Opinion: More reasons to be glad it’s almost over

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The great thing about the election for Los Angeles County supervisor is the depth of the discussion about county government, its flaws, the people it serves and the ways to serve them better.

Just kidding. Instead, supporters of Bernard Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas have plumbed the depths of mud-slinging in mailers slamming the opposition. A pro-Ridley-Thomas mailer from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party arrived in District 2 mailboxes over the weekend that included a picture of an elephant with Parks’ face pasted on it and the words, ‘Why do Republican leaders support BERNARD PARKS?’ That’s actually the funny part. Inside, there’s a photo of wads of cash and the words, ‘Bernard Parks is not who we thought he was.’ It makes the reader assume Parks is not just a Republican, but on the take. Instead, though, it’s just an assertion that the Rampart police scandal was expensive.

But perhaps that’s now fair game, given the fact that a week ago, the Parks campaign sent out this piece, not only insinuating that Ridley-Thomas has Republican, uh, tendencies, but that he’s in the pocket of Big Tobacco.

It really is an impressive piece, in its own nasty way. Some very clever artwork. Ridley-Thomas is emblazoned on the filtertip each cigarette in the pack.

I don’t smoke, but where can I get myself a pack of these?

Inside, it says that it’s ‘not surprising Ridley-Thomas opposes Bernard Parks’ efforts to protect children from second hand smoke.’

What efforts would those be? What did Ridley-Thomas do to oppose them? No answers in this mailer.

There’s also a mock-up of the Los Angeles Times’ front page, the headline ‘Mark Ridley-Thomas covers all the bases,’ and a reference to the fact that, in the June election, Ridley-Thomas paid $2,400 ‘to get his name on a Republican mailer touting the legacy of Ronald Reagan....’ You would never have seen that story actually IN the print version of the Los Angeles Times. It was a blog post. But it’s no less Times because of it, and it is true; here’s the item his supporters sent to Republicans.

Then there’s this one, not from the Ridley-Thomas campaign, but from Alliance for a Stronger Community. Who? ‘Major Funding by Service Employees International Union Local 721 CTW, CLC Workers’ Strength Committee and Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs Political Action Committee.’

Labor, in other words.

So why DID District Attorney Gil Garcetti, the man whose office tried but failed to convict O.J. Simpson for murder, ‘reprimand’ Bernard Parks? Does the D.A.’s office even have power to impose a formal reprimand on a police chief?

Well, no. Must not be that kind of a reprimand. The mailer has a portion of a letter sent by Garcetti -- cleverly covering up his name, I suppose because he was none too popular after the O.J. case -- saying that Parks’ ‘refusal to cooperate with our potential prosecutions’ of crimes committed by police officers was ‘unacceptable.’ Both Parks and Garcetti were publicly scolded by then-Mayor Richard Riordan for their spat.

Any lies in these mailers? No. There’s also nothing in them about the Board of Supervisors or what it does, and why either of these candidates would be good at the job.