Hacked Clinton Campaign Emails Expose Iffy Relationship with Sensitive LA Mayor

THIS IS WHAT I KNOW-Regardless where you stand on the WikiLeaks issue, perhaps we can be proud that our own mayor got a mention. Carla Marinucci hooked us up with a link in Politico’s California Playback column on October 27, 2016. 

Apparently, some players in the Clinton camp believe that “He (Garcetti) has this reputation. Wants to be really courted. By the candidate. No one else. When you get him on the phone, he is nice, but then his staff comes back with this…” 

A June 2015 email thread details the mayor’s holdout for a longer meeting with the Democratic presidential candidate. When the mayor’s “Executive Vice-Mayor”/Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Jacobs called to say Garcetti “really doesn’t want to do this brief meeting at a fundraiser,” Podesta detailed his reply: “I was pretty cold and said we would consider a meeting sometime in the future. Maybe he can hold out to be MOM’s (Martin O’Malley’s) VP.” Even Huma Abedin weighed in. “He’s a tough one for us. Never really had a relationship.” 

For a bit of backstory, last November, Garcetti had endorsed Clinton in a written statement sent from the mayor’s office, a distinct no-no in election law. Thou shalt not use government resources to send campaign-related announcements or to electioneer. A second email fired off an hour later stated, “Today’s statement on Hillary Clinton was sent in error,” and a spokesperson for the mayor explained the statement should not have been sent from the mayor’s office. 

Back in June, the Wall Street Journal  had reported Garcetti was being floated as a possible HRC running mate but he told WKNX News Radio that he was staying where he is. “I’m not looking for a new job. I have a great one right now, and that’s being mayor of the city.” It’s hard to say whether the mayor’s prima donna reputation might have precluded that possibility. Garcetti is planning a re-election bid next year and word on the street is he may be considering a gubernatorial bid in 2018. 

Garcetti’s cozy relationship with developers has earned him detractors, especially among neighborhood integrity activists, as detailed in Patrick Range McDonald’s CityWatch column earlier this week.

(Beth Cone Kramer is a Los Angeles writer and a columnist for CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.