Lots of folks want to run for the Los Angeles City Council District 15 seat being abandoned by Janice Hahn, recently elected to Congress. Voters will probably soon realize that several of the CD 15 candidates sound exactly the same as the current City Council.

The L.A. City Council votes unanimously a lot. Not 50 percent of the time, and not 75 percent of the time, but 99.993 percent of the time, says a respected think tank.

They think alike. There's virtually no room for serious dissent on the Los Angeles City Council. With the flight of the almost always unanimous-voting Janice Hahn, are they also going to start looking alike?

Candidate Warren Furutani is remembered best by some in Los Angeles for doing little of value during his long, seat-warming years on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

During Furutani's era on the LAUSD school board, the schools circled the drain. Virtually no reform was in sight. Things were far worse than today's dismal, but, much more hopeful, situation at LAUSD.

Furutani looks like current City Councilman Paul Koretz, doesn't he?

Is it doubly strange that Koretz and Furutani were both California state legislators?

That both seem to parrot one another?

And that both had to/will have to carpetbag inside the L.A. city limits because they didn't/don't actually live in Los Angeles? (Furutani lives in Harbor Gateway, so he won't need to move inside the city limits as did ex-West Hollywood City Councilman Koretz.)

Los Angeles City Council: Dissent is so unpleasant

Los Angeles City Council: Dissent is so unpleasant

Early word is that no matter who wins among the candidates to replace Janice Hahn — two other contenders for her seat are union honcho Pat McOsker and former Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. — the L.A. City Council's unanimous vote rate will remain at or near a disturbing 99.993 percent.

According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the election is set for Nov. 8, with a very likely runoff next January because none of these folks will win 50 percent of the vote outright.

There's no media-anointed “favorite” candidate yet, but who knows? City Hall could enter a new era of not only thinking alike, but looking alike.

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