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There's a lot of confusion out there about Los Angeles City Council President, Eric Garcetti, these days. He's a superdelegate for Barack Obama (which leads to people throwing out the "cabinet position" question), it's often brought up that he has congressional aspirations, there's a viral website to elect Garcetti for D.A. of Gotham City (ah, yes, the new Batman movie), Mayor Tommy Carcetti is a character in HBO's The Wire (you can buy reelection t-shirts) and lastly, the most confusing: an Eric Garcetti for Mayor website launched last week.
"I have no idea who it is," Garcetti told LAist in a phone interview. "I'm focused on my reelection to city council and looking forward to a third term. It's a funny thing to read, but I have no idea who it is or when it's for. I'm focused on great neighborhoods, change and expanding opportunities for the city."
Prompting the phone call to Garcetti was a newly created fan page for him on Facebook. Was it real? He already had a personal profile, so it wasn't without reason to think another fake Garcetti internet creation was out there. Turns out, it really is Garcetti, but with a purpose. "My personal Facebook page is not the right page for campaign stuff," he explained.
But he also hopes to use it to highlight issues and turn people out to hearings. "Facebook has been a great experience for me. But will it work to inspire people to take action and not just be a vehicle for information?"
As to other progressive online social networking tools, Garcetti is looking into the newest trend, Twitter, something Obama has used with great success. He wants to microblog a week in the life of a city councilman. "It's a really neat way to see Los Angeles; to see the work of a representative and the issues, the problems and the challenges that I have in a day."
He's also looking at Twitter and other emerging technologies on how to better highlight government work and use it on the campaign level. Once again, Garcetti is about action. "I want to inspire people instead of just give out information."
The elections for city council are next year, but as to his closely related (in name) fictional political relative in the Batman sequel, Roger Garcetti lost the election to Harvey Dent last Friday. But one question still remains, which of the two characters turns out to be the bad guy? To that, Garcetti chuckled as he said he hopes his by-name doppelgänger is not the villain.
Recently: Garcetti Officiates Same-Sex Marriage of Two Employees
