By Gloria Romero
(From the OC Register, May 21st, 2013)
Voters in California’s largest city go to the polls today to elect a mayor. The $19 million spent in the Los Angeles mayoral primary alone made it the most expensive on record.
The city has a projected deficit of $216 million. Angelinos worry they could follow San Bernardino and Stockton into bankruptcy. City workers were given a wage increase set to take effect soon, raising pressure on the budget. Many city union contracts expire next year, so employee unions have doled out money and troops to the candidate they deem “the fairest of them all” in terms of pensions, pay, and security.
Los Angeles mayoral candidate and City Controller Wendy Greuel is questioned by reporters May 20 on a campaign flier sponsored by labor unions, which is being distrubuted in the Latino neighborhoods of Los Angeles telling voters that Greuel would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour if elected mayor.
Today’s election might teach us a few lessons about what to expect in future mayoral elections – particularly as California continues turning politically blue:
- Partisan politics. Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a new era of post-partisanship in California. He was wrong. Power doesn’t relinquish power without a fight. Even the California Democratic Party declared war on any Democrat who dares to take on the special interests who have fed the party by daring to fight for kids first in our public education system. The two candidates on the ballot – Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel – are locked in a heated struggle over who is the “uber-Democrat” … even as they quietly court Republican voters!
- Dues power. Unions have played a significant role in bankrolling candidates who support union agendas. Increasingly, however, voters of all stripes have become less willing to cede city treasuries to this powerful interest group, and candidates are being forced to tread more carefully in trumpeting their endorsements.
Greuel, for example, won the County Federation of Labor endorsement – something that appears to be hurting her with voters more than it would have in the past. Wanting to keep the federation’s money and troops, she’s flipped and flopped on pensions and contracts. Simultaneously, Garcetti was castigated by the federation for having voted to moderately scale back pension benefits for future city employees. His leadership on pensions, however, appears to have actually helped him with voters.
On the other hand, he’s not trumpeting his endorsement by the teacher’s union. It is here where Republican, Independent, and disaffected Democratic voters may actually have the most sway in an anticipated low-turnout election.
- Follow the money. With labor contracts about to expire, unionized city utility workers spent some $2 million in the primary on Greuel’s behalf. The union for police officers, whose contract is also up, just poured in over $1.4 million for her. Yet another labor committee spent some $3.8 million for her. It’s now all about the political action committees – the candidates’ campaigns are almost irrelevant.
- Demographic shifts. The Latino vote can no longer be taken for granted in California, and both candidates are seeking it. But Garcetti’s ancestry is being questioned by Greuel supporters who claim he’s “masquerading as a Latino” and accuse him of being “tied” to an anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff.
Greuel is being attacked for having been a Republican in 1994 when Proposition 187 – the measure that sought to deny undocumented immigrants access to public services – was passed. Critics contend she must have supported Prop. 187 since she was a Republican, which she denies. Spanish-language union-paid ads are outright trying to buy the Latino vote by claiming that “la Wendy” will raise the minimum wage to $15. (they’ve remained silent on a “pollo in every pot,” however).
Some lessons from the campaign trail. Not surprisingly, voters are disillusioned with the nastiness and pettiness. Projections are for a diminished turnout. But, perhaps that’s how elections now will be won.