By Chris Reed

The hypocrisy of the power-mad left of California’s Democratic Party has never been more on display than in the attempt to destroy the 2012 mayoral candidacy of San Diego gay libertarian Republican Carl DeMaio. The power play involved people from both parties, but the ultimate beneficiary was Democrat Bob Filner, who narrowly defeated DeMaio in November. This U-T San Diego report should sicken people on the left who really care about gay rights, as opposed to those who pretend to care when political advantage results:

“Some of the city’s biggest movers and shakers waged a clandestine campaign last year during the San Diego mayor’s race to gather and disseminate damaging information on candidate Carl DeMaio and his longtime partner, an effort that resides in the legal gray area of campaign disclosure.

“The group — financially backed by businessman Fred Maas — spent more than $33,000 to hire a true crime author to dig up dirt on DeMaio, which resulted in a 200-plus page dossier of court records and other documents that was distributed to nearly every local media outlet in early 2012 on the condition of anonymity.

“Those working on the project behind the scenes included a top aide to then-Mayor Jerry Sanders and at least three other people with ties to the mayoral campaign of Nathan Fletcher although Fletcher denies any involvement.

“The information dredged up went largely unreported because many in the media considered it old, irrelevant and an untoward attempt to draw attention to DeMaio’s homosexuality during the race. The records focused mainly on legal problems involving his partner — San Diego Gay & Lesbian News Publisher Johnathan Hale.

“Opposition research on high-profile candidates is commonplace in politics, but Maas and his cohorts may have run afoul of state and local campaign laws when they raised money for the project and failed to disclose its financial backers or spending activity. The group continued to resist subpoena attempts by local and state investigators for information throughout the mayor’s race as those involved tried to keep their roles in the project from being made public by saying it was a journalistic endeavor.”

Will gay Democrats complain about this?

Will John Perez, Christine Kehoe, Toni Atkins, Mark Leno, etc., say this reeks?

Don’t hold your breath.

By Chris Reed

We’ve seen President Obama and Gov. Brown spread the green jobs myth, pretending that niche categories of employment can revive the larger national and state economies. Now Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti is offering up the green Kool-Aid, claiming if he’s elected he’ll bring 20,000 green jobs to a city that the Los Angeles Times has finally admitted is in broad economic decline.

But as the L.A. Weekly is reporting, Garcetti doesn’t exactly have credibility on this front:

“On Nov. 10, 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown came to Los Angeles to help open the new headquarters of CODA Automotive. The company was rolling out its CODA Sedan, which boasted new battery technology that would deliver unprecedented range for an all-electric car. The company claimed it would bring 650 high-tech jobs to L.A.

“‘To the naysayers, we’re saying yes to solar, yes to CODA,’ Brown said. ‘We’re saying yes to a Los Angeles that’s on the move.’

“But though Brown and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa did most of the talking at the day’s ceremony, it was City Council president Eric Garcetti who deserved most of the credit. Garcetti played the key role in enticing CODA to move its headquarters from Santa Monica by dangling $1 million in city redevelopment money — even as he received $8,000 in contributions from CODA executives and their spouses.

“And yet, a little more than a year later, CODA is in trouble. The company never got close to its goal of 650 employees, topping out at about 270 before it began laying off workers in December. A showroom at the Westfield Century City mall has closed. It appears the company has sold fewer than 100 cars.

“Over the past several months, CODA has been sued by eight suppliers for unpaid bills amounting to more than $1.7 million. One of its suppliers recently warned in an SEC filing of “substantial uncertainty regarding CODA’s ability to honor their obligations.”

“‘Their staff’s been cut to nothing,’ says John Gartner, an analyst at Pike Research. ‘On the automotive side, it seems like there’s not much of a future for them.'”

Connect the dots on green-job lies? Nah

Isn’t this, yunno, news? That green job claims at every level haven’t come true?

Nah.

What we’re seeing in the national media with the basic refusal to acknowledge that the president’s sequestration rhetoric is pure scare tactics, we see at every level of the media when it comes to environmental issues. Green jobs aren’t saving the economy. Low-regulation states do create more jobs.

By Chris Reed

Despite some pension reforms and program cuts, the city of Los Angeles remains in difficult financial shape. A Jan. 24 Fitch credit-rating service analysis says the L.A. economy is rebounding, but that city leaders struggle to find the political will to deal with structural budget problems, and that huge annual deficits will cause headaches for many years to come.

What is a key culprit in L.A.’s financial woes? You guessed it. Fitch says that of the city’s $3.9 billion 2011 general fund budget, nearly 20 percent ($773.5 million) went to fund retirement health care and other post-employment benefits and that nearly 15 percent ($577.4 million) went to city employee and public safety pension funds.

So what are the three key candidates in the March 5 mayor’s race saying they’ll do to deal with the budget and the daunting fact that more than one-third of the city general budget goes to fund public employee retirement benefits?

As this L.A. Times story makes clear, all want to basically duck the topic. Still, at least one candidate, City Councilwoman Jan Perry, knows tough times are ahead, with bankruptcy a possibility.

Wooing cops, firefighters and the SEIU

But two candidates want to make the problem even worse. Candidate Wendy Greuel wants to add 2,000 police and 800 firefighters — a 20 percent increase in a city where crime and fire problems are near modern historic lows. As the city controller, one would think Greuel should know better.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Eric Garcetti, the third major candidate, is in a fight with Greuel to see whom can do the most pandering to the Service Employees International Union, according to a Feb. 5 L.A. Times report:

“[Greuel and Garcetti] offered strong commitments of solidarity with the union representing a major chunk of civilian employees at City Hall, according to recordings of the [candidate interview] sessions obtained by The Times.

“The pledges [were] made last week in a members-only meeting for union workers considering a possible endorsement …

“Greuel … accused city leaders of failing to follow collective bargaining procedures when cutting retirement benefits for future city employees — a complaint being voiced loudly by the SEIU. …

“When it was his turn, Garcetti repeated a pledge to make all of the city’s department heads reapply for their jobs — offering a commitment that city workers would play a role in deciding which managers will remain. …

“The remarks show how much Greuel and Garcetti covet the backing of a union that represents thousands of janitors, trash truck drivers and other blue-collar city workers. If SEIU weighs in on the contest to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, it could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars and scores of volunteers for a favored candidate.”

Unfortunately for L.A., Greuel is considered the clear favorite, not the far more clear-eyed Perry.

Having lived in Southern California since 1990 and watched the city of Los Angeles go downhill under labor-friendly mayors (Antonio Villaraigosa and James Hahn) and do well under pro-business moderates of both parties (Richard Riordan and Tom Bradley), I’ve wondered when Angelenos would become as pragmatic as New Yorkers.

The same dynamic of mayoral success holds in the Big Apple — pro-business centrists like Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani have a way better record than labor-friendly liberals like David Dinkins and Abe Beame. And in New York, the heavily Democratic electorate figured this out long ago. When was the last time New York City voters elected a Democrat to be mayor?

All the way back in 1990.