While opponents are celebrating his loss in Tuesday’s City Council election, Councilmember John Heilman already is racking up endorsements for his campaign for Council in the June 2 special election.
In several posts about Heilman on Facebook, Wendell Jones included a photo of some of the 40 West Hollywood residents who that signed the paperwork Heilman submitted on Friday to get on the June 2 ballot.
The supporters included Councilmember Abbe Land, who had decided not to run for re-election last Tuesday, and Lindsey Horvath, a challenger who edged Heilman out and came in third in Tuesday’s race for three Council seats. Also supporting Heilman is James “Duke” Mason, an unsuccessful candidate in Tuesday’s election.
Among the other Heilman supporters are Yola Dore, Manny Rodriguez, Josh Kurpies and John Erickson. Rodriguez is vice president of the West Hollywood West Residents Association. Kurpies is district director for state Assemblymember Richard Bloom and a member of West Hollywood’s Rent Stabilization Commission. Dore is a member of the city’s Disabilities Advisory Board. Erickson is a city employee who served temporarily as deputy to Councilmember Land.
The June 2 election is to fill the seat vacated by Jeffrey Prang, who stepped down from the Council in December after he was elected L.A. County Assessor. Other candidates are Cole Ettman, Heidi Shink, Larry Block and Ariane Kamp.
@Jay Landesman….You really, really never heard of him before!?
I went to a “Meet and Greet” this morning for Cole Ettman. He is a good guy and might just surprise everyone with more support than you’d expect. I’d never heard of him before and I am pretty impressed. He actually manages a law firm- he is not a lawyer. But he is very much interested in fewer waivers for developers, more parking, infrastructure to support residents and small businesses- with a history on the planning commission he is very familiar with the issues and what needs to change to preserve our urban village before it turns into Beverly Hills… Read more »
@ Paul Manchester This is interesting news for sure. Cole Ettman? I too have not heard of him before. He is running in the June 2nd election? I do not recall him being on the Planning Commission and I have checked, he is not on Planning now. He is on the Public Facilities Commission. When was he on Planning?
Wow, Chris… I actually agree with you. Two candidates need to drop out so that one of them can beat Heilman. All of them running together = Heilman back on council.
All this analysis back and forth means very little. The last race was divided with 12 candidates and split votes. It’s safe to say that Block got over 1000 votes and ran a very low budget campaign. It’s safe to say that the ‘D’Amico’s hand picked candidate Joe Guardarrama lost with tons of money and endorsements on both sides of the PAC. Blocks 1000 plus votes are interesting because those people went to the polls for him, and Meister, Horvath, D’Amico and Joe are not in this race. Somebody above said 58% voted against Heilman. If Block gets some momentum… Read more »
Let’s do the math here. About 5,000 people voted last week. Let’s say that falls to 3,000. If Heilman’s dropped not 40% but 50% he’d still be ahead of the number of votes Block got this time, if the latter dropped not one vote. Block would only be viable if it were one on one and had active support from Meister and D’Amico and with that financial resources, Even so, he’d still be the underdog. My guess is that Heilman will get at least 35% of the vote – 1050 out of 3000. Three other candidates, all with some strength… Read more »
DK, I agree that Shink might be a viable candidate. But Block? He got almost half the votes of Heilman. Do we expect that much progression in support in less than 3 months? It seems unlikely to me (nothing against Larry Block).
JJ, “cheaper to build” is misleading and incorrect as it doesn’t include the actual technology but just the structure and is based on the 2012 price tag of $12 million under which we were sold the project. So far the costs have been $19.5 million which includes $1.5 million to “cover the cost of issuing the bonds and initial repaying of the debt”. So: we’re creating 134 spaces and are paying $145.522.39 per added space. So far. Because that does NOT include operation and maintenance, at least another half a million per year. That would be $182.835,82 per added space… Read more »
Shakedowns, greed, in-bed with developers. The same old song from the same old people. Why does everyone want to work, live, eat end play in West Hollywood? Because it’s a damn good City with lots to offer and it just keeps getting better and better every year. John Heilman as been guiding this City for 30 years. He has been re-elected time and time again because the people of this City realize that he’s intelligent, cares, and has made good sound decisions that have helped get us to where we are today. This last election was between 4 candidates. Hellman… Read more »
FYI: The new automated parking garage at City Hall will have space for 200 cars, up from the 68 currently available in the City Hall surface parking lot (one third of city code for a building of its side, with the overflow filling the Kings Road lot during the daytime) The parking structure is actually cheaper to build than a convention structure with ramps. A conventional structure would also require digging 2 levels below grade to achieve the same number of parking spaces. Finally, the funding for the project has no impact on existing programs and services, requires no taxes… Read more »
It is false that this parking garage is cheaper than a conventional one. Cost overruns have already made this a $20 million boondoggle, and it’s not done yet. There is not a parking garage in this town of comparable size that cost as much, Whether it had an impact on existing services is moot — the question is what non-existing services could exist if that money were used elsewhere, like, for example, subsidizing solar energy installations for the citizens of WeHo rather than for the offices at City Hall, or actually planting more trees in town. It did require taxes… Read more »
Larrabee — I doubt very much Heilman will win. He didn’t have large support last week, and I see no reason for this to change in three months time. His name recognition did not prevent him from losing, and his machine didn’t either. Voters in general are tired of status quo machine politicians that are stuck in the past. D’Amico was a known quality, but Meister certainly was not. What she had was a strong message and D’Amico in her corner. Shink has both of those attributes as well, and Block obviously has extensive business experience, a long record of… Read more »
DK – I hope just as much as you do that Heilman doesn’t win, but he almost certainly will. He has a huge machine behind him, name recognition and a large base of support. Meister and D’Amico were very formidable candidates with a long history behind them. The people who turned out to support Meister and D’Amico are not necessarily going to be there on June 2 to oppose Heilman. I also made a typo in my previous post – I meant if Meister (or D’Amico) lost last week and it was one of them vs Heilman June 2, I… Read more »
DK, unfortunately only a total of 4929 people voted, and many voted for both D’Amico and Meister so your numbers are wrong. But I agree with your view that more and more people are tired of Heilman/Duran. The stat that is really striking is that 58% of voters went to the polls and did not even give 1 of their 3 votes to the 30-year incumbent. That is quite a statement indeed as both the LA Weekly and LA Times pointed out. He had all the party endorsements and Duran’s PAC was aggressively campaigning for him. I’m glad Horvath beat… Read more »
I’m sorry but high priced parking tickets and tows discourages people from ignoring the parking limits and parking wherever they want to. I’ve lived here almost 20 years and never been towed..cause I read the signs and I’m mindful of the parking limits and restrictions in all areas..basically, I follow the law as it’s posted. Our new garage has tripled the number of parkings spaces in that spot (available parking is one thing people always complain about). Mr. Block (while he’s made a passionate plea for votes) doesn’t have much experience and doesn’t present himself well. And Heidi who? Please.… Read more »