by Ron Kaye March 5, 2011 9:40 PM
I was going to let this go because last-minute smear tactics on the weekend before voters go to the polls is distasteful, a violation of journalistic ethics that I've only seen violated once in the mainstream media when the LA Times exposed Arnold Schwarzenegger's sex life at the end of the Gray David recall campaign.
He's resorted on the campaign's final weekend to robo-calls to thousands of his constituents using Gov. Jerry Brown and former Mayor Richard Riordan to falsely defame challenger Stephen Box.
There is no tax lien against Box and LaBonge is not the only Democrat involved in the campaigns by Box and Tomas O'Grady. Besides, it's a non-partisan race.
Now I find in my email a blast from Carolyn Ramsay, LaBonge's deputy chief of staff, who without identifying her role on the city payroll, is urging voters to re-elect her boss (Ramsay-LaBonge.rtf)
I can't help but wonder how many of the email addresses she sent this to were acquired in her official capacity.
She argues that her boss isn't responsible for public services being slashed and the city being broke, which may have a small amount of truth in it since he rarely understands what he's voting on.
She ends her email by saying, "Vote for Tom LaBonge because Tom LaBonge works for us" -- actually, she works for Tom LaBonge is more like it.
If you want to know who to vote for, you just need to watch this short video clip of the single best moment of the seven races for City Council seats, Stephen Box's great "Titanic" closing statement at a forum last week:
