"Paul Koretz (Finally) Deletes Racists’ Endorsements From Campaign Website" by Daniel Guss

But His Own Racist Comments About Dead "Black Hustlers" Persist, Along With Reports of Desperate Behind-the-Scenes Campaign Maneuvering

@TheGussReport - While the fallout continues in response to vicious and cackling racist comments in a recorded conversation between LA City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, who resigned late yesterday afternoon, one desperate LA politician clung to some of their endorsements like Rose to Jack in Titanic.

At least until dawn this morning.

That would be Councilmember Paul Koretz, who, as reported in my column yesterday, deleted Martinez from his City Controller campaign website endorsement page on Monday, but still featured Cedillo and de León, both of whom participated in the same hate-filled conversation.

It took until overnight on Tuesday for Koretz to delete Cedillo and de León.

And that’s no accident.

Tellingly, Koretz’s endorsements include a rogues gallery with LA’s lying, absentee Mayor Eric Garcetti, former Councilmember Mike Hernandez, who was busted in 1997 buying cocaine in his city vehicle and former LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who lied about his education in campaign commercials and who attempted to commit insurance fraud using his city vehicle in 2004.

And Paul Koretz is proud to have them on his endorsements page?

Koretz’s delay in distancing himself from his grotesque pals comes as no surprise given his own denigrating, racist and homophobic comments about the homicide victims of now-imprisoned killer Ed Buck, who donated a substantial sum of money to a slew of Democratic politicians over several decades. Koretz has kept Buck’s blood money.

“We have a councilmember behind you at City Hall named Paul Koretz, who told a group of people that all of Ed Buck’s victims were ‘nothing but disadvantaged Black hustlers,’’’ said community activist Jasmyne Cannick in a press conference shortly after Buck’s conviction in July 2021.

Koretz’s own words can be heard in this Q&A exchange with Cannick at that time.

Koretz’s abusive comments about Ed Buck’s homicide victims and his clinging to the endorsements of his racist buddies speaks should be taken at face value.

It also explains disturbing reports this column is getting about behind-the-scenes activity in Koretz’s camp exactly one month in advance of his City Controller runoff against CPA Kenneth Mejia, for whom the LA Times doubled-down on its endorsement yesterday, describing him as a man who, “brings political independence and a willingness to challenge the status quo.”

Its report card on Koretz is less flattering.

“Koretz, termed out after 12 years on the City Council, seems more interested in remaining in elected office than in being the taxpayers’ watchdog or government reformer. His website offers no proposals for what he would do as controller,” continuing, “During his time on the council, Koretz has largely been a defender of the status quo. He’s never challenged budget-busting labor contracts that add to the city’s structural deficit. He’s fought efforts to make it easier to build more housing and blocked projects to add bike and pedestrian safety improvements. He’s chair of the committee overseeing animal welfare and sits on the budget committee, yet he seemed surprised when The Times reported this summer that the city’s understaffed and underfunded animal shelters were in crisis, with dogs going unwalked for weeks and small animals left without food and water.”

But let’s not pile-on.

We are still waiting for an accounting of the $1.5 million Koretz misappropriated from the Animal Welfare Trust Fund at LA Animal Services. If he refuses to account for every dime taken from that mountain of cash that was donated specifically for the care and comfort of homeless and lost animals in the city’s possession, look for Mejia to use the City Controller’s subpoena power to find out and hold Koretz and the pound’s past and current general managers and commissioners legally responsible.

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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He has contributed to Mayor Sam, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)