour 2 Seg 2 Length: 00:13:33 http://electZUMA.com

Kevin James Hosts CD2 City Council Candidate Forum Between Frontrunners Saltsburg & Krekorian, Thursday Sept 10th at 9pm on 870 KRLA/Los Angeles

PUBLIC NOTICE

Radio talk show host Kevin James will be hosting the KRLA Candidate Forum between CD 2 City Council candidate front-runners David Saltsburg (Zuma Dogg) and California State Assembly Member Paul Krekorian, LIVE, on-the-air this Thursday, September 10th on 870 AM, KRLA/Los Angeles. The event can be heard LIVE on the internet via streaming audio here starting at 9:05pm. [Also on in studio on Thursday Night's card will be candidates Augusto Bisani and Mike McCue.]


Pictured: David Saltsburg (l) and Paul Krekorian (r)

POLITICAL STRATEGY: How To Handle A Negative Blog Post As A Talk Radio Host And As An Elected Official

This post may be a little inside, but it's Sunday and it applies Sun-Tzu "Art of War" and Ries & Trout "Marketing Warfare" strategies to the political scene.

You may, or may not be aware of the mildly annoying post on Mayor Sam from Friday that Kevin James made a whole lot worse by discussing it on the air, last Friday night.

AM radio talk show host, Kevin James sent "Mayor Sam" blog publisher Michael Higby a nasty email regarding a post about City Attorney elect Carmen Trutanich in addition to BASHING Higby's blog, very publicly on-the-air on Friday. (The day before he was saying it was his favorite, most researched blog. And that is part of the background. The post brought up the possibility of shadiness over City Council approved fund raising for the city attorney-elect's upcoming transition team.)

What they (Kevin James and the Nuch supporter who was discussing the matter with Kevin James on the air) should have done is call Michael Higby to see, "What is UP with that post about Nuch?" And then you can at least explain your side of the story and hear his side.

But now, it's causing the Mayor Sam people (who voted for and who support Nuch, to go on the offense as their defense. And gives off a bad vibe that Nuch has nothing to do with. I know the handling of this matter is now causing me to post this thread about the situation, calling further attention to the matter, as well.

Now that you have the talk show host AND elected official on the same side (Kevin not only supported Nuch, but he turned the airwaves over into a "NUCH 4 City Attorney" round the clock infomercial including hammering away at Weiss), you may have to start to employ a more strategic show unless you want to end up doing more damage than good. IT'S CALLED STRATEGY. And here's my take:

POLITICAL STRATEGY: How to Avoid Alienating your audience and doing more damage to your candidate than even your opponent could ask for
by "Concerned Citizen"

REMEMBER, THIS WAS POSTED ON MAYOR SAM'S BLOG, SO THAT IS THE BLOG BEING REFERED TO.

It's unfortunate that Nuch probably has no idea what has been going on in the handling of this matter, for one, because he is/has been on vacation this past week.

First of all, this is a blog post, and DOES have a wide readership and has proven to be able to raise awareness and has become an actual factor in "rocking the boat," if you will, which I'm sure even the haters will agree this blog has done, or else time would not be spent here spinning, or having "mayoral supporters" calling Higby when there is something they feel is a "stretch" or "inaccurate." (Not that it is, but they will try and spin/clarify. AND, there is a certain "relationship" between opposing sides, that I know Michael respects enough to listen, and is at least sensitive to.)

So between the comments, and the media mentions, and the attempt to reach out over certain stories from the opposition...the blog has impact...

BUT IT'S STILL A BLOG...NOT A RADIO STATION.

The worst PR strategy mistake that someone could make, would be to get on a radio station and broadcast the allegations over and over.

Sure, you made an attempt to clarify (neutralize it), but when you "tease" the story where you are repeating the allegation that you are trying to run damage control on, all you really did was make a lot more people aware of the issue, and they might not hear your spin three segments later, and may think, "Hmmm, this guy is just a Nuch supporter, anyway...and a certain segment of the listeners WILL feel there is something shady to the issue.

So first of all, I know Nuch cannot control what radio talk show hosts say, but Nuch's people have a relationship with Kevin and I think at the end of the day, the Sun-Tzu strategy would have been not to pour a citywide AM broadcast signal's worth fuel on the campfire.

But it would have been nice if Kevin had realized that, himself. But at the end of the day, he's not a political strategist. But I know he is a Nuch supporter, as am I, so it was extremely frustrating to have to listen to the massive strategic mistake play out in real time, on the air, unable to pull the plug on the discussion.

Secondly, Kevin has been a long time supporter of Mayor Sam's blog, and the day before was on the air saying how it was his top "must read" blog and was suggesting it to his listeners.

So you would think, if all of the sudden ONE post appears that he has issue with, he would call or email Michael, since they have a relationship that has included this type of correspondence and ask him, "What is up?" And try to explain why this is not a pay-to-play situation and explain why it is being done, and how it is not shady.

But Kevin goes on the air and starts blasting the blog and really pulled the fire alarm on Higby.

So then, all that does is cause Higby to explain to me some of the concerns and things to be aware of and some valid questions were raised that caused me to follow up on some questions, myself.

So all of the sudden, although I took issue with the terms "greasing" and "pay-to-play" (even though it "asked" if it was pay-to=play," however, when Kevin starts attacking a blogger (Petrified) and Mayor Sam, who are just two concerned citizens on a blog...AND YOU TURN INTO THE RUSH LIMBAUGH, RIGHT-WING, BASH-MACHINE AS SOON AS SOMEONE DISAGREES OR RAISES A QUESTION (imagine if Jack Weiss had done this, or Anotnio...PEOPLE WOULD BE QUESTIONING IT)...it reflects badly on the candidate, unfortunately, just as it does when Antonio's "spin-trolls" go off-the-chain and get too emotional and personal with it.

Kevin is kind of an activist broadcaster, himself. He has an agenda, and is able to get away with it. He is in a rare and powerful position.

So here's how it should have been handled:

A) You know that Mayor's Sam's blog, although not a radio station, is influential in the community, and can get people talking and it can spread from there.

B) But, you do not want to repeat negative allegations against the candidate/elected official/your client; HOWEVER, you want to address the allegations and do damage control to try and neutralize it as much as possible.

C) EXPLAIN IT LIKE THIS: I was reading that Nuch is getting his transition team underway. His campaign is out of money since he there was an intense run-off, and he wants to be able to get a lot of work done, before he takes office, so he can hit the ground running on July 1st and have a lot of things in place.

So City Council has graciously passed an ordinance allowing Nuch to accept contributions from people to help pay for things like office space, phone lines, internet connection, and someone to answer phones and line up the resumes and go through the avalanche of mail.

This way, it isn't city dollars being used for this, and any excess money goes into the general fund.

I know you may say, "Well gee, is this on the up and up?"

This is not like someone donating money in a suitcase for a favor where the money is used to buy a new wave runner or pay for personal items.

EVERY CENT will be accounted for and you can see where it was spent.

It's not going into people's pockets and by council making it official it will allow for that transparency.

And I know one thing, there will be the activists and bloggers out there going over those expenditures on the city web site, so I hope you are buying the furniture at Ikea and buying people lunch at Subway, or Taco Bell. None of this Fabian Nunez, $500 bottle of wine stuff or office supplies from Gucci. The people will be watching.

But besides that, I don't think Nuch has some elaborate scheme to funnel shady money for his own purposes. I think he wants to get going as quickly as possible, and this way, it isn't paid for with city money.

[NOW THERE IS AN OPPOSING ARGUMENT TO THIS, TOO...BUT I AM POSTING IN RESPONSE TO HOW TO ADDRESS A NEGATIVE POST AS A SUPPORTER.]