Darren Faulk

Recent Actions

• Posted Villaraigosa Thrashes Hahn; Rosendahl Edges Krisiloff to LAist
  Los Angeles, you have a new mayor: Antonio Villaraigosa. Little analysis is necessary: Villaraigosa had name recognition, three times the cash, and an LA record to run on (though there is MUCH debate about what he's actually done on the Council). Hahn had scandals, a horrific staff, and eroded his base in Secession and by firing Bernie Parks. What else do you need to know? The real question is this: What kind of mayor...
• Posted The Stem Cell Screwup: Who Bears Responsibility? to LAist
  We’re not really sure when we stopped paying attention to the inconsistencies and broken promises spouted by the political leadership of Los Angeles. “We” not only being the writers of LAist, but also the editors of the Times and the City’s citizens. The instant broken promise we are referring to “Stem Cellgate” as Bob Hertzberg’s former verbal hatchet man, Matt Szabo, called it. (Check his blog out; it’s quite good.) Over and over again...
• Posted Crass Politics and Boredom Rule–Just Another Day in the Mayor’s Race to LAist
  So, you’re telling us that there’s more than a month until the mayoral election? Shouldn’t we just hold it now? All three of the major challengers (Alarcon, Parks, and Bobzilla Hertzberg) have endorsed Villaraigosa. He’s opened up an 18-point lead on Hahn. Oh, and he holds a large fundraising advantage too. Do we really have to drag this out any further, this slow, Kafkaesque march of an incumbent to his executioners at the polls?...
• Posted The Mayor's "Race" to LAist
  We hope you enjoyed your Cesar Chavez festivities last week, because the timing of the holiday is quite appropriate when it comes to much of the discussion on the Mayor’s race. Chavez’s empowerment of Latinos (what else is “si, se puede”?) awakened both Latino political consciousness and served notice to the mainstream that Latinos were a force to be reckoned with. He became symbolic of the Latino struggle for fairness and acceptance. In a...
• Posted What Went Wrong? to LAist
  First of all, LAist apologizes for not getting our election story in–we were out at various election night parties to all hours and didn’t have time to write anything. The obvious story to write about is the rematch: Hahn vs. Villaraigosa, Part II. But we’ll be able to talk about that for the next ten weeks. For now, the most interesting question for the City’s political insiders is where Hertzberg went wrong on his...