2020 Election Predictions

2UrbanGirls doesn’t believe in making “endorsements” in races but we do have predictions on outcomes in this election cycle. What we have learned is Black politicians haven’t gotten too comfortable in their seats and voters are waking up and are looking at their city, more critically, as they cast ballots this election.  Here are our predictions in the races we paid the most attention to.

INGLEWOOD

Inglewood residents were bamboozled and prevented from taking part in the nomination filing period after the multiple games City Clerk Yvonne Horton played to assist in the campaign efforts of her deputy and presumably the mayor’s preferred candidate to succeed Ralph Franklin.  Horton waited until the day before the nomination closing period to announce she wasn’t seeking office and Franklin still hasn’t told the public he was stepping down.   Horton used the power of the taxpayer funded council agenda, mass messages from her office and her deputies presence running the council meetings to increase her candidates name recognition.  The same deputy was technically not eligible to run, by the city’s own municipal code, but was ignored.  Complaints lodged to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office have gone unanswered with no clear legal definition of whether the city’s municipal code violates the Constitution and if it does, there was no direct order by Jackie Lacey’s office to remove it.  She’s the same Lacey that “lost” an investigation into the mayor’s role in the awarding of the city’s trash contract to a company where his brother was working.

Residents in District 3 only have Eloy Morales to vote for and in District 4 we are stuck with IUSD board member Dionne Faulk who has failed the community tremendously when one of the schools in her area was closed, and the COMMUNITY took action to reopen it, NOT her.  There is a write-in candidate, Angelique Johnson, who has yet to take a firm position on the proposed school bond, eminent domain, city hall corruption or publicized any plans to address it.  Johnson is relying on mobile outreach to the word out about her campaign but won’t translate to enough votes to outperform Faulk.  Inglewood loses.

Inglewood Unified School District county administrator Dr. Erika Torres allows racism to continue to fester under her control, with the revelation a former principal felt calling employees “monkey” and “nigger” got a presumed paid vacation during the summer break.  Coincidentally, IUSD is begging residents to pass a $240 million school bond to fix the same schools they been fixing since the late 90s.

Prediction:  Inglewood residents will elect a new city clerk and 4th district representative that will continue the pattern of corruption at the behest of Mayor Butts.

Los Angeles District 10

Voters have an enormous responsibility in selecting a successor to Herb Wesson to represent the 10th District.  If residents want someone fresh, with no corruption allegations attached to their name, then they will vote for Grace Yoo.  If Blacks turn out to vote and have been half ass paying attention to the news, they may vote for Mark Ridley-Thomas simply because he’s Black.

Prediction:  Los Angles residents have had enough of Ridley-Thomas and will elect Grace Yoo.

County Supervisor

Herb Wesson and Holly Mitchell both appeared on News Conference with Conan Nolan one Sunday morning and Wesson blurted out he should be elected because of all of his union support.  Mitchell, on the other hand, has the experience of running a social organization that relies on county funding to exist.  Crystal Stairs is one of the most vital programs a young, poor mother relies on to obtain child care for their child.  Mitchell understand firsthand the process of the states role in allocating the funds and the county’s role in providing accountability of how those funds are spent.  Recent reports of corruption in city hall, by Wesson’s self described “soul brother” is cringe worthy.  The Los Angeles Times has released an article where it calls out Wesson for allowing a developer to remove affordable housing mandates imposed by the city’s planning commission.  Mitchell has been scandal free, and we need a break from the discouraging allegations surrounding corruption in city hall under Wesson’s leadership.

Prediction:  We will have an all female LA County Board of Supervisors

Assembly District 59

Reggie Jones-Sawyer has lost a ton of support from the public, consultants and the like during this campaign.  He has grown accustomed to cruising to victory with little to no backlash from his constituents and no real competition, until now.  Efren Martinez was the heir apparent to Reggie but was asked to “stand down”, on more than one occasion, when it became clear Reggie didn’t have the ability to go any further in his political career.  Then the demographics shifted and the Democratic Party has spent upwards of $3 million to save his seat.  Martinez has been a consistent supporter of Jones-Sawyer, which provided proclamations on behalf of his service to the community and access to the Assemblyman’s office which did little to help Latino voters South of the 10.  The consistent problem with Reggie is he has consistently ignored his district, their issues and chose to solely focus on USC. Hopefully Reggie can get a job there.

Prediction:  Efren Martinez will defeat Reggie Jones-Sawyer 

LA County District Attorney

George Gascon had ONE job and that was to show he has filed charges against ONE cop in San Francisco while he was District Attorney and he didn’t.  He follows the same laws Jackie Lacey has to follow which is why neither one of them have prosecuted a cop that has been involved in a shooting that resulted in the death of some unarmed residents.  Black Lives Matter has put their support behind Gascon and when you ask any of them about Gascon’s lack of filing charges they have the same response “Jackie Lacey gots to go”.

Prediction:  Jackie Lacey will retain her seat

Congressional District 43

2UrbanGirls has to give the MVP award to Joe Collins.  This man has been relentless in his pursuit of unseating the beloved Maxine Waters.  South LA residents would have been willing to vote for Collins had he not been attached to President Donald Trump.  Collin’s impact this election season is profound. He has crossed the district meeting directly with residents, having regular food giveaways, events for children and presented much food for thought about the state of the district.  His campaign forced Waters to take action.  Wherever his campaign was, her supporters were on the opposite corner with campaign signage.  He forced her to actually campaign and make personal appearances that she typically doesn’t do.  Joe Collins has a bright political future ahead of him and we hope to hear more from him.

Prediction:  We stuck with Aunty 

President of the United States

Have you ever wanted an election to be over?  2UrbanGirls is tired of the thousands of mailers in the mailbox, the constant radio ads, campaign signage littering our streets and empty rhetoric coming out of these candidates mouths.  We are in the midst of a global pandemic where we are forced to work from home, beg the government to provide rental and mortgage protections, fraud has all but shut down the unemployment office, bills are stacking up and city’s budgets are shattered.  Our government has only given us $1200 and we been home since MARCH!  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and she was replaced faster than the American people were assisted.  Democrats continue to fail the country by not moving forward with a comprehensive second round of stimulus payments while constantly reminding us that the “second coronavirus wave” is headed our way, which further delays the reopening of our country.  Businesses are shutting down by the dozens, with no additional funding in the foreseeable future.  We will see record voter turnout this year but will the electoral college overturn the popular vote Al Gore style?

Prediction:  Donald Trump will NOT be fired