Backstage at the L.A. Mayoral debate

  • I'll be somewhat live-blogging it tonight at 7pm. I haven't been following L.A. politics recently, but I'll do my best.
  • I finally got around to removing a certain site from my list of blogs; said site had publicly objected to me including links to the article "MEChA, Villaraigosa And The LA Mayoral Campaign" in a whopping two posts.
  • I called Ron Kaye of the L.A. Daily News (one of the questioners at tonight's debate) and asked if he was going to ask Villaraigosa about this past involvement with that organization. His cell phone made it sound like he was driving through the Chunnel, so about all I can say is that he won't be asking that question. Apparently he feels there are more important bread & butter issues to discuss.
  • I tried to contact Colleen Williams of KNBC-TV (another questioner). Both times I got the same jughead in the newsroom who gave me incorrect information. Namely, that Williams wasn't writing her own questions but they were being supplied by the debate's producer. The producer told me that's wrong. The jughead told me Williams doesn't have an assistant or a producer and there was no one who could ask her to ask a question. Local old media is the worst kind; at least the NYT, WaPo, and to a certain extent the LAT are feeling some heat from we bloggers.
  • This site has more information on the L.A. mayor's race.
  • More debates are scheduled for February. However, I believe tonight's debate was postponed, so that doesn't mean they'll happen.
  • The Committee to Recall Antonio Villaraigosa appears to be a grassroots organization. I have no knowledge to the contrary, but I'd imagine his political opponents would at least support such an effort. I know I do. They want to recall him because he said he'd serve as councilman for four years, but now he's running for alcalde, er, mayor.

UPDATE: In defense of jughead, Colleen Williams was just the moderator. There were only two questioners. Live-blogged to a certain extent here.