Ricardo Lara, the Corrupt Robot from the LA Democratic Machine

State Senator Ricardo Lara is one more political animal in the Los Angeles jungle, who has strayed from his natural habitat.

He belongs in Los Angeles, since he was born (?) there.

The truth is, he like many corrupt machine politicians up and down Los Angeles County moved into the district where he now represents.

This man is bad news.

He has no scruples, and takes money from whichever interest will rain it down upon him.

LA Weekly reminded readers that major interests interested in fixing state education targeted Lara with their reporting:

It didn't take long for EdVoice, the deep-pocketed Sacramento advocacy group, to pull a couple of quotes from last week's L.A. Weekly story on the 50th Assembly District race and slap them on an attack mailer.

The story was about how Ricardo Lara got to be the favorite to win tonight.

(UPDATE: Lara wins. With 90% reporting, he has 43.6% of the vote. His nearest challenger, Carmen Avalos, is at 30.3%.)

A relative unknown, Lara has raised more than $400,000 and has the backing of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and many others.

Let's cut the crap here. Lara did not raise the money. His handlers, his puppeteers 

EdVoice, which is funded primarily by wealthy donors who support charter schools, has sunk $190,000 into supporting Carmen Avalos in the 50th. It's not much next to the $1.4 million the group has put into electing Gloria Romero as Superintendent of Public Instruction, but it's still enough for a serious challenge.

Charter education has been a god-send for impoverished communities in Los Angeles. I am glad that one set of community leaders was willing to step up and try to stop Lara.

The thinking goes that if they can upset a favored candidate, that will force others in Sacramento to take notice. Much of their money in the 50th has gone into negative mail against Lara, including this piece:

Activists, PACs, and other groups have to promote positive alternatives, too.

(UPDATE)EXPAND L.A. Weekly Story Used in Attack Mailer Against Ricardo Lara 

That first quote isn't quite right. The story actually says that Lara's two opponents accuse him of being a machine candidate and a carpetbagger. The rest is accurate enough, though EdVoice loses some hometown South Gate cred by spelling Henry Gonzalez's name wrong.  But by the standards of political mail, there's nothing too egregious here.

The only thing that is egregious is Ricardo Lara's abuse of power.

Liberal and conservative, black, brown, white, Latino or Anglo, Californians are tired of Ricardo Lara.

Here is the mailer:

What more will it take to rid ourselves of these corrupt, bought-and-sold politicians?

What does all this nonsense have to do with all of us?

We the people of the state of California should not have to choose between "Bad" and "Bought for."

When will the legislators start working for We the Citizens?

Ricardo Lara is a robot, a puppet, a fraud, a little doll who does what he is told.

He despises the rule of law.

He has no respect for our country's founding charter.

This man is a lawless fraud.

He needs to be terminated, removed from offive.

Its time for We the People to remind him:

"You work for US!"

"Stop Attacking Our Rights!"

"Stop Eroding Citizenship!"