CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Openly Gay LA School Board Prez Resigns After Admitting Felonious Behaior

Ref Rodriguez appeared to be a rising political star when he was elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District school board in May 2015. He's openly gay, with a Ph.D. and was elected chair of the 7-member board by his colleagues soon after the 2017 LAUSD elections. He represented a majority that was in support of expanding charter schools in the nation's second largest school district.

That all came crashing down last week when Rodriguez pleaded guilty to a felony and immediately resigned from the school board on Monday July 23rd. The Los Angeles Times reported:

Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez pleaded guilty Monday to a felony count of conspiracy and resigned from office, marking a dramatic fall for a widely admired educator who became the first charter schools executive elected to the Board of Education.

Rodriguez, 47, was once the leader of the charter school-backed majority that took over the board a year ago after the nation’s most expensive school board elections ever.

But two months after becoming school board president, the criminal charges compelled him to step back — giving up his presidency but retaining his seat amid the distractions of defending himself.

Under the deal with prosecutors, Rodriguez will avoid jail time. Instead, he will get three years’ probation and 60 days of community service.

Pretty shocking!

SATURDAY POLITICS: Analyzing the #CA34 Special Election for Becerra's Replacement

Jimmy Gomez is my representative in the California Assembly (51st District). Xavier Becerra used to be my representative in the United States Congress (until he became Attorney General of California). I live in the 34th Congressional District of California, so now this is a rare open congressional seat.

The race to replace Becerra has become as crowded as I expected. This is what the actual ballot looks like for the April 4, 2017 special election:

The Top 2 vote getters (as long as no one gets a majority of votes) will face off June 6, 2017. The Los Angeles Times editorial board has endorsed Maria Cabildo but the dozens of mailers I have piling up around the house show that Gomez has garnered the most impressive endorsements:  the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Xavier Becerra, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. However, the person who has raised the most money is Robert Lee Ahn, the only Korean American in a race for a congressional seat which contains Koreatown.

I have already voted (by absentee ballot) but watch this space for the official results in just about 11 days from now!

SATURDAY POLITICS: Openly Gay, Latino Ref Rodriguez Elected To Los Angeles School Board

Dr. Ref Rodriguez was just elected this week to fill the District 5 seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board of education. He defeated incumbent Bennet Kayser by a surprisingly large margin of 7 points (53.5% to 46.5%). Rodriguez was endorsed by the Victory Fund, which supports only LGBT candidates for elected offices around the country.

Rodriguez is well-known for founding the Partnership to Uplift Communities Schools, commonly known as the PUC Schools, which run many charter schools in the state of California. The Rodiguez-Kayser battle was the most expensive of those contested on May 19th, with the California Charter School Association spending millions of dollars to defeat Kayser, who was aligned with the United Teachers Los Angles (UTLA), the teachers' union.

As KPCC put it:

As was the case in the primary, voter turnout was low as predicted: 7.64 percent of registered voters turned out in the school board election and 13.93 percent in City Council District 4. 

In the school board election, the low turnout gave special interests more influence in the results than had voters turned out in decent numbers. California Charter Schools Association Advocates' PACs spent over $2.2 million, primarily to support charter school administrator Ref Rodriguez. The teachers union, UTLA, spent about $1.3 million while calling on its 31,000-plus members to campaign for its favored candidates. 

The District 5 election got so fierce that I had people knocking on my door (twice) for Kayser even though I am not in District 5 (I'm in District 2 currently held by Monica Garcia).

Because of the ill-advised Charter Amendments that passed earlier this year, Rodriguez will serve a 5.5 year term, coming up for election in June 2020.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Speaker Pérez Passes On Joining Huizar-Molina Race

Oh well, it would have made many Los Angeles political junkies salivate, but former Assembly Speaker John Pérez has decided not to join the Jose Huizar-Gloria Molina battle royale for the right to represent District  14 on the Los Angeles City Council.

Last weekend on Saturday Politics we got the news that the long-serving Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina had decided to challenge the incumbent instead of retiring peacefully after more than 3 decades in elective office.

It's doubtful that Pérez, who is in his mid-40s is thinking about retirement either, could he maybe be eyeing the United States Senate seat currently occupied by Barbara Boxer which could conceivably be an open seat in 2016 if the now-73-year-old junior senator decided to call it a career. Surely his cousin Antonio Villaraigosa, 2-term Mayor of Los Angeles, former Speaker of the Assembly and former 14th District Los Angeles City Councilman would have a better claim to Boxer's seat.

In another interesting twist, Huizar apparently asked Pérez for his endorsement for re-election and Pérez declined to do so.

David Zahniser of the Los Angeles Times quotes Pérez as saying:

“He wasn’t able to convince me to endorse him. He didn’t make a persuasive case,” said Pérez, adding: “I’m happy to do another meeting, with any and all of the candidates.” 

Hmmm, could it be conceivable that Pérez could endorse Molina over Huizar? The mind boggles....

L.A. MAYOR 2013: Garcetti Leads Greuel In Polls

The runoff election for Mayor of Los Angeles is on Tuesday May 21, exactly one month from today. Former City Council President Eric Garcetti, the MadProfessah-endorsed candidate, leads former City Controller Wendy Greuel (the Bill Clinton-endorsed candidate) in three separate polls published in the race, from 7 to 10 points. However two of these surveys were the little-respected computer-generated polls by SurveyUSA, released on March 28 (47-40) and April 12 (49-40).

The much more prestigious Los Angeles Times/USC poll is the latest poll to show Garcetti in the lead:

The survey also found no sign of success for Greuel's effort to gain an edge among women by highlighting her potential to make history as the city's first female mayor. Women preferred Garcetti, 50% to 41%.

Latinos and younger voters backed Garcetti by still wider margins. The city councilman from Silver Lake has strengthened his standing in the central city and Eastside neighborhoods that he won decisively in the March primary. He has also built a solid lead on the Westside — a key target of Greuel's.

Perhaps most worrisome for Greuel, the city controller, is her failure so far to establish a base in the Valley, where the two are effectively tied. Greuel, who lives in Studio City, had hoped that audits by her office that found wasteful spending of taxpayer money would appeal to the Valley's Republicans, often a pivotal vote in L.A. elections.

Instead, Garcetti has emerged with a lopsided lead among conservatives citywide, picking up support from many of those who voted in the primary for Republican radio personality Kevin James, now a Garcetti backer.

 In fact, every single one of the major candidates in the March 5 primary election (Jan Perry, Kevin James and Emmanuel Pleitez) has endorsed Garcetti for Mayor as has almost every single member of the current Los Angeles City Council, even though Greuel was herself a Councilmember from 2002 to 2009.

To me it is very telling that the people Greuel worked with on the City Council, as well as the people she beat all are choosing someone else over her to be the next Mayor of Los Angeles.

The two are relatively similar on many key Democratic policy positions (LGBT equality, reproductive rights, environmentalism, immigration, gun control) but Garcetti would be the one who would more firmly embrace the "progressive" label. And he has already played the Mayor of L.A. (multiple times) on television:

After May 21, Garcetti can be called Mr. Mayor in real life, too.

2013 L.A. Municipal Election: Analyzing The Results

The results of yesterday's Los Angeles Municipal elections are in and it looks like Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel will be competing in the May 21 runoff (on my birthday!) The Los Angeles Times (and MadProfessah) had endorsed Garcetti, so we are happy about this result. Even if he loses and Greuel is Mayor, history would be made in having the first female Mayor of one of the Big 3 cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago), so as a feminist I would not be totally displeased with the result. Surprisingly, an openly gay candidate (who also happens to be a Republican) Kevin James looks to be placing third, which must be somewhat embarrassing for Jan Perry who seems to be coming in fourth place.

Here's what the results look like so far:

Garcetti is firstwith 32.9% of the vote, which is pretty good in basically a 5-person feel, more than 10,000 votes ahead of Greuel with 29.2% which is not too shabby either. James and Perry are just over 1,000 votes apart so its possible that margin could tighten.

In other important news, Mike Bonin was able to win his former boss's City Council District 11 seat, ensuring that the body will continue to have an openly gay member on it with an overwhelming 62% of the vote. In fact, it is likely that the 15-member body may have two openly gay members. In Garcetti's City Council District 13, openly gay Mitch O'Farrell (18.6%, 3535 votes) is a few hundred votes ahead of John Choi (16.4%, 3158 votes) while two other openly gay candidates Matt Szabo and Alexander Cruz de Ocampo failed to make the run-off. This was a disappointing result for Szabo, who was a Deputy Mayor in the Villaraigosa regime.

Openly gay candidate Ron Galperin (37.1%) is just squeaking ahead of City Councilman Dennis Zine (37.0%) to replace Greuel as Los Angeles City Controller.

In West Hollywood, openly gay members Jeffrey Prang and John Duran won re-election to the 5-member council, which will maintain its longtime openly gay majority.

FOOD REVIEW: Aki Sushi (Los Angeles, CA)

I used to not like sushi very much but my tastes have matured and now I quite enjoy it, although I still stick to "basic" fish like salmon, tuna, shrimp, crab. One of the places that has convinced me to have sushi pretty regularly is Aki Sushi & Roll in the Hermon section of North East Los Angeles which is very near my house.

The Other Half and I eat there pretty often, probably every few months or so. Last Friday while I was in Los Angeles for the President's Day holiday we ate at our local sushi place. We were starving so we got four rolls (from top to bottom in the picture): "Monterey Roll" (in: california roll. out: salmon, avocado), "Sexy Roll" (in: shrimp tempura. out: ahi tuna),  "Caterpillar Roll" ( in: california roll. out: freshwater eel, avocado) and a special Mystery Roll whose name I can't remember.

We basically have the Sexy Roll every time we come here (it is like a permanent Daily Special). The Mystery Roll was pretty similar to the Monterey Roll except it had a sweet teriyaki sauce on it as well as having shrimp and crab inside instead of a california roll.

The regular rolls are about $8 and the special rolls are about $10-$12. Not exactly a cheap lunch but not overly pricey either. If you live near to Hermon (i.e. El Sereno, South Pasadena, Highland Park, Eagle Rock) this is a good place to check out for some good sushi in a very casual setting.

Name: Aki Sushi & Roll.

Location: 5916 Monterey Rd Los Angeles, CA 90042‎.

Contact: 323-256-0067.

Visit: February 15, 2013 (and many other times).

AMBIANCE: B+.

SERVICE: A-.

VALUE: A.

FOOD: A-. 

OVERALL: A- (3.67/4.0)

FOOD REVIEW: Chico's Restaurant (Highland Park in Los Angeles)

One of my favorite dishes are the Shrimp Tacos at Chico's Family Restaurant in Highland Park. They cost $3.75 each and are full of grilled shrimp, grilled onions and peppers and have slices of avocado and sprinkles of parsley on them. They are served on two corn tortillas each and radishes and lime are offered as garnishes.

I have had some of the other tacos at Chico's and they are okay, but the shrimp tacos are increible. If you are in the Highland Park area I strongly recommend you stopping buy and trying Chico's Shrimp Tacos! (Here's a hint, you can call ahead and they'll be ready to go in 10 minutes.)

Name: Chico's Family Restaurant.

Location: 100 North Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042.

Contact: 323-254-2445.

Visit: August 10, 2011.

AMBIANCE: B+.

SERVICE: A-.

VALUE: A.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A- (3.917/4.0)

FOOD REVIEW: Taste of Brazil (El Sereno)

interior

interior, another angle

rice and beans with fried yucca

chicken stroganoff

One of the joys of moving into a new neighborhood is slowly discovering the local eateries and other commercial establishments. The Brazilian eatery and grocery store Taste of Brazil immediately stood out from the other places in El Sereno with its huge green and yellow sign (and Brazilian flag).

Taste of Brazil serves as something of a cultural center for the Brazilian diaspora in Los Angeles while simultaneously serving up delicious, genuine Brazilian cuisine.

Name: Taste of Brazil.
Location: 4840 S Huntington Dr., Los Angeles, CA, 90032.
Contact: 323-342-9422.

AMBIANCE: B+.
SERVICE: B+.
VALUE: A-.
FOOD: A.

OVERALL: A-.

AD-45: Cedillo and De Leon Plan To Swap Seats

de León	Cedillo

While I was busy with the first day of classes there were some huge announcements made in local (north east Los Angeles) Democratic politics: Assemblymember Kevin de León and State Senator Gill Cedillo are planning to swap legislative seats.

Cedillo, who is termed out in the Senate, had planned to run for a third and final term in the 46th Assembly District seat, which he previously represented for two terms and change.

But that plan was foiled when the current holder of the 46th District -- Assembly Speaker-Elect John A. Pérez-- opted to take the leadership role instead of vacating his Assembly seat for a Senate run.

Cedillo initially pledged to challenge Pérez, but a decision by Assemblyman Kevin de León, who also sought the speaker post, to run for Cedillo's Senate seat created an open Assembly seat for Cedillo to seek.

Pérez said in a statement that he will make a victory for his lifelong friend a priority.

"Gilbert cares deeply about the concerns facing all working men and women, Latinos, and the broader community," he said in a statement. "We need legislators like Gilbert with the experience and community ties to build consensus as we address our state's ongoing economic crisis."

De León announced that he would run for Cedillo's State Senate 22nd District seat on Thursday the 14th while Cedillo announced for De León's Assembly seat (which happens to be in MadProfessah's district, the 45th.

I'm not a big fan of this move. Why should the 45th District be a way station for Gil Cedillo between his next elected position? I totally understand why Kevin De León would run for the open Senate Seat in the 22nd District even though he could have served the 45th for one more 2-year term. The point is that even if Cedillo wins the 45th District sear, he is immediately a lame duck because he is termed out in 2012.

The real question that needs to be answered is will any progressive Democrat in the 45th District decide to raise their voice to object to this shotgun wedding between three unlikely bedfellows: Cedillo, De León and Pérez.

I'm pretty sure that Speaker Pérez is the real mastermind behind this seat-swap which seems like a win-win-win: gets Cedillo out of Pérez's 46th Assembly District, promotes a rising Latino political star (and Pérez's unsuccessful rival for the Assembly speakership) to the upper legislative house, and solidifies Pérez's hold over two Assembly seats (the 45th and the 46th).

CA-32: Race Starts Heating Up

The election for the 32nd Congressional district seat is exactly two weeks away but the race between State Board of Equalization Member Judy Chu and State Senator Gil Cedillo is heating up.

The Los Angeles Times covered the back and forth between the two camps:

Among Judy Chu's slew of mostly positive mailers was one that featured a front-page Los Angeles Times article on state Sen. Gil Cedillo's spending more than $125,000 of his legislative campaign money on expensive dinners, hotels and gifts. The mailer reprinted the April 11 article in full and highlighted two paragraphs contrasting Chu's "frugal record" with a summary of Cedillo's spending.

Cedillo, in two separate pieces that arrived in mailboxes in recent days, used newspaper articles to try to bolster his charge that Chu, a state Board of Equalization member, gave "tax breaks and contracts" to her corporate campaign contributors.

The language used as headlines on the Cedillo mailers, however, came from articles having nothing to do with Chu. One, "This Is an Outrage!" appeared as a quote in a March 16 Los Angeles Times article about anger over bonuses given to executives of AIG, one of the struggling corporations given federal financial aid. Another, "Political Malfeasance and the Financial Meltdown," ran above a syndicated George Will column March 25 in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Good job of the Times to make it clear that although there are charges and cross-charges from both camps, it does not mean that both parties are equally responsible. Clearly, as the picture above makes clear, Cedillo is not telling the truth.

CA-32: API LGBT Support Judy Chu for Congress

Assemblymember John A. Pérez (46th District) and
Board of Equalization member Judy Chu
MadProfessah with Judy Chu

Curtis Chin, Judy Chu and Jeff Kim

A fundraiser primarily hosted by members of the Asian-American and Pacfic Islander LGBT community in Los Angeles was held for Judy Chu's run for the 32nd Congressional District seat vacated by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. The event was hosted (and primarily organized) by Jeff Kim and Curtis Chin at their downtown loft. It was attended by the first openly gay person of color elected to the California Legislature, John A. Pérez who represents the 46th Assembly District.

MadProfessah was a co-host of the event and has endorsed Judy Chu's run for the seat. She is primarily running against State Senator Gil Cedillo who does not represent any portion of the 32nd Congressional District.

At the event, Judy Chu gave a number of reasons why she expects to win the race, the first was Experience. Since she has been representing different portions of the 32nd district for 23 years, having been elected 9 different times in School Board, City Council, Assembly and state Board of Equalization races. The second reason was money. She said that her goal was to raise $750, 000 and has so far raised $425, 000 and Governor Schwarzenegger has until Tuesday to announce when the Special Election will occur (which is likely to coincide with the statewide special election already set for May 19th). The third was endorsements. She has been endorsed by all three assemblymembers who represent the 32nd Congressional District (her husband)Mike Eng (49th AD), Kevin de Leon (45th AD where MadProfessah lives) and Ed Hernandez (57th AD). In fact she has been endorsed by 75 elected officials who represent portions of the 32nd CD while Cedillo has only 10. In addition, Chu has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which has identified 40, 000 union households in the district. In a 15% turnout election, it probably takes less than 20, 000 votes to win the Democratic primary, which is tantamount to winning the election in such a Democratic-leaning CD.

Judy Chu has been a longtime supporter of LGBT and progressive causes and is exactly what DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga means when he says that we need to elect BETTER Democrats and not just MORE Democrats.

If you are interested in supporting Judy Chu for Congress check out her website at judychu.net.

CA-32: Solis Confirmed As Labor Secretary 80-17

The race for the 32nd Congressional District of California begins today since it's current representative Hilda Solis was confirmed as Labor Secretary by the United States Senate Tuesday by a vote of 80-17.

The current leading candidates, according to dday at Calitics are:

Judy Chu is currently on the Board of Equalization. While a Chinese-American running for a seat that is majority Latino, Chu has the support of the California Federation of Labor, which typically cleans up in these kinds of special elections. That alone makes her the favorite IMO.

Gil Cedillo is a State Senator in the adjoining district, and so he represents very few of these constituents. He has been strong on issues around immigration in particular, and will certainly be formidable in this race.

Emanuel Pleitez worked in the Obama transition team on the Treasury Department. The fact that Treasury has practically no senior officers staffing it save for Tim Geithner, over a month after the inauguration, doesn't really speak well to Pleitez' transition capabilities. But he apparently has the most robust campaign apparatus in the district thus far (with 17 volunteer full-time staff members), and he was born and raised in the district.

MadProfessah is endorsing Judy Chu, who is an incredibly strong ally of the LGBT community.

CA-32: Romero Drops Out and Endorses Cedillo

Gloria Romero has announced that she is not interested in running for Hilda Solis congressional seat any longer, but is focussing on becoming the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction and has endorsed her State Senate colleague Gil Cedillo for the position.

Previously, State Board of Equalization member Judy Chu has already announced that she is running and MadProfessah hopes that she wins.

FOOD REVIEW: Diner on Main (Alhambra, CA)

Katie's Steak Sandwich

MadProfessah and The Other Half ate lunch at Diner on Main St in Alhambra, California on Monday. It is a very interesting example of the retro-50s "Googie" style. MadProfessah had "Katie's steak sandwich" (with onion rings, since they were out of sweet potato fries) and The Other Half had the club sandwich.

The food was surprisingly good. I suspected I was in for a shock when the perky waitress asked how I wanted my steak cooked. Both sandwiches had surprising touches: his club included avocado (on sourdough toast) and my steak sandwiched had a deliciously piquant aioli mayonnaise.

The googie ambiance was appealing and well-maintained, although a bit out of step with the oldies Christmas music and flat-screen televisions with live football. The service was quite good and although the food was quite good, it wasn't overwhelmingly cheap ($10.95 for the steak sandwich, $8.95 for the club). The Other Half thought the onions rings, while extremely tasty, were a bit oilier than he prefers and there definitely was a not-insignificant amount of gristle in my sanndwich. All in all, I would definitely eat at The Diner on Main again, especially late at night (they are open to 2am on the weekends).

AMBIANCE: B+.
SERVICE: A-.
VALUE: B+.
FOOD: A.

CA-32: Chu Makes Her Intention To Run Clear

Judy Chu has made it official: she is running for California's 32nd Congressional district. An article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times carried her annoncement as well as interesting analysis of various politicians chances of winning the seat:

In an interview with The Times on Monday evening, Chu said she made the decision to run Sunday after days of urging from supporters.

"I've decided to heed those calls," she said. "I know this district very, very well and I believe the people of this district know me and know I'm very devoted to the San Gabriel Valley."
[...]

Romero could not be reached Monday afternoon, but said publicly last week that she would pursue the seat. A staunch labor supporter, Romero was elected to her state Senate seat in 2001, replacing Solis. She had previously served in the Assembly and said she represented the district at the state level for 10 years.

She would have an important leg up on Chu, according to political consultants.

"Most people believe a Latino would be favored," said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan publication that analyzes and handicaps legislative races.

He said about 48% of the district's voters are Latino. Asians are the second-largest group, making up 13% of the vote.

But if several Latino candidates split the Latino vote, he said, a strong Asian candidate could put together Asian and white voters and take a majority.

Perhaps an even larger factor, said Democratic political strategist Steve Maviglio, is who the Los Angeles Federation of Labor backs, and how strongly.

"They have the most horses in the county. They have the most money. If they put all their firepower behind one candidate, it's pretty much over," he said.

That's partly because most special elections have turnouts below 20%, which he said favor grass-roots, get-out-the vote campaigns that are labor's strength.

Another interesting aspect of the race is that apparently there is not a residency requirement for the special election, so theoretically any big name Latino politician could consider running for the seat. Fabian Nunez, anyone? Then again he's a bit busy right now keeping his son out of jail!

CA-32: Romero and Chu Eye Solis' U.S. House Seat

State Senator Gloria Romero

It's all about MadProfessah's hood! Previously, I blogged about a scramble among prominent Latino politicians in Los Angeles that had started when word leaked that MadProfessah's congressman, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA-31) had been offered a position in President Obama's cabinet as U.S. Trade Representative. Becerra turned the position down, deciding to stay in the House as the #5 Democrat in that chamber and wait his chance to become to the first Latino Speaker of the House. This will not be the last time we hear the name Xavier Becerra.

Now imagine the maneuverings are going on now that U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (CA-32) has accepted Obama's nomination as Labor Secretary, giving up a Congressional seat in East Los Angeles that she has held for 5 terms. This time it's my State Senator Gloria Romero who has given an explicit statement of interest in the job. "

"Absoutely I am very interested in this seat. I have represented this district for over 10 years in the California state legislature," she said. "I know this district well, and this district knows me."

Other names that have been discussed for the seat include Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, Judy Chu, chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization, and her husband Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-El Monte.

Both Chu and Romero would be an amazing congressional respresentative and I would be hard pressed to pick between Romero and Chu, although knowing what I know right now, I would pick Chu. I know very little about Hernandez except that he's in his second term in the Assembly. Both Chu and Romero are strong supporters of LGBT equality and have been endorsed by Equality California when they ran for their current elected positions. Interestingly, Romero replaced Solis as the representative of the 24th State Senate district, will she also replace Solis as the representative of the 32nd Congressional district?

The race is on. May the best woman win!