Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
The City Council campaign of Warren Furutani was the first to publicly propose a mutual pledge of civility:
Saying that voters have “had it up to their eyeballs” with negative, mudslinging political campaigns, L.A. City Council candidate Warren Furutani today called on his run-off election opponent, Joe Buscaino, to join him in signing a pledge to voters to run a wholly positive campaign....“Both Joe and I ran positive campaigns in the primary. I think the voters appreciated that, and that’s one of the reasons we were successful on Tuesday,” said Furutani. “Today I ask Joe to join me in agreeing to a positive campaign for the run-off, an election where we will both focus solely on our qualifications and proposals for a better community.”
Buscaino's people had their "Dear Assemblymember Furutani" note out within minutes:
As candidates, we have a choice between making this campaign a positive or a negative one. I believe that as we move into the run-off election, we should remain true to the positive political spirit of our Council District 15 friends and neighbors. I am writing to invite you to join me in keeping this campaign positive, free of mudslinging and attacks. Let’s keep the kind of campaign the residents of Council District 15 deserve. We’re members of the same community, we know each other and we respect one another.
* After the jump: A gloating email that's going around is attached to the name of Buscaino campaign consultant Michael Trujillo — but he says he didn't write it, and that his account wasn't hacked either. "I think someone's having fun with me," he told me, speculating that his name has been pasted onto the email. Again, Trujillo says flat-out that he didn't write the email or cause it to be sent. Just to be noted: About 5 a.m, Trujillo's Facebook account was updated with this status: "Most awesome night of my professional career. There might have been tears at one point, god bless america." The email going around carries a 5:35 a.m. time stamp.
Subject line: "My Best Day Ever!"
Folks,Last night was my best professional day ever in my entire life. We showed that you dont need anything -- the democratic party, the county federation of labor, seiu, ibew, park skelton, john shallman, eric hacopian, the speaker, the mayor, all of the city council, all of the assembly, all of the senate -- years of making deals in city hall.
The Buscaino campaign just followed some simple words and did what we had to do to be in first place tonight. And for those who were at Election Night -- yes those were real tears -- tonight was the most profound night in my entire professional career.
Joe came in first--- however, we wont stop -- we have already received the endorsements of city-wide elected officials and those who came up short on election day.
Tonight we released polling from Diane Feldman that shows Joe beating Warren by over 20 points -- this is likely to stay consistent.
So thank you for following us in the 15th -- and who knew a boy from the SF Valley would make every consultant in the city look dumb. :)
Trujillo is Councilman Richard Alarcon's appointee to the city's redistricting commission. Earlier this year he left the campaign of Councilman Jose Huizar after another email that became controversial.
Earlier today:
Buscaino and Furutani get into CD15 runoff