Politics & Government

Video: Huizar, Martinez Shun Attacks, Debate Issues at The Center for the Arts

The political rivals even embrace; José Huizar apologizes again for fired campaign consultant's offensive e-mail targeting Rudy Martinez.

In their third—and possibly last—public debate in the hotly contested race for City Council District 14, incumbent José Huizar and his challenger Rudy Martinez, squared off at the on Tuesday night.

The political rivals were called to set aside the contentious tone that, until last night, had dominated the run up to the March 8 election.

"I know that these two have known each other for a long time and had called each other friends," President Michael Larsen said of the two contestants in his introductory remarks to the debate, which was hosted by the ERNC and TERA (The Eagle Rock Association). "Politics, however, seems to have a funny affect on friendship and sometimes we are the most cruel to the people we love the most. So tonight, we'd like to step in and rescue a friendship as well as sense of civility and decency we feel we've been deprived of."

Both candidates took the pledge of decorum, and Huizar even took time out of his opening statements to personally apologize to Martinez and his mother for an e-mail recently sent last Friday to supporters of Huizar and some members of his Council staff by a former campaign consultant, Michael Trujillo, calling for a "political bullet" to be put between Martinez's eyes. Huizar fired him Sunday and a police investigation into the allegedly threatening e-mail is underway, following a complaint that Martinez lodged with the LAPD hours after Huizar fired Trujillo.

Saying "I do," the candidates promised to eschew personal attacks forthwith and for the remainder of their respective campaigns and focus instead on pressing community issues, including library funding, councilmember salaries (as high as $179,000 per  year), medical marijuana dispensaries and the impending $350 million deficit in the annual budget.

In response to a question about their leadership styles, Huizar said he's "versatile" and has a diverse, "hard-working staff" that "knows each community well." Martinez described himself as a "no-nonsense guy" who "took chances" in his life, "including this one"—a reference to his decision to run for office.

Huizar listed recent accomplishments throughout CD 14, including successful development projects on York Boulevard as well as the historically low crime rate achieved in Eagle Rock in 2010, which he has described as one of the safest in Los Angeles—despite occasionally disturbing incidents such as last week's brutal beating of a jogger by a group of young men at the Yosemite Recreation Center.

Martinez, as has been his strategy throughout the campaign, hammered home to the audience his successes as a business owner—he is the owner ofMia Sushi in Eagle Rock and in Highland Park. "I am the most innovative person I have met," he told the audience, evoking much laughter in response to a question about how he would mend potholes in streets and get trees trimmed in the face of a budget crisis.

Click the video in the box to the right to see excerpts from the candidates' responses from last night's forum.

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