Dear 2UrbanGirls,
Did you see Mark Ridley-Thomas say he’s not running for mayor, which is likely to make room for Rep. Karen Bass to run? She can’t win!
He might as well have run and then promised his votes to her later. But she’ll get trounced even by Joe Buscaino in the runoff. Mike Feuer was undoubtedly hoping he’d run. With him in, he might make the runoff, but Feuer is really bad at getting Black votes.
MRT thinks so stupidly, he should have stayed in, taken the L, and emerged a broker like Kevin James did.
I have never understood MRT. You know, all those years ago, when permanent supportive housing was first happening, and that rip-off artist Zev [Yaroslavsky] was pushing it, MRT was against it. You could look it up: MRT smelled a rat in 2007 and opposed “Project 50” — the first high-cost, low-yield homeless project because the math didn’t add up. And then, a few month$$$ later, he flipped.
You see the results all over LA!
Feuer is betting that he’ll inherit the old “Bradley coalition” and so was MRT, but it doesn’t exist anymore, so neither of them will. Bass might beat out De Leon but neither are going to win — they’re hitched to the wrong posts.
Buscaino is a long shot but Bass, Feuer, and MRT are even longer. I’ve done the math forever and to get into the runoff you only have to get 18.666%. But who can get there?
Buscaino will be the new Kevin James. Feuer has been going to the Valley forever.
MRT could have helped Bass by staying in — but as the lone Black, she’ll look like another Jan Perry, and get no Valley votes, no San Pedro votes, no Westchester votes — the places where LA elections are determined.
She had a better chance of making the runoff with MRT in because he would take away from Buscaino in Harbor Gateway and Galperin in Valley spots like Sherman Oaks in the flats, and in Los Feliz. She blew it.
Political wonk