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While it's way too soon to know whether political activist Ron Kaye's campaign to mount City Council challenges will gain any traction, electoral or otherwise, the make-up of his organization has already sparked controversy. Former Hillary Clinton campaign official Michael Trujillo, who has been involved with Antonio Villaraigosa campaigns and most recently was the campaign manager for Janice Hahn's statewide run, emailed a letter this morning criticizing the "racist views" of two-time mayoral candidate Walter Moore, an invited speaker at today's kick-off event for L.A. Clean Sweep. Trujillo links to videos he says show Moore's "very anti-Latino view of the world" and asks Kaye, "Did you know these were Walter Moore’s racist views before you asked him to speak today?" Both Kaye and Moore rejected the characterization at Saturday's event. Trujillo's letter (with video links) is after the jump.
At 1pm today Ron Kaye and his supporters will be launching what they describe as a big grassroots effort that will work to serve the residents of Los Angeles better – and he should be applauded for that.
But underneath the surface appears a more menacing agenda which should be noted by all who follow Los Angeles politics.
If you have been following Ron Kaye’s efforts to organize groups and organizations across the city you will notice its consistently the same players who are angry or upset at something the City has done, but today at their unveiling he will have several speakers from organizations that don’t usually attend the SLAP meetings that Ron Kaye has been organizing. In fact, most of the speakers today weren’t even in attendance at their kick-off organizing meeting in April (see video: http://lacleansweep.com/#/news/4540406289)
Yet, one person who was in attendance was Walter Moore – also one of the main speakers at today’s event. Walter was not only in attendance but sort of leading the class by taking down their ideas and giving them tips on how best to organize themselves. (Again see video clip above)
Who is Walter Moore?
Walter Moore is an attorney and a former two-time Mayoral candidate in the city of Los Angeles – neither of which are bad things.
However, when one looks at the positions and stances that Walter has taken, one has to begin to ask if this is a consistent view held by a majority of the Clean Sweep supporters and Ron Kaye himself.
In this clip Walter Moore highlights all of the signs and billboards in Spanish (which is ironic since billboard companies are part of Walter’s attorney client list). Walter complains that the billboards not being in English is somehow a sign that the City is deteriorating.
In another clip Walter shows you how many Spanish language radio stations serve the Los Angeles media market and while he doesn’t say anything in the clip – he does post this on the you tube site to describe the video “"If you don't live in L.A., you may not realize how far the Mexican invasion of our country has progressed. This video shows you how many Spanish-language radio stations we have."
So far both videos show Walter having a very anti-Latino view of the world. Many of those radio stations are listened to and enjoyed by many American citizens and even non-Latinos, but don’t tell Walter that.
Next up, Walter then gives a video essay on how he believes we are at war with Mexico: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn48bY9Hd7k&feature=related
In this 9-minute gem Walter exposes a hidden plot by the Mexican government to take over the Los Angeles region with people of Mexican descent – now while this totally untrue, you wouldn’t get that impression by listening to Walter.
Now if you read Ron Kaye’s blog you will see that he is a master at researching and uncovering items about people in Los Angeles the average computer user might miss, so I have a question for the main organizer of the Clean Sweep movement.
Did you know these were Walter Moore’s racist views before you asked him to speak today? Or maybe you did but figured his positions were politically acceptable and not akin to David Duke and the KKK so it was ok to have him placed prominently in your group?
Just wondering…
Michael Trujillo – a former Valley resident who doesn’t get why anyone would be in the same room with Walter Moore and legitimize his views?