Well, a major takeover has taken the Torrance City Council.
Sellout Sharon Kalani is besting Mayor George Chen. David Kartsontis pushed out John Kaji in a blowout, and Asam Sheikh has held on to his seat without any problems. Betty Lieu, the wife of Lying (pun intended) Congressman Ted Lieu, won her seat outright, as well. Many Republicans were frustrated with the two Republican candidates i that race, hoping that Harry Ward would drop out, since he was the weaker of the two, with less money and less support. Ultimately, it didn't matter. Michelle Brooks was my preferred candidate, but even if she had gotten Harry's votes, Lyin' Betty still would have won.
This is quite a turnaround. Unprecedented, to put it mildly. If my history is correct, this is the third time in the history of Torrance that an incumbent mayor lost his seat. First, there was the famous controversial Albert Isen ("There are no negroes in Torrance". Then there is Dan Walker, who recently passed away.
And now George Chen has joined that list.
Clearly, there was a lot more anger in the city than I was aware of. For me, I didn't think there was enough outrage, because I didn't see "Recall George Chen" signs throughout the city, the way I had seen them 20 years ago when Frank Scotto challenged and replaced Dan Walker.
But here we are today.
Every major interest on the left and right, if you can call Frank Scotto and his Republican ilk right, wanted to get rid of George.
But I have to say that some unforced errors in the George Chen camp could have been fixed if he had tried.
I think it was noteworthy and noble of George to reject the pride resolution. A lot of residents didn't want it, and the city council chambers were filled with people opposing the resolution in 2024.
It's another pride resolution that was the problem. George Chen became very proud, arrogant, and unapproachable.
I remember speaking to two very well-connected conservative activists in the city, and they both shared deep frustrations with George Chen. And I have to say that I share them.
George took away our public comment! Initially, any member of the public would have 3 minutes to address the city council during general public comment, and then they would have 3 minutes to speak on each agenda item as they saw fit. Initially, I had tolerated the limit on public comment because the Black Lives Matter hate group was still disrupting City Council meetings. When they would start screaming and yelling and shouting "Say his name!" the city council would move into closed session and wait for the BLM activists to burn out and go home.
Finally, they quit. But George didn't give us our time back! I complained about this issue many times. Sharon Kalani made this a campaign issue, and she even contacted me about it during the campaign season. I contacted one of George Chen's campaign managers, and I told him that George needed to fix this. It would be a real shame for him to have done all the work he did, only to lose his seat.
He didn't listen to me.
Something else that was particularly disturbing was George's insistence on installing automatic ticketing cameras. Red light cameras, speeding cameras, automated ticketing programs for parking violations. All of this was sprung on us at the Coast Christian Center campaign event in February 2026.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Chen was open to this proposal, and he was supposed to be a conservative! Not only that, but over the last few weeks, as I've been making noise about this issue, even liberal Torrance residents are just as outraged. This would have been an easy win if George had shut the whole thing down.
Last of all, it was very painful to reflect that he and John Kaji threw me under the bus when I applied for the Open City council seat in 2022. Yes, I had a prior conviction, and I had submitted all the information about it when I applied for the city council seat in 2021. When I got my record expunged, the lawyers told me I didn't have to declare it. They gave me bad legal advice, but vile interests in the city and on the city council took advantage of this unintended mistake.
On the day in question, I was disqualified in front of everybody. It was very painful at the time. It was particularly painful because I had worked very hard to help George and John get elected to City Council, and the way they repaid me was to throw me under the bus. And to do it publicly. And that shows no courage in standing up to the city council members or to the city staff, because I presume that the city attorney had been leading them along to just get rid of me.
I know that a lot of people didn't want me on the city council, and I accept that. I've made a choice that I just will stand for what I believe in, and recognize that I'm just not going to be to everyone's liking. But to have two of the three people on that dais throw me under the bus was just sad.
George made excuses about it when I confronted him 2 years later. John Kaji strung me along, claimed that he was working on fixing the problem, but he never did. In fact, he just hid behind the city attorney, who put all the blame on me.
Finally, in January this year, I confronted the city council for their abusive practice.
It was shameful what they did to me, and I put them to shame for what they did to me. I called them out by name, but abstain from mentioning Jeremy gerson, Bridget Lewis, and certainly Aurelio Mattucci, because Aurelio was the only one who had voted against disqualifying me.
I was surprised at the amount of support I received for that speech. I didn't know if anyone even cared!
And now I fast forward back to that Coast Christian Center debate event. I have not shared this story, because I didn't know if it would have been appropriate, but now I think is a good time. As always, leaving the event, I saw David Kartsonia, the candidate running against John Kaji. Out of nowhere, unprompted by me, David said to me: "Arthur, you gave a great speech at the last city council meeting. And you're right. You were badly treated, and that shouldn't have happened to you."
That meant the world to me. David wasn't going to get anything out of me, so he had no reason to say that to me unless he chose to. And he did. He showed real character that evening.
And with that said, I'm happy to say that I'm glad he got elected. I'm glad that John Kaji lost. He deserved to lose. All the stuff that I've recently learned about him, including real estate dealings and the fact that he pretty much carpetbagged into the district, all hurt him. I support him then, but when I saw how little a connection he had to the district, I can see why voters gave him the heave-ho.
The Team Torrance PAC made unforced errors, as well. I received a flyer promoting George Chen, and it said Team Torrance as the sender. But their address was located in Santa Ana, California! Why would someone in Orange County be sending out mailers for a Torrance City Council race? It makes no sense! The pack could have purchased a dummy office, set up a Torrance mailing address, and sent out the flyers that way!
Betty Lieu was guaranteed to win, since she was the highest vote-getter in the 2018 school board election. She has gathered a lot of support (I don't know how or why, but there it is). With that fact, I presumed that the pride resolution would probably get shoved down our throats. Now I guess it's pretty much a done deal. Then again, I see that a lot of corporate interests and a lot of cities are dialing down on the pride nonsense and taking down the flags. Perhaps the same kind of worn-out lack of interest will pervade Torrance as well.
All in all, I'm not all that sad about the city council elections.
If Aurelio holds on and becomes the next city treasurer, that will be the ultimate vindication. I think it's important that people who actually respect the needs of others, serve the city, get things done, our rewarded with election to higher office. We'll see what happens!
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