Four years ago, I bucked the Democratic Party Establishment and backed a community organizer from Chicago who offered Hope and Change. This year I will repeat my vote for President Barack Obama.
I will also be voting for another local community organizer—Luis Lopez—who has stunned the Sacramento Democratic Party Establishment with his come-from behind underdog campaign against carpetbagger Jimmy Gomez for the 51st District State Assembly District.
I’ve known Luis Lopez since we both served on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council nine years ago. Since then he has served this community on the Parks Funding Oversight Committee and as President of LA’s East Area Planning Commission.
Jimmy Gomez? He has no record of leadership in Los Angeles. How could he when he only moved into the district last year to run for this office!
The problem with a carpetbagger candidate like Jimmy Gomez is that unlike Luis Lopez, who funded his campaign with small donations from within the district, the longtime resident of Riverside County’s campaign has been heavily funded by Special Interests in Sacramento and if he were to be elected he would answer to them, not us residents.
Luis Lopez, on the other hand, was so respected by his peers on the Silver Lake
Neighborhood Council that they elected him Co-Chair. During that time he helped develop Silver Lake and Echo Park into the world-famous go-to pedestrian-friendly destinations they are today.
Luis Lopez has said NO to a 710 freeway extension running through our neighborhoods. Jimmy Gomez has been silent, no doubt waiting to be told how he should vote once he gets to Sacramento.
While Lopez has been openly walking the neighborhoods talking issues and solutions with voters, Jimmy Gomez has been silent, generally avoiding the public except for a handful of photo ops, and refusing to answer the many disturbing questions that have been swirling around his campaign:
Jimmy Gomez has been silent on the serious questions over recently revealed public records, in which Gomez listed his domicile as Riverside while he was
supposedly living and certainly voting in LA County. The LA County District
Attorney’s Public Integrity Division has opened a case file, which will unfortunately—as in the case of disgraced City Council member Richard Alarcon, who won his election but is facing multiple felony charges—not be resolved before the election.
Gomez has been silent about the furor over his accepting NRA donations:
As a local Eastside community leader stated:
"My name is Nadine Trujillo. I'm a long-time business owner here in our community. My husband Michael was murdered before my eyes here in Los Angeles. As a victim of gun violence, I am outraged by the fact that Assembly candidate Jimmy Gomez is being funded by thousands of dollars from registered lobbyists of the National Rifle Association. I am a strong believer in gun control and resent the power of the NRA lobby to buy off politicians and stop sensible gun-control measures, even to weaken and undo California law. So when you vote, please join me and other victims of crime and gun violence by voting NO to Jimmy Gomez and NO to the NRA lobbyists funding his campaign. We deserve much better than Jimmy Gomez and politicians who depend on and bend to the gun lobby. And we don't need another vote for gun-lobby extremists in Sacramento."
Gomez has been silent on the outrage over his indifference to domestic abuse:
“I am utterly appalled to learn that Assembly candidate Jimmy Gomez took a
four-figure contribution from a politician, Assembly member Roger Hernandez,
who beat his girlfriend and is under a restraining order," said Alva Moreno, former Board President of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault and a longtime leader in victims' assistance and stopping sexual and domestic violence in the communities of the 51st District. "I am tired of the general ignorance, hostility, and indifference of politicians to the facts of sexual and domestic violence and its consequences on the health and lives of women."
Gomez has been silent on the allegations raised by LA Weekly regarding a shady quid pro quo between the Democratic Party and the United Nurses Association of California:
As Political Director for the UNAC, Gomez influenced where the Nurses Union’s
money went. LA’s top political blog, Mayor Sam’s Sister City, called it a “borderline money-laundry of PAC money into his campaign coffers”, as highlighted in an article by LA Weekly's Gene Maddaus that rocked the Gomez campaign, alleging that in early May, UNAC gave $20,000 to the LA County Democratic Party. Later that month, the party sent out a mailer, worth about $15,000, urging support for Gomez.
As a result of these and too many other allegations to mention here, it is no
wonder that the Mayor Sam blog revealed that “the Jimmy 'PAC Laundryman' Gomez Assembly Campaign, is in disarray with (Establishment insiders) sending out panic emails that blame Campaign Consultant Mike Shimpock, for the pending election demise of the Riverside carpetbagging, political transplant.”
The Titanic campaign of Jimmy Gomez has hit an iceberg called People Power. As a result of the infighting and disarray, the Gomez campaign has resorted to negative campaigning and lies in hopes of covering up their candidate’s poor showing, despite the bagfuls of money thrown into his campaign to buy his vote in Sacramento. On Nov. 6, let’s send a message to Sacramento that Big Money will not defeat and can not silence the will of the people.
I believe in a Government by, of and for the People, not by Special Interests, of
Big Money and for the Dysfunctional Sacramento Status Quo.
Your vote can make the difference and change the dysfunction in Sacramento. Vote Luis Lopez for State Assembly, 51st District.
