As I mentioned the other day, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s ad attacking Spencer Pratt as a godawful Republican who supports hiring thousands of new police officers is not actually meant to bring Pratt down.
It’s intended to boost him among Republicans and right-leaning voters. That’s because the pro-Karen Bass LA County Federation of Labor wants Bass’ run-off opponent to be Pratt because the political demographics of Los Angeles will make a Bass win all-but-certain.
Many naive right-wingers completely missed this point because they spend too much time on X. See for example, the completely silly headline from The Western Journal: “Unions’ ‘Astonishing’ Attack Ad Against LA Republican Spencer Pratt Actually Helps His Case.”
Anyway, since then, it’s come to my attention that the Los Angeles Police Protective League is now doing the same thing but this time to drag down Democratic Socialist Councilmember Nithya Raman by boosting her fellow DSA’er on the ballot Rae Huang.
You can view the ads here, but they hit the same note of “attacking” the candidate by boosting things their supporters and potential supporters would like. For instance, one ad attack Huang reads: “DSA Rae Huang supports the anti-business Green New Deal.” Another: “DSA Rae Huang supports public investment in permanent affordable homes.”
The police union, like the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, has endorsed Bass. There is no way they are actually scared of Rae Huang since the most recent polling shows she has 4% support. That’s nowhere close to Bass’ 30%.
Clearly, the move is to get leftists motivated just enough to want to stick it to the anti-DSA police union by voting for Huang. This is in order to steal some votes from Raman, who is neck-and-neck with Pratt for second place, with Raman at 19% and Pratt at 22% in the last poll. There’s also been ongoing debate within the DSA-LA, with the varieties of leftists split on Raman versus Huang. Not being a pinko, it’s all very Trotskyite versus Stalinist to me, but that friction means there are people the police union ads can hit with.
(The DSA-LA recently did this really annoying thing where after much handwringing they technically “recommended” Raman but specified their recommendation is not an endorsement. Can leftists do anything right?)
Besides wanting to back the probable winner (Bass) who can help deliver lucrative new contracts, the police union also has reasons to spite Raman. She voted against the last police union contract.
Angelenos should be aware they’re being manipulated. The police union isn’t actually spending money to “warn” you about Rae Huang’s socialism; they’re spending money to ensure Nithya Raman doesn’t make the runoff. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s ad against Republican Spencer Pratt isn’t actually concerned with Pratt.
It’s all meant to help Bass by directing left-votes away from her biggest challenge and right-wing votes to her easiest. That’s all.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com