Form Follows Funding

As noted in LAObserved.com yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published a story this weekend about Los Angeles mayoral candidates wooing various financial backers for support.

Candidates are going to need full coffers in order to pay for the heavy TV advertising necessary to compete in this spring's election.

Reporter Michael Finnegan wrote:

The top contenders for mayor of Los Angeles have jostled for months to make a favorable impression on Eric Bauman.

Four have courted Bauman [L.A. County Democratic Party chairman] over lunch: Mayor James K. Hahn at Pete's Cafe near City Hall, Antonio Villaraigosa at an East L.A. taco stand, Bob Hertzberg at Art's Deli in Studio City, Bernard C. Parks at Smeraldi's downtown. A fifth, Richard Alarcon, buttonholed him at a Universal City luncheon.

Though unknown to most voters, Bauman is among the scores of players in Los Angeles politics who have drawn personal attention from the candidates.

The Times reports that the dream endosement would come from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but candidates are courting other influential Angelenos like Bob Baker, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Miguel Contreras, leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which represents 420,000 city residents,Magic Johnson, a major investor in revitalizing black neighborhoods, Galpin Ford's Burt Boeckmann, a top secession advocate, Los Angeles Rep Maxine Waters, Richard Close, who heads the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., a coalition of pastors at predominantly black churches organized by Bishop Charles Blake of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, and Playa Vista president, Steve Soboroff.

Money seems to be on every candidate's mind, as Rick Orlov reports in the Daily News, Police Chief Bill Bratton distributed commemorative gold coins, in plush velvet boxes with his autograph, at the recent meeting of International Association of Police Chiefs in Los Angeles.

On a side note, our vote for the most appropriate name for a politico has to go to Villaraigosa strategist, Parke Skelton.