#AD51: Carrillo Wins Assembly Seat Over Lopez 53-47 (900+ votes)

The special election in my Assembly District was held yesterday and the results are in: Wendy Carrillo, received approximately 1000 votes more than Luis Lopez in a very low turnout election (estimated to be 7.6%). Carrillo took an early large lead when absentee ballots were tallied.

This means that Carrillo will be the newest member of the Assembly.

SATURDAY POLITICS: #AD51 Runoff On 12/05/17 With Wendy Carrillo and Luis Lopez

The special election to replace now-Congressman Jimmy Gomez in the 51st Assembly District happened this Tuesday October 3 and the top 2 finishers were Wendy Carrillo (who had also run against Gomez in the special election in the 34th Congressional District) and Luis López. Carrillo received the most votes (4,771) in a crowded field of 13 candidates while López was second with 4,086 and Mike Fong was close behind with 3,515.

However, only the top 2 finishers advance to a run-off election to be held on Tuesday December 5. López has run for this seat before, way back in 2012 (against Gomez), while Carrillo is something of a perennial candidate in Northeast Los Angeles elections. López is openly gay and is a healthcare executive and was endorsed by various progressive democratic clubs (East Area Progressive Democrats and Stonewall Democrats) while Carrillo used to work for a local affiliate of Service Employees International Union, which ran an independent expenditure campaign that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to support her.

This is my home district (and I voted) so I am following the race quite closely. It will be interesting to see who (if anyone) Gomez endorses as well as what the other candidates in the race do.

Hat/tip to Los Angeles Times.

SATURDAY POLITICS: LA Times Endorses Molina for Los Angeles CD14

MadProfessah has been following the race between Jose Huizar and Gloria Molina for the 14th District Seat on the Los Angeles City Council for quite awhile, since I live in the district in question, the incumbent Huizar is my Councilmember and the race seemed interesting, especially after Huizar admitted to an affair with one of his staff. I've generally been in favor of Molina, although Huizar seems to be running the more visible campaign (he clearly has a lot of money in his campaign coffers) because his lawn signs and billboards are EVERYWHERE in the Highland Park/Glassell Park/Eagle Rock/El Sereno sections of the district.

This week comes the news that the Los Angeles Times has made an endorsement in the race, and it is not for the incumbent:

Molina, who also served in the Assembly and had one previous term on the City Council, is the best candidate for the job. She is well known for her independence — a characteristic that is sorely lacking in City Hall at the moment. She has never shied away from questioning the status quo or challenging the power structure, though at times she has been more combative than productive. (A county department head once collapsed and had to be hospitalized during one of her grillings.) She was a fierce advocate for her district, developing neighborhood-level solutions in areas that had been long neglected. Molina became far more fiscally conservative after the county neared bankruptcy in the 1990s; her hawkishness on spending and labor demands is one reason the county didn't face the kind of severe budget crisis the city faced during the recession, and didn't have to lay off employees. Los Angeles needs more leaders who can say “no.”

Interesting development. The election is a little over two weeks away, but absentee voters (like myself have our ballots at home now and can send them in any time before March 3).

SATURDAY POLITICS: Huizar-Molina Race For Los Angeles CD14 Heats Up

As you may recall, I live in Los Angeles City Council District 14 which is represented by Jose Huizar. Huizar is running for re-election in the March 3, 2015 primary and in this heavily Democratic region, winning that race basically would insure his position on the council until 2019 at least. I say "at least" because there is a movement to move municipal elections that typically happen in odd-numbered years (i.e. not in presidential or gubernatorial election years) and align them with those larger turnout elections. There are arguments both for and against this idea (for: having city and county races in the same year will mean that they will occur in the same time frame when people are thinking about other political races; against: the big money that dominates state and federal races will be used to swamp local concerns in local races).

However, Huizar is facing a strong challenge from Gloria Molina, the outgoing Los Angeles County Supervisor, who has been a political power center on the East Side of Los Angeles for decades, and at age 66 has decided to challenge an incumbent city councilman to get a job she held more than 30 years ago.

With the primary barely more than four months away, the two candidates are jockeying for endorsements and donations. On Thursday, both candidates (in addition to MadProfesssah) attended the endorsement meeting of the East Area Progressive Democrats in Eagle Rock, seeking that new club's endorsement. They were both greeted politely and asked probing questions by the audience, with Huizar getting a little testy when he admitted that the "municipal election schedule realignment" that he supports would end up in increasing the length of his own term in office. Molina announced her opposition to the plan, showing a keen awareness of her audience, because EAPD has come out strongly against the proposed plan to align the city's elections with the state's. In the end, though, neither candidate received the high threshold required for an official endorsement by the club.

Huizar has built a substantial lead in fundraising. In fact, he is approaching the record amount raised by any City Councilman in the history of Los Angeles, according to Downtown News columnist Jon Regardie:

This puts Huizar on a record-breaking path. I pored through the Ethics Commission’s online fundraising information, which has data on every city council election going back 11 years. In that time, the only person to raise more money during the primary was Antonio Villaraigosa, who scooped up $773,000 in 2003 when he beat incumbent Nick Pacheco. Of course, AnVil used that seat as a springboard to the mayor’s office two years later.  

Huizar is $38,000 short of the record, but still has more than four months until voters head to the polls in March. Curious fact: The next highest tally in a council primary was recorded by now-Mayor Eric Garcetti, who raised $683,000 for a win against Gary Slossberg in 2009. No, I don’t know who Gary Slossberg is either.

It's curious tat the two people to have raised more money than Huizar went on to become Mayor. Is that Huizar's ultimate plan? He is only 46-years-old now and the current Mayor will be termed out in 2021. Some people think the only reason Molina is running for City Council is to make a future bid for Mayor of Los Angeles more palatable. Maybe the people who are giving money to Huizar don't want to see that happen?

Anyway, I'm sure there will be twists and turns in this race as the March 3 date gets closer and closer.

QUEER QUOTE: Pasadena's Public Health Director Condemns Homosexuality (& Oprah & Jay-Z!)

Oh dear! I live and work very near to Pasadena, California in the north-east section of Los Angeles. Pasadena is having its own "bigot eruption" right now as the virulently anti-gay (and bizarre) beliefs of
Dr. Eric Walsh, the City Director of Public Health have come to light in the local media.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Dr. Walsh has been put on administrative leave from his taxpayer-funded job, for which he was paid more than $250,000 in 2012.

The reason for his suspension is this list of things that Dr. Walsh believes, according to the Pasadena Star-News, should disqualify him from serving as Pasadena's Public Health Director

• Oprah Winfrey is harboring the spirit of the anti-Christ;• The prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, was influenced by Satan;• The devil set up Catholicism;• Acceptance of homosexuals is a satanic ploy to destroy America;• Rapper Jay Z is a disciple of Satan;• Single mothers are ruining their children;• Disney movies, which are loaded with violence, sex and magic, are a satanic ploy to split up families;• Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a “satanic belief”;• The distribution of condoms to a public in need leads to higher AIDS rates;• The pope is the anti-Christ.

But it is this choice quote which makes him today's Queer Quote:

“In our public school system they began to teach moral relativism. They began to teach that there really is no absolute right or wrong. It’s more a matter of what you think or what you accept. And (according to that doctrine) if two adults agree to do something, it’s not wrong because they are both consenting adults. That is doctrine from the pits of hell. What makes something right is not based on man, it is based on God.”

One website thinks that is basically saying that gay people come from the "pits of hell" but maybe that's not what the good doctor meant?
Hat/tip to The New Civil Rights Movement

Sunday Gossip: L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar Reveals Affair With Staffer

Ooops! While I was busy grading papers this weekend a big local story broke in North East Los Angeles politics. My City Councilperson, Jose Huizar, is being sued for sexual harassment by a former staffer named Francine Godoy; Huizar has said that the two had a "consensual relationship" but denies the harassment allegations. The drama is because Huizar has had a reputation as something of a "boy scout" and is married with four kids, including a daughter that was recently diagnosed with cancer. He is the first Mexican immigrant to be elected to the Los Angeles City Council.

Huizar has been my City Councilperson since he won a special election to replace Antonio Villaraigosa in 2005, representing various parts of North East Los Angeles like the neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Highland Park, El Sereno and Boyle Heights. Among blogging circles, Huizar's relationship with his female deputy chief of staff has long been a subject of speculation.

Huizar has already filed to run for re-election in March 2015. He won re-election in 2011 after a  contentious race with Rudy Martinez. Los Angeles City Councilmembers are limited to three terms in office.

FOOD REVIEW: Fusion Burgers (Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA)

Across the street from a new fancy Italian restaurant in Highland Park called Maximiliano's is an unassuming place called Fusion Burgers. My quest to find the best burger joint in America has long been a topic on this here blog, so I won't go into that again except to say that when I hear about an excellent burger place I do try and check it out.

So, that got me into the door of Fusion Burgers, which besides getting good reviews also happens to be within a 5-10 minute drive of my house.

As I said, Fusion Burgers is located in an unremarkable strip mall on the edge of Highland Park, very close to what is probably the most well-known restaurant in the neighborhood. The two are very different, however, with Maximiliano's succeeding as an upscale Italian joint that only serves dinner (and brunch on the weekends) and Fusion Burgers is a simple burger joint.

That being said, the focus should be on the food, and that is what Fusion Burgers does, and quite well, too. I ordered the "Classic Burger" (1000 Island, boston bibb, oven dried tomato, onions, pickles and white cheddar; $8.50) along with "Beer Onion Rings" ($3) and "Ice Tea" ($2). The burger was excellent, and well matched with the bun (which tasted like some kind of brioche). However, the burger was outdone by the Umamticatessen-style tempura-like onion rings which were absolutely extraordinary (and a great bargain at $3). I finished those first after taking a quick spot check bite of the burger. The burger was ridiculously juicy (a feature of having it cooked medium rare) and was a decent size as well. A nice feature of the meal was that even though it clearly not healthy food, one did not feel absolutely stuffed, as one sometimes does at other burger outings.

I would definitely recommend going to check out Fusion Burgers, yourself. It is probably a 10-15 minute walk from the Highland Park station on the  Gold Line Metro as well as having plenty of parking on York Boulevard. Fusion Burgers offers a different gourmet burger of the week, some of them quite inventive.

I intend to check them out again in the near future, and so should you if you (like me) are in search of an excellent burger experience for under $20.

Name: Fusion Burgers.

Location: 5933 York Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90042.

Contact: 323-257-8705.

Visit: April 27, 2013.

AMBIANCE: A-.

SERVICE: A.

VALUE: A.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A (4.0/4.0)

FOOD REVIEW: Ba (Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA)

Mushroom Brûlée, $11

Quiche Lorraine with fries, $11

Grilled Alaskan Salmon on Winter Greens, $13

To celebrate the occasion of my husband's birthday we decided to have our regular Friday lunch at a new local restaurant. The Highland Park section of Los Angeles has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, with new restaurants and stores opening on a seemingly weekly basis. Since Highland Park is the adjacent neighborhood from where we live in Montecito Heights, as wel as adjacent to Eagle Rock where I usually work, we consider Highland Park (a.k.a. HP) as part of our "hood."

Anyway, one of those new restaurants which has opened recently in HP is called Ba. It's a French restaurant and it is on the main drag in HP called York Boulevard (at the corner of Avenue 51) in the middle of the most built up section of HP which runs between Avenue 50 to Avenue 54.

We started with the Mushroom Brûlée which was quite yummy but definitely unusual. It was like  a very thick, savory mushroom stew with melted cheese on top. The slices of baguette were useful to mop up the sauce.

The Other Half ordered the Grilled Alaska Salmon with greens, which he said was perfectly grilled. I had the Quiche of the Day, which was a Ham and Swiss quiche and came with fries. The quiche was very tasty and the fries were better-than-average restaurant fries. The only odd thing about the dining experience was that there was a somewhat limited selection of beverages on the menu. There were various alcoholic beverages (beer or wine) or other things I don't drink (like sodas) but no iced tea or juice. So we both just drank water.

Since it was a weekday lunch the restaurant was pretty empty but the interior is very welcoming with sleek, modern furnishing and simple but interesting, monochromatic art on the walls.

Name: Ba.

Location: 5100 York Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90042.

Contact: 323-729-6243.

Visit: April 26, 2013.

AMBIANCE: A-.

SERVICE: A-.

VALUE: B+.

FOOD: A. 

OVERALL: A- (3.66/4.0)