Problem I'm Having With My Local (So-Called) Democrats

[Mark E. Smith]

I live in a town called Sierra Madre CA, and currently we are in the midst of a rancorous campaign on
something called Measure V. As a rather quaint LA County foothill town, Sierra Madre has long been
on the menu for developers and their pals in the real estate business. We're talking massive amounts of
condos, boutique shopping establishments, all the usual garbage that gets dumped on small towns once
big developer and realtor cash gets their hands on a town. We're talking tear-down and rebuild, from
sweet small city burgh to Los Angeles County McTown.

Long story short: In the last Council elections we elected 3 candidates to the 5 seat City Council,
all of whom said they would oppose the developers. 2 of them were Democrats, one a "decline to
state." About 3 months into their terms one of the Democrats, a Joseph Mosca, flipped, joining the
two Republicans in favoring the needs of the developers.

As a way of attempting to get what it is the town believes it had voted for, Measure V was put on the
ballot. Measure V would restrict many of the things that developers would require to maximize their profits,
and therefore they are quite livid about it. In the past few months the developers, realtors and assorted outside
interests have pumped close to $200,000 into the campaign to defeat Measure V. Less than $2,000 of that was
raised in town. We, in turn, have raised approximately $10,000, almost all in town. The Anti-V claque, under
the rubric "Preserving Sierra Madre" (paging Karl Rove!), are now mailing professionally processed screeds daily,
nitpicking Measure V and claiming that they are only the interested of saving what is a beautiful town from,
of course, the very people attempting to keep them from destroying it.

My problem with these so-called Democrats I alluded to? With the exception of one lonely town councilman, the
entire Sierra Madre party leadership here has joined with the realtors and developers. They are organizing the
gullible, working with Republicans, and paving the way for a big money big developer rape of this town. The people
I had formerly worked with on campaigns are asking me why I have joined with "knuckleheads" and "fools" (it's like
they're channeling Ann Coulter or something), and don't I realize that all of this is inevitable and why don't I just go
along and enjoy the ride?

Today the Anti-V people are holding a rally in Memorial Park. An e-mail went out to realtors all over Southern
California asking them to come and support this important cause. Most companies are sending a contingent.

Outside money, outside people.

I am angry, and I am disgusted. I am rethinking everything I thought I knew about the Democratic Party and
politics. I may still be a Democrat on the national level, but locally? Not a chance.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Been there, done that, threw the t-shirt in the trash

I don't get it either. I wish I had some sage advice, but all I can tell you is this happens all over the country. I think campaign financing reform may help. Politicians spend too much time worrying about the next election and how to finance their campaigns. Big business (like your real estate companies) contribute big dollars to political campaigns. They have a larger voice and that is really unfair, IMO.

[SharonAnn]

15. The developers also financially aid those in power. Buy their land, give them consulting jobs,

etc. there's no end to it.

It's all bribery.

[AGKISTRODON]

2. Tellyawhat

Sometimes I think that above our level is a layer of interchangeable beings, that only appear to be what we want them to be, at the moment before elections. Principles and honorable actions stop just above our heads. I guess we can be proud, but maybe we are stupid.
The letter after a name doesn't always mean a thing, after an election.

[Mist]

3. I'm convinced many realtors and developers have moved beyond campaign

contributions. There is quite a bit of bribery in this field, and I would suspect that many of these Dems have been flipped with money. Pull out the stops on keeping them out--see what state and federal laws can be used in your favor (historical preservation, ecological protection, whatever). Try to get some info on how the long-term outlook for this sort of development is harmful to the community. Find out what tax breaks, and for how many years, have been promised to the developers. Make a case that this kind of development destroys communities rather than helping them. Good luck--in Bushworld, a lot of this is going on. That's why he's the pResident.

[man4allcats]

4. In my view, it's all about cash.

Ideology doesn't enter into it. Most of these local politicos, and obviously even some at the national level, don't even know how to spell "ideology" much less define the term or subscribe to a particular one. They run on some party's ticket, any party's ticket, just so they can get elected and start grabbing cash from anyone that will give it to them for any reason. Their mantra is "Take the money and run." It happens more openly if not more frequently at the local level because there is less attention given to local politics than there is to national. I say we just get a rope and hang'em all.

[sellitman]

5. How about a trade? - Your Democrats for my LIEberman

:evilgrin:

[wtmusic]

6. In Burbank we're going through the same thing

fortunately development will lose this time around -- our issue is airport expansion -- but it's always on the radar.

[Le Taz Hot]

7. Been there myself.

LTH: "I hear a lot of feedback from people in the community that they see the Republicans at various venues registering voters but they never see Democrats. I think we seriously need to be much more aggressive in our voter registration efforts and expand our presence to shopping malls and large stores."

Local Dems: "Those voter registration tables are a waste of time." :wtf: (Yes, ACTUAL words.)

The above was one of many, many conversations in which I was left, literally, with my jaw on the floor. I finally left the whole mess muttering something about life being too short to volunteer for this type of aggravation.

I feel your pain.

[mntleo2]

8. They Are Probably Profiting Some Way

...I hate to say it but money talks . the WalMart phenomena proves this out as small towns all over the nation sold their whole citizenship out by putting in those disgusting stores. How many mainstreets have we killed with our greed?

I am not making excuses for Dems mind you, because in either party it is really disheartening to know they can be bought. But bought they are and I would not be surprised for a minute that these council members were not whispered to about how THEY will be enriched should they allow this. All in the name of progress, all in the name of "jobs" as if working for WalMart is "better" than working for your local hard ware store.

It is all about greed. This country of idiots would sew up a vagina, or ruin a gay couple's lives, all the while while pretending all is fine with greed ~ it is even Godly ~ when it is greed that makes wars, destroys families, causes poverty, and tramples on communities.

Cat In Seattle

[EST]

9. I don't know if it's true where you are, with the supposed "democrats"

you have to work with, but I do know there are many "democrats of convenience," posing as dems in order to get elected and then forming a fifth column to defeat the very people they've sworn to assist.

An easy way to get flamed, right here on DU, is to advocate an examination of our "activists" and see to the removal of those who appear to be neo con sympathizers. There are many who get pretty angry and seek to make accusations that we are destroying party unity by questioning the "big tent" philosophy that protects such secret fifth column operatives.

The idea that there are, indeed, some republickers who are assuming the democratic mantle for the express purpose of marginalizing people of conscience and compassion, all the while surrounded by those very agents, seems foreign. Conspiracies are there, even though those who point out those conspiracies are ridiculed as "conspiracy theorists" and reviled as, somehow, defective in their thinking.

It looks to me like you have been nearly defeated by those conspirators. Please keep fighting as long as you can.
It helps all of us.

[Mark E. Smith]

10. Mosca was always pro-development in my opinion

The LA County "Democratic Central Committeewoman" in town was very pro-Mosca during the election, far
less enthusiastic about the other Democrat, the anti-developer Zimmerman. A person she now refers to by
the rather Maoist epithet "snake."

She is now, along with her ex-mayor husband Doug Hayes, leaders in the campaign to defeat Measure V.

Give up? Never. Even if we lose this round, we"re working on a recall of Joe "Flipper" Mosca. And after all, a
majority of the voters last time around did vote for the anti-developer candidates. We're not exactly alone.

I'll be at the rally today along with others. Heckling. And that is something I haven't done in a long time.
Who ever thought at the ripe old age of 49 I'd be taking back to the streets?

[PresidentObama]

11. I stopped my involvement with local politics back in early 06'

I got tired of the old timers not letting the younger crowd in, and not listening to new ideas. They seemed less than happy about Howard Dean being our parties national leader, and I often heard some of them bad mouth our chairman. It got to the point where I said fuck this, and stopped going to meetings and stopped volunteering for local campaigns.

[Mark E. Smith]

12. As a very wise man once said..

"While it is true that sometimes the good do die young, it is also
true that the rest merely grow old and go on to make nuisances of
themselves in local politics." - Sir Eric Maundry

[flaminbats]

13. I'm having the same problem in my town..

I used to have two ways out of my subdivision...the expressway and another road that took me into Hall County. A developer bought the land on both sides of the smaller road, and then got the county commissioners to close that public road down...because it ran through the golf course! :eyes:

Then he tried to get the county to close another major public road that leads into the neighboring county...because he wanted to make it part of his subdivision, and put in three cul-de-sacs. Thankfully the county commission voted against this, mainly because this proposal outraged those who owned farms and homes on that road long before this developer came to town!

keep on fighting! no developer should be allowed to close public roads or reduce the value of private property by cutting owners off, just so this land can be added to the nearest gated community.

[paulk]

14. as other posters have said - money talks

and it talks really loudly on the local level, where ideology isn't as much of a big deal.

What you are describing is very much what I've seen happen in Denver, a city where Democrats hold almost a 50 point advantage in registration (and a 10-3 edge in city council). When it comes to dealing with the development and real estate communities, the whole bleeping lot of them may as well be Republicans.

I used to be a lot more active in local politics - taking on a development in my neighborhood, speaking at city council meetings - it was ultimately a very discouraging experience. Even with 90% of the people in the neighborhood against the project I mentioned, City Council unanimously overrode our legal protest petition.

I used to get pissed off about how hard it was to get people involved, but I've come to understand why so many thought it was a waste of time.

I'm not trying to discourage you - by all means, see this through to the end. Just don't play nice with these people and don't expect them to play nice with you - or to even play by the rules.

[LibDemAlways]

16. Much the same problem has plagued the

Ventura County community of Thousand Oaks for years. The City Council majority are a bunch of crooks who are in bed with developers and have made sure thousands of tract mansions have been built on zero lot lines in total disregard of the "general plan" formulated when the city was in its infancy. It's degenerated into a strip mall on every corner and a McMansion on every spare scrap of land. These people all run on a "slow growth, save open space" platform and then do whatever the hell they want once they're in office. And then they nominate their own toadies to the planning commission which approves all the pillaging of the landscape. The same small group of concerned citizens show up at the City Council meetings each week to bitch about it, and the elected morons sit there twiddling their thumbs and paying no attention. Good luck trying to stop the coming ruin of Sierra Madre. You can scream at the top of your lungs, but you'll be shouting into an echo chamber.

[SemperEadem]

17. once these people who are onboard with the anti-measure V

see that their streets are impossibly congested and grid-locked with traffic and that with more cars comes more pollution which gets backed up against the foothills and they have to breathe that shit is when they're going to start whining and complaining about what they've set into motion...

Sierra Madre is a beautiful area. Perhaps you should speak with folks in Ventura or Laguna about their zero-development policies they've put in up there to curb overdevelopment. LA county doesn't need any more strip malls, boutiques or McCondos.

[Mark E. Smith]

18. Article In Today's LA Times Detailing The Vicious & Racist Tactics Used By Anti-V People

Sierra Madre Fears For Its Treasure

http://latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez1apr01,1,1467066.column?ctrack=1&cset=true