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Parks Political Family Fighting |
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Politics
By Betty Pleasant (Published first in WAVE Newspapers)
The humongous debt of Councilman Bernard Parks’ campaign for county supervisor has set off some significant activity among his supporters, including a knockdown, drag-out fight between the Parkses and the Wessons that could end in a family feud rivaling the Hatfields and the McCoys.
Insiders told me the councilman and his wife, dismayed by the campaign’s debilitating $432,704 debt, angrily denounced Justin Wesson, campaign consultant, as being responsible for their financial woes. They trashed him and, during a special meeting on the topic, beat him up and accused him of having wasted large sums of money on unauthorized expenditures, including $122,000 for campaign literature, $11,000 for another political poll and $55,000 to Call Center Services for a phone bank operation, which my source said was a complete ripoff.
Justin is the son of Councilman Herb Wesson, who, himself, is very deeply involved in Parks’ quest for the supervisorial seat. Herb rushed to his son’s defense and angrily denounced Parks for picking on Justin.
They tell me that Herb was so incensed that, in language with which most of us are familiar, he told Parks off, reminding Parks that most of the money in his campaign was raised by him [Herb] because he [Parks] is incapable of raising money.
During the fight, Herb was heard to say Justin may have made some mistakes, but at least he was doing something to try to get Parks elected. “My staff is doing all the work because your [expletive] staff is lazy and incompetent and isn’t doing a [expletive] thing to get you elected,” Herb is reported to have said. “[Expletive] with me and mine and I’ll [expletive] walk away!” Herb was heard to say. I think Herb is right. If he and his are raising all the money and doing all the work, none of the Wessons don’t have to take no [expletive] from none of the Parkses.
Alarmed by the Parks campaign’s money woes and terrified by Parks’ looming loss in November, the new Los Angeles County Business Federation, formed in January to emulate the organization and counteract the influence of the county’s labor unions, has decided to step in and give Parks a thrust toward victory for the sake of its 44-member business affiliates.
Over the weekend, the association’s Independent Expenditure Committee decided to raise $1 million and spend it on an advertising blitz pushing Parks’ candidacy.
The committee hired Harvey Englander to produce TV ads for its Parks campaign, and is looking for someone to take charge of its direct mailing operation.
Get ready for a barrage of pro-Parks TV ads and junk mail coming at you from conservative business interests. Personally, I think $1 million is a terrible thing to waste. (Betty Pleasant write Soulvine for the WAVE Newspapers at: www.wavenewspapers.com ) ◘
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 66
Published: August 15, 2008
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