Trutanich Unfairly Blamed For Delays In Arizona Boycott

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich has been harshly criticized for delaying passage of the City Council's Arizona boycott ordinance.

Politics Without Mercy seized on an LA Times article to unfairly accuse
Trutanich of purposefully and deliberately delaying the boycott
to appease his "hard-core right wing voter base" 

The unfair criticism started with an article in the Los Angeles Times questioning the one-year delay in drafting an ordinance to put into effect the wishes of the the Los Angeles City Council to boycott business with the State of Arizona. The boycott was in response to Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law; SB1070.

The LA Times article quoted Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes, who wrote the boycott in May of 2010, said "he blamed City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's office for taking more than a year to draw up an ordinance specifying the terms of the ban," however, a spokesman for Trutanich said "an ordinance is still in the works."

The comments from CM Reyes are not surprising. Since taking office, City Attorney Trutanich has suffered a hostile relationship with CM Reyes; believed to be attributable to Trutanich's Senior Special Assistant Jane Usher, who had previously clashed with CM Reyes over planning matters and has privately accused CM Reyes of being the "Mayor's puppet."

Notwithstanding the reasonable explanation that Trutanich was still working on the ordinance, the Politics Without Mercy blog, spun the story around. According to PWM the issue is not as simple as routine obstructionism of anything CM Reyes proposes, but a more sinister desire to appeal to Trutanich's perceived "hard-core right wing voter base" who favor Arizona's aggressive stance against illegal immigrants.

PWM appears to suggest that Trutanich's supporters would likely applaud Trutanich for using every tool in his box to delay the passage of a law boycotting the State of Arizona. The perception that Trutanich can defeat the progressive policies of the Los Angeles City Council will do much to support Trutanich's bid to become Los Angeles District Attorney, a position which would give Trutanich more power to re-introduce conservative policies towards illegal immigration.

Whether Trutanich is obstructing the passage of the Arizona boycott purely to put CM Reyes in his place, or to appeal to his voter base as he ramps up his District Attorney campaign, there is little that CM Reyes or the City Council can do about it. Trutanich can point to budget cuts that have forced him to prioritize the demands on his staff and can hold off the boycott indefinitely.

It seems that the City Council will have to find another way to put their boycott into effect, and Trutanich will emerge as a champion of anti-illegal immigration laws and earn respect for showing how he can control the City Council.

Trutanich's District Attorney campaign website is www.DraftTrutanich4DA.com.