The blush is definitely off the romance between the city's leading center-right blog and immigrant-bashing, billboard-friendly mayoral candidate Walter Moore. Of all the snowball-in-hell long-shots running against incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Moore, an L.A. attorney, has raised the most money and been able to peddle himself the most successfully to the media — figuring favorably in several Steve Lopez columns in the L.A. Times. Today, however, Michael Higby, who operates the highly read Mayor Sam's Sister City blog, publicly denounces Moore in a post titled, “Friends Don't Let Friends Vote for Walter Moore.”
The order of Higby's charges are that Moore is 1) arrogant, 2) selfish, 3) self-absorbed and petty, 4) has a problem with L.A.'s diversity and 5) is a poor decision-maker. In some ways the list seems in reverse sequence of importance — after all, Higby's first three criticisms are generally thought to be job requirements for executive positions, whether in City Hall or in corporate board rooms. The most serious charge against Moore (as it would be for any candidate) is that he brims with contempt for the city's immigrant population — or at least, for Latinos.
“Moore finds trouble with Spanish radio stations,” Higby says. “Even more troubling is his desire to make Los Angeles an “American city” that apparently means banning taco stands and TV novelas on Spanish language TV.”
Higby
also notes that while Moore has raised nearly $300,000, the candidate
has apparently blown it all on lawn signs and bumper stickers, while
making no effort to set up a phone banking system or organize precinct
walkers who would canvas neighborhoods for his candidacy. In other
words, Moore's campaign appears to be nothing but a narcissistic
gesture and not a serious effort to challenge Villaraigosa. The Mayor Sam bill of
charges against Moore seems incomplete, however, for although Higby doesn't
mention Moore's shilling for the billboard industry, the L.A. Weekly recently examined the issue, as have the Street Hassle and Ron Kaye L.A. blogs.
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