Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman ripped into L.A. Weekly at a West Hollywood/Beverly Hills Democratic Club meeting last night. He was apparently steamed over our cover story, “Dethroning West Hollywood's Martinets.”

According to West Hollywood Patch reporter James Mills, Bauman took the unusual step to very publicly condemn the Weekly cover story as an example of “yellow journalism.” Bauman added, “L.A. Weekly is trash. This is not journalism, this is trash.”

Goodness. Guess we hit a nerve, eh?

The general public doesn't know much, if anything, about Bauman, but he's a professional Democrat and behind-the-scenes power player who has a reputation for playing hard-ball politics and not always being a nice guy.

As we worked on the reporting for “Dethroning West Hollywood'd Martinets,” we saw Bauman at two Democratic club meetings. He was always a menacing presence, staring down people and walking around the room as if he was some kind of old school political boss who needed to keep the rank and file in line.

At both meetings, he spoke in favor of endorsing West Hollywood City Council incumbents John Heilman, Abbe Land, and Lindsey Horvath. Maintaining the status quo, in other words, was all that he cared about.

In “Dethroning West Hollywood's Martinets,” L.A. Weekly shows how the status quo and its defenders have turned West Hollywood into a place where challenging candidates almost never win City Council races, one council member — John Heilman — has reigned for 26 years, and City Hall has become disconnected from its core values of working closely with residents.

Bauman obviously hated those findings. Read the cover story to find out why.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

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