Weiss Campaign - Prison Prospects Provoke Pandemonium

Friday, May 8, 2009



As scandal after scandal continues to plague the house of cards that is the Jack Weiss campaign for City Attorney, the wheels appear to be coming of the wagon.

Whoever is writing the script for the last days of the Jack Weiss campaign must be wondering what else can possibly go wrong for the erstwhile 'Teflon Don' of Los Angeles politics.

As parallel investigations by the SEC, City Ethics Commission and the District Attorney's Office continue to probe into what has become known as 'Kellygate" - the illegal fundraiser held at the home of Beverly Hills philanthropists Daphna and Richard Ziman by Kelly Candaele (a City Pensions Commissioner), another scandal is emerging; Weiss has covered-up evidence of the illegal fundraiser.

Weiss spokesperson, Ace Smith (82), had promised that Jack Weiss would return the illegally obtained contributions, however, Jack Weiss's latest Campaign Finance Disclosure fails to mention any returned contributions, as required by law.

10 days remain before the May 19, 2009 election when former deputy district attorney Carmen Trutanich is poised to take out the 'Teflon Don.' Weiss looks likely to lose the election having failed to raise the $2M that he needs to buy his seat as Los Angeles City Attorney. But the real question is, will the indictments come before or after the election?

Weiss Tries To Cover Up Evidence of Illegal Fundraiser

Friday, May 8, 2009

The saga of Jack Weiss's Illegal Fundraiser continues as it now appears that Weiss has not returned the illegal donations he received as a result of his illegal Beverly Hills fundraiser held on Monday, April 27, 2009.

The invitation to the exclusive, but illegal fundraiser

The LA Times reported that Weiss "...Will give back roughly $20,000 raised from Monday's event" said his campaign consultant Ace Smith.

Weiss spokesperson Ace Smith (72)

According to City Election law, Weiss has to report all contributions received as well as those returned to the City Ethics Commission.

According to the most recent Campaign Finance Report submitted by the embattled Weiss campaign, NO CONTRIBUTIONS WERE RETURNED WHATSOEVER.

Interestingly, no contributions were reported as being received from Daphna or Richard Ziman, owners of the secluded mansion where the illegal fundraiser was held. This fact leaves one to wonder whether the Weiss campaign are illegally withholding details of all the illegal campaign donations they received at the Ziman's residence.

Crime Scene; the Ziman's $16M Beverly Hills home

The fundraiser was illegal because it was co-hosted by a City appointee, Kelly Candaele, who resigned within 4 hours of the Mayor's Office being questioned about the illegal activity. Under Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 49.7.8, a city appointee may not engage in political fundraising.

Weiss is, of course, no stranger to failures to return illegal campaign contributions. Weiss has still not returned the money-laundered campaign contributions he received from developer Alan Casden's employees and associates.

Complaints into Weiss's illegal conduct have been submitted to the District Attorney's Office, as well as to the City Ethics Commission.

With less than 2 weeks to the May 19, 2009 election, Weiss must be praying that the attempts to cover up his illegal conduct continue to deflect media attention.

Crime Scene - Philanthropist Daphna Ziman's Home Hosts Illegal Fundraiser

Monday, May 4, 2009, Beverly Hills

It's altogether another world for the vast majority of Los Angelenos; the world of the rich and privileged who clubbed together on Monday, April 27, 2009, to pay money to Jack Weiss.


Unbeknownst to most of them, they were participating in a crime - violating campaign finance law for the benefit of a corrupt politician; Jack Weiss.

An apparently small group of Beverly Hills super-rich elitists gathered at the Ziman home; a 10,311 square foot, 7 bed, 7 bath $16,000,000 (yes, that's $16M) Mega-Mansion that hides behind dense manicured foliage and a matched pair of wrought iron gates that costs more than the average Angeleno earns in a year.




The price of admission? A check for $1,000 to Weiss and no questions asked, thank you.

The gated compound that is 1006 N. Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210 is home to the super-rich celebrity couple Daphna and Richard Ziman. But on Monday night it was nothing more than a sordid crime scene.


The multi-millionaires, philanthropist Daphna (pictured above with American Idol winner Ruben Studdard) and her husband, former lawyer Richard, were probably unwitting accomplices to the filthy world of Jack Weiss politics that the LA Times bravely uncovered in their recent article.


The aerial photographs above show what is invisible to the majority of Los Angelenos; a secluded multi-million dollar home that offers a lavish lifestyle that few can achieve, let alone aspire to.

Welcome to the world of Jack Weiss, where hard work is a dirty word, and deceit and dishonesty are simply the incidences of admission.

Jack Weiss is engaged in a desperate battle to salvage his failing political career, and chose to ignore the law and shake down as many of his wealthy 'friends' as possible to finance his filthy, negative and untruthful campaign to buy the City Attorney's Office.


Co-host to the illegal fundraiser was Kelly Candaele (pictured above), a self-proclaimed "writer, filmmaker, teacher and elected official in Los Angeles."

In 2005 Candaele was appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa to the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System Board of Directors. In one of his rare appearances at City Hall proceedings, Jack Weiss as Councilmember for Council District 5, unquestioningly voted for the Mayor's appointee.

Equally unquestioningly, in 2004 Weiss also voted for a law that prohibits City appointed officials such as Candaele from engaging in campaign fundraising activities. Doubtless, Weiss relished basking in the illusion of being an "ethically correct politician."

However, at the same time that Weiss voted for the law, he was under investigation for being the recipient of thousands of dollars of money laundered illegal campaign contributions from property developer Alan Casden's corporate connections.

Ever the master of deceit and deception, Weiss evaded prosecution claiming that "He did not know" that the contributions he received were illegal. However, despite Weiss's ignorance he has has steadfastly refused to return the illegal campaign contributions as required by the Los Angeles City Charter and demanded by the Fair Political Practices Committee.

Given Weiss's apparent comfort level with accepting illegal campaign contributions, it cannot have bothered Weiss one iota that the Ziman's home was to be a crime scene on the night of Monday, April 27, 2009.

On that fateful night Weiss was unquestioningly admitted behind the wrought iron gates to the mansion where he doubtless obsequiously greeted co-host Kelly Candaele - the man he voted to appoint as a commissioner to the Pensions Board. Weiss cannot possibly have not known that Candaele was breaking the law in fundraising for him - he voted for Candaele and he voted for the law prohibiting Candaele from doing what he was doing; fundraising for Weiss.

But Weiss's desperation to finance his acquisition of the City Attorney's Office was more important than the law he's supposed to follow. Weiss needs that money to finance his hate-filled campaign airing glitzy misleading television advertisements proclaiming himself as some sort of super crime fighter. The law seemingly only applies to ordinary people, not the elite who worship at the feet of Jack Weiss.

Weiss apparently scooped up about $20,000 in donations on the night of the crime. You may well think that $20,000 is far less than the Mayor's 'Golden Boy' should have been able to extort from the Beverly Hills elite, but the reality is that Jack's arrogance and lack of people skills has finally caught up with him, and the donations are far and few between.

Big Union money now holds the key to Weiss's future, but as the sordid details of the 'Kellygate" scandal now unravel the incredibly arrogant and facile deceit Weiss practiced on his wealthy 'friends,' perhaps organized labor will chose to distance themeless from the slow motion train wreck that is the Weiss campaign.

Weiss's campaign manager s currently Mayor Villaraigosa and his campaign strategist is San Francisco based Ace Smith who masterminded Hillary Clinton's failed Presidential campaign.

Both Villaraigosa and Smith are probably wondering how they could have been so inept as to hitch their wagons to Weiss, and both are probably looking for a convenient bus under which to throw Jack Weiss.

While Jack Weiss was busy raking in illegal campaign donations on Monday night, Carmen Trutanich was hosted at a legal fundraiser at the Sheraton Hotel in Universal City.

Carmen Trutanich has been endorsed by the LA Times, the LA Daily News, the Metropolitan News and every single law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County including District Attorney Steve Cooley, Sheriff Lee Baca and the LAPD Union. Now you know why.

In the face of overwhelming evidence of either ineptitude or arrogance, or both, anyone who stands by Jack Weiss is condemned to be tarred with the same brush of cynical derision for the laws of mankind.

Jack Weiss's illegal conduct has gone unchallenged for too long. The very thought that this sort of elitist scum has any place in civilized society is an affront to basic notions of decency, and it's time to let criminal prosecution determine Jack's future.

It's time to elect decent and honest City Attorney, and Carmen Trutanich's appellation as the 'People's Lawyer' is perhaps the most fitting description of who we need to look after our interests.

As for Weiss, the "Elitist's Lacky" - as long as the super-rich continue to thrown their money like confetti at Weiss, they risk being sucked down into the dirty world of unethical conduct that is Jack Weiss; Los Angeles' version of Rod Blagojevich.