John Duran has it right in his mailer. People are talking. They are talking about his desperate smear campaign. They are talking about how developers are trying to buy this election. They are talking about his outrageous claims and outright lies about Steve Martin.
Apparently John and his developer backers don’t feel he can win re-election on his record so he must attack Steve Martin. Clearly, he can’t rely on his popularity or his record to get elected. The only thing he can do at this point is try to run down the competition.
John Duran has raised more than $90,000, most of it from outside interests, for his re-election campaign. He has also encouraged his developer backers to set up an “independent expenditure” campaign, which is not controlled by the City’s $500 per person contribution limit. Big developers and billboard companies have put over $50,000 into this “independent” committee, “Friends of West Hollywood,” to smear Steve.
Arrogant and Out of Touch
Personally, I like John, over a drink, but, he has become an arrogant and lazy council member. He’s dismissive of the public and out of touch with anyone who doesn’t frequent his favorite “Boystown” haunts. Not all of us are gay men, John. As this council race entered its final weeks, developers realized that, unless they stepped in, they would lose their most reliable vote. So, now our mailboxes are being flooded with trashy mailers filled with lies, as John tries to save his political future.
No secure or popular incumbent would have to stoop to these tactics. If he were a great, or even good, leader, people would be rushing to his side to help him win. John Duran has been so isolated in his City Hall bubble that he seems to think that people have forgotten his over the top, pro-development votes and his superior attitude toward the public. Duran also apparently hopes that the public has forgotten that he is still under a pending investigation by the District Attorney’s office for the illegal use of his city credit card or his numerous taxpayer financed junkets.
John forgets that Steve Martin has been a leader in this community since West Hollywood was founded. We residents know Steve and we know that he is committed to serving the needs of the public. He’s been working with and helping us when he was on Council and all of the years since. Steve puts the time in. John Duran seems more interested in holding the title of City Council member than actually doing the work of an effective elected official.
Going Negative When You Lack Positives
John Duran’s attacks on Steve Martin border on the ridiculous. He’s relying on the public not knowing the facts. I hope the public takes the time to watch “Steve Martin Fights Back” on his website, to see him respond to the attacks.
Hit pieces say that Steve is anti-tenant, yet they can’t point to a single vote that Steve took as a Rent Stabilization Commissioner or as a City Council member that was against rent control. Walking with Steve, I’ve met a lot of tenants who have told me how Steve has helped them over the years. Steve is clearly very pro tenant. He was a rent stabilization commissioner for six years. As a council member, Steve enacted the first protections for tenants with pets and insured that tenants were not charged for their parking spaces.
In one mailer, Steve is accused of opposing the creation of affordable housing, referring to Steve’s opposition to the building of low income housing at Tara, the historic property on Laurel that I worked to preserve. Steve was an early supporter of “Save Tara.” He worked with us for almost a decade to create a park and community space there.
In the same mail piece John Duran is hailed as supporting “Save Tara.” It took him seven years to support it. Then, John Duran and Jeff Prang voted against building the proposed affordable housing on this same site. So, if Steve is being accused of opposing building affordable housing particular to this site, then John Duran and Jeff Prang did the same.
The most outrageous charge is that Steve is engaging in “election fraud” because he sent out an absentee ballot application with his campaign address as the return address. This is perfectly legal and has been approved by the City Clerk of West Hollywood. John D’Amico used this same campaign tactic in 2011. The accusation that the City Clerk “warned” Steve not to do it, is simply an outright fabrication. John Duran and his friends don’t seem to care about the facts or who they hurt as long as he gets re-elected.
Steve Martin was never fined by the Fair Political Practices Commission or even reprimanded. Steve had transferred $28,000 in 2000 from a defunct Assembly campaign account to his City Council account. When he discovered this was not allowed, he immediately transferred the money out of the account, returned some of it to donors and gave the rest to West Hollywood charities. Not one dime was ever used for his City Council campaign. But you would never know that from what you read.
John Duran is selling his soul and West Hollywood’s future to developers and billboard companies so he can stay in office for another four years. Since he can’t win on his own record, he has to bash and make up lies about his rival to deceive the voting public. If John Duran manages to get re-elected, he will be beholden to the people that paid to keep him in office.
This is politics at its dirtiest. We know money can’t buy you love, but we’ll find out Tuesday if it can buy you votes.
ALLEGRA, put the same time and energy into cleaning up Weho of all those Steve Martin signs that you put all over town.
There is a very simple solution–Vote Yes on Measure C! The imperiousness of the entire council has gotten out of hand. The nastiness of the Duran campaign has no place in WeHo.
Thank you. I really appreciated your article.
@”Anonymous”, if you live in WeHo you must not have checked your mail the last 2 weeks.
really? writing a smear piece about john duran to counter saying he has funded a smear campaign against opponents. crazy and untrue.
Thank you for the clarification of the accusations levied against Steve Martin. Are these fraudulent claims defamation and can lawsuits be initiated? I think most of us Wehoans are really tired of dirty politics and bogus claims like the ones against Steve. One would think Weho could rise above these dirty tactics.
The amount of costly, paper-wasting, negative propaganda filling my mail box everyday has been telling. Perhaps, Mr. Heilman will loan me that gold-plated shovel he has on his council office wall so I can plow through the mud piling up in front of my door. We have all been through it many times before – mudslinging, down and very dirty, campaigning. Torie and Betsy smeared each other, Eric and Wendy and Steve Z and Kate are at it now in LA so I guess it’s only logical that it is happening in tiny, little West Hollywood. But, isn’t that a… Read more »
I would say to the incumbents – who seem so desperate to hold on to the the jobs that pay $10K a year – when you lay down with dogs – you get up with fleas. I too support Steve Martin and I support Measure C. I appreciate Allegra’s eye-opening article and one by Sheila in another online WeHo blog. Thank you. The last time I looked “buying an election” was illegal in this country. The last time I thought about it some more I realized that – for some folks – the ends justify the means. There is a… Read more »
Thank you, Allegra for this insightful, well-written, commentary. The poisonous mailers coming from Duran’s camp is just reflection of who he is, not his opponents. It’s the same MO he uses as a councilmember to pit eastside against westside, tenants against landlords, “million dollar homeowners” (as Duran likes to call the people on the westside) against renters, businesses against residents, “Boystown” against people with children. Duran doesn’t try to build consensus; he’d rather just berate those who don’t agree with him, like “those women” from Plummer Park, or those “million dollar homeowners” who happen to care about what happens in… Read more »
Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. Albert Einstein Allegra Allison thank you for this insightful blog about the state of our City. I am sad to say that this City, born in 1984 is now almost dead. West Hollywood was a City born of the people, by the people and for the people. It is now almost fully sustained by Developers and other outside interests…of by and for them. I have known Steve Martin since he was on the City Council and I have watched him since he left City… Read more »
does anyone believe that the next election will be any different? no matter who the candidates happen to be we can always expect a deluge of negative mailers and character assassination financed largely by out of town interests in any weho election. until the voters are fed up and act on it. sadly i don’t see that happening.
Steve Martin will listen to what we all have to say and you know what? He’ll hear what we have to say. I can’t tell you how encouraging people are, want to talk about him, are really intrigued with someone who doesn’t put up a billboard on the side of a hotel and says he’s not a vote in the pockets of a billboard company. Jeff Prang very often on the wrong side of something, whether writing defense letters for LA’s County Tax Assessor under indictment or something as silly as the obvious people pick up after your damn dog… Read more »