Trump dominated politics on L.A. TV news. A ‘sobering’ City Hall scandal changed that. Now he faces a new scandal — as he faces a potential fall from power.
LA Weekly
Los Angeles, CA.
October 20, 2007
The Los Angeles Times ran a major story today about a city commission that is being investigated for possible election fraud. The commission was elected in 2004, and in the two years preceding the Times story, only one of its members was re-elected: Bill Rosendahl, a Republican.
The Times story begins, “City officials on Monday abruptly canceled an election to fill a vacancy on the city council, after the City Council on Friday rejected an application from a commission member who said he had been denied a ballot by a clerk who didn’t know the rules.”
The Times, which appears to be doing little besides covering their butts today, then writes, “The controversy raises questions about whether the city’s electoral commission has enough members to enforce strict voting rules in an election that could decide control of the council and other city offices, and could determine whether the two-term mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, can stay in office.”
Of course, this is only the latest in a long line of stories, many more serious than this one, that have exposed election fraud on the part of city officials and candidates. But there is something different about this L.A. Times story. The Times appears to believe that city officials are above the law.
The Times reports in passing:
“The commission’s membership includes the clerk of Los Angeles, who was in charge of granting or denying applications in 2004. A clerk who does not know the city’s voting laws may be illegal.”
“Council member Rosendahl said ‘there are many who would support my application to fill the City Council vacancy’ but said he didn’t know for sure that the clerk had been following the law.”
“Rosendahl said he was disappointed that he had been denied a vote. ‘I’m not trying to be a pain in the butt or anything like that,’ he said, ‘but I had more experience than anybody else on the commission, and my expertise is in the field dealing with homelessness and mental health, both of which I’m very familiar with.’ The commission had been considering accepting his application but would only consider it after a review by the city attorney’s office, Rosendahl said.”
“Ros