Mayoral Final Four: Kevin James vs. The Three Villaraigosas

Now that billionaire Austin Beutner has dropped out of the race to become L.A.'s next Mayor, the choice for voters is more clear than ever:  do you want the same people who have been running the City for the past decade to continue down this same road, or do you want to give an outsider a chance?

There are four candidates left, and three of them have already been running the City for the past decade -- running it into the ground. 

There is no material difference between the three insiders, namely, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry and Wendy Greuel. They've all been running the City from their positions as City Council Members. They all voted the same way. They all agreed with Villaraigosa about everything.  For all intents and purposes, they are merely Villaraigosa clones.

Think about it: in the many years they have already been in office, did Garcetti, Perry or Greuel ever do anything, anything at all, to fight corruption and waste at City Hall, or to promote employment?  No. 

Did they ever disagree about any public policy issue? No. When it comes to their records, you can't tell them apart from Villaraigosa or from one another, because they're all exactly the same. They all just cater to the special interests that fund their campaigns. The are indistinguishable from Villaraigosa.

And don't tell me Greuel has done anything as Controller. She merely recycled the same audits that her predecessor, Laura Chick, already issued years ago -- audits about which Greuel did nothing when she sat on the City Council.

You've already seen what Garcetti, Perry and Greuel will do if you put them in office, because they've all been in office for over a decade. They are the people who have raised your DWP rates year after year, let the streets crumble, handed hundreds of millions of tax dollars to billionaire developers, and brought the City to the brink of bankruptcy. If they could do any better, they would have done so long ago. They have failed.

So in March 2013, when you cast your ballot, you can maintain the status quo, and reward the three insiders for their horrid performance as stewards of this City. Or you can give someone else a chance. 

You can elect an outsider, someone not beholden to special interests, an experienced lawyer, a former federal prosecutor, who is running not because he needs a job or craves power, but because he wants to make our City better.

Kevin James is this City's only hope. We need to get him elected. We cannot afford four more years under the control of another Villaraigosa.