I cannot rejoice enough over Councilman Mattucci's major win over former city councilman Mike Griffiths for the Torrance City Treasurer position.
Griffiths has a horrid reputation for lying to people in the city.
In 2018, I wanted him to support a Resolution against the Sanctuary State Law, SB 54. He made a bunch of excuses, stating that he didn't want to bring a "circus" of protesters to the city council.
How ironic that another circus--Black Lives Matter--would show up and shut down city council business for years. But that's another story for another day.
Griffiths said he would not support it. And yet, at the next city council meeting, there was a request for concurrence on a resolution against SB 54. Griffiths voted for it, along with Mattucci and Chen.
Councilman Milton Herring voted against it, along with Rizzo, Furey, and Goodrich, so the request for concurrence failed. Why would Griffiths tell me he opposed it, then went along with it when he had the chance?
This kind of double-dealing became commonplace with this guy.
I have shared before that Griffiths was particularly rude to me--as well as diffident--about supporting a Resolution of No Confidence in George Gascon. How could anyone find this problematic?
Of course, there was his long of history of arrogance toward the general public. I remember when he attended some of the Beach Cities Republicans meetings, and he would snap back at some of the questions posed by the members.
On the council, once George Chen became mayor, Griffiths would routinely remind the public: "Well, since I am the city councilmember with the most experience ..."
Of course, having experience does not make one an expert. The 15th US President, James Buchanan, had more political experience than most presidents before and after--and yet he's regarded as one of the worst presidents in our nation's history. Experience is not enough. Elected officials have to have class, honesty, and integrity.
Those are characteristics which Griffiths has long lacked.
He ran for Treasurer in 2022, and one would think that as a sitting city councilmember, he would have had the best chance. There were four other candidates, including, at that time, former city councilman Tim Goodrich (who left his seat for career reasons, I guess?). The current treasurer, Dana Cortez, was not showing up to work, and there were two other candidates, including conservative Rick Marshall (who managed to send out a mailer that year, too!)
Goodrich won. Griffiths couldn't beat a former city councilman, one who had quit his job before the end of the term! That is pretty sad. I also remember visiting Griffith's campaign Facebook page, and someone had posted my blog post calling out Griffiths for not wanting to take a stand against Gascon!
After George was elected mayor, Griffiths didn't want to issue a Resolution of No Confidence in the Los Angeles Health Director Barbara Ferrer. His opposition failed, since Sharon Kalani went along with it, and Asam Sheikh abstained (something he does quite a lot on the city council dias).
Griffiths supported tax increases. Griffiths was OK with the Pride Resolution. Griffiths wanted to increase the spending. He was never a true Republican.
Then he ran again for city treasurer.
What kind of support did he muster for his second bid for city-wide office?
Councilman Jeremy Gerson endorsed him, but do you notice anything funny about the photo?
If you can't read the circled section, here's a larger print:
Yes, the liberal Democrat state assemblyman, who thinks it's OK for teachers to keep secrets from parents about their children, who made it easier for sex offenders to avoid the sex-offender registry, who wanted to make it harder to fire pervert teachers, who raised our gas taxes, he endorsed Griffiths.
If this doesn't scream RINO, I don't know what will.
I was stunned when I first saw this, and I had hoped to write something about it, time permitting. What a betrayal! Why would anyone, especially a supposed Republican, promote an endorsement from an abusive Democratic lawmaker like Muratsuchi? The state assemblyman even pushed for his chief of staff, Andrew DeBlock, to run against Griffiths in 2020!
I didn't have the time to go after this perverse endorsement. Getting out the vote for Mattucci was more important. Thankfully, that decision paid off.
Former city councilman and two-time loser for city treasurer, Mike Griffiths, has used the domain name "I Like Mike" for his campaign website ever since he ran for office, starting with the city council in 2014. It's time for him to get the message: No, we don't like him, and it's time for him to move on.
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