In my 30 years as a consumer advocate, I have never been involved in a Congressional race…until now.1
Assembly member Laura Friedman is the best choice to replace Adam Schiff for the 30thCongressional District. She is a forthright and principled fighter for consumers and the environment.
Her opponents – Mike Feuer and Anthony Portantino – represent the worst of California politics and I feel duty bound to speak out against their candidacies.
Feuer’s Corruption
Once a friend of consumers, Feuer’s role in the DWP billing scandal that engulfed his city attorney’s office demonstrates a lack of transparency, accountability and conduct bordering on criminal culpability.
Feuer was fingered in the DWP billing case, backed up by public documents, for authorizing a pay-off to an extortionist to cover-up a collusive lawsuit the city filed against itself. The details of the collusive lawsuit have been well publicized and a top Feuer top deputy, Thom Peters, has been convicted for his role in paying off the extortionist who threatened to go public with details of the collusion.
The Justice Department filings state that Peters, the number three in the office, was ordered by “senior officials” at a meeting on Dec. 1, 2017 at 4:45 p.m. to pay off the extortionist. Feuer said he doesn’t remember the meeting, but a Public Records Act disclosure from Feuer’s calendar shows he was in that meeting.2 And a text message filed in court from Peters to a city lawyer after the meeting stated, “Mike is not firing anyone at this point. But he is far from happy about the prospect of a sideshow.”
Feuer stated over 60 times in a deposition related to the litigation that he “didn’t recall” what happened in one of the most high-profile cases to come across his desk as city attorney. Nonetheless a court-appointed special master found Feuer knew “all or most of the city’s three-part plan” to file a sham lawsuit in which the city chose the counsel to sue itself, without disclosing it to the ratepayer plaintiff, and settle quickly.3
I personally know Mike knew about the sham lawsuit a lot earlier than he admits because both attorney Tim Blood and I separately confronted him about it years before the details became public.4
Feuer is lying to his supporters and the public when he claims he had no knowledge about what happened.
Feuer is unfit for this or any other public office.
Portantino’s Dirty Deals
Anthony Portantino has used his powerful role as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop all kinds of good public interest legislation on behalf of corporate special interests who have contributed to his campaign.5
Recently, Portantino used his unilateral power to hold without a vote or hearing legislation that gives people who live near oil wells the right to hold oil drillers liable for their illnesses if the driller didn’t use the most protective technology. There are over 100 active oil wells in the 30th Congressional District.
More than 130 public interest, environmental and labor groups backed SB 556. The oil industry that opposed the legislation gave $33,000 in campaign contributions to Portantino’s campaign committee.6 Portantino sided with the drillers against the community he represents and allowed oil drillers to continue to recklessly drill without accountability for their actions.
Worse, he ignored the courageous young woman who was the inspiration for the reform. Nalleli Cobo grew up 30 feet from an oil well and at the age of 9 co-founded a grassroots group, People Not Pozos (Spanish for wells), to fight back. Ten years later she closed down the well, but not before getting Stage 4 reproductive cancer. Nalleli took her case for SB 556 to the legislature and wrote about her experiences in the Los Angeles Times,7 but Senator Portantino refused to personally meet with her and look her in the eye.
Shame on Anthony Portantino. He does not deserve higher office.
Laura’s The Real Deal
Laura Friedman will represent this district with honesty, pride and vigor.
Her record in the legislature has been one of consumer and environmental protection. Laura has served in several leadership roles including Chair of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and Chair of the Assembly Committee on Transportation. She has worked to address housing availability, fight climate change, and protect vulnerable communities. She is not a corrupt power broker like Anthony Portantino, nor a morally vacuous official who will do anything to keep his job like Mike Feuer.
Laura is the real deal. A woman who got into politics for the right reasons and is staying true to them.
For three decades, I have fought for consumer protection in California. I hope you will let my experience guide you and urge you to support Laura Friedman for Congress.
Sincerely,
President, Consumer Watchdog (Title and organization given for identification purposes only; no endorsement implied.)
[1] This is my personal endorsement, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization Consumer Watchdog that I head does not and cannot take positions on candidates for elected office.
[2] Eric Leonard, “DWP Scandal: What Did the LA City Attorney Know? Federal prosecutors allege a key discussion about the extortion took place during a Dec. 1, 2017 meeting,” KNBC LA April 4, 2022 https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/dwp-scandal-what-did-the-la-city-attorney-know/2862816/
[3] Special Master Ed Robbins wrote “By the end of 2014, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (“DWP”) was enmeshed in a public relations firestorm resulting from the DWP’s ongoing failure to provide reliable billing services to its over 1.5 million ratepayers. Lawyers in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office (“LACA”), along with retained Special Counsel for the City of Los Angeles (“City”), hatched a three-part plan beginning in December 2014, to take control of the ever-worsening DWP billing debacle by: (1) shifting blame in the press from DWP to its billing-system consultant PwC; (2) suing PwC for damages (City v. PwC ); and (3) getting rid of the other class action suits filed against the City through orchestrating a competing class action suit to become the lead suit, filed by a ratepayer client who had unknowingly retained the City’s Special Counsel ( Jones v. PwC). … Michael Feuer, James Clark, Thomas Peters (the City Attorney and his two top deputies), Richard Brown, Eskel Solomon, Richard Tom, Deborah Dorny (LACA attorneys specifically assigned to represent the DWP), and DWP Board President Meldon Levine all knew most or all of this three-part plan.” (pg. 5) Special Master’s report https://www.scribd.com/document/515640293/Special-Master-Report-DWP-cases
[4] Dakota Smith, “Red Flags Missed? Critics Raised Concerns Years Ago About DWP Lawsuit Settlement,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 2022 https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-02-10/red-flags-were-raised-about-the-dwp-lawsuit-settlement/ https://consumerwatchdog.org/in-the-news/red-flags-missed-critics-raised-concerns-years-ago-about-dwp-lawsuit-settlement/
[5] Andrew Sheeler, Lindsey Holden, and Stephen Hobbs “California lawmakers use secretive process to kill would-be laws: ‘Where good bills go to die’” Sacramento Bee, August 22, 2022 https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article264432901.html Among good bills Portantino held in suspense for no reason: AB 2408 (Cunningham), allowing suits against social media companies for addicting children, after Portantino raised significant campaign contributions from Silicon Valley companies subject to the proposal.
[6] Brooke Staggs, “New Setback For Efforts To Protect Californians Living Near Oil Wells,” LA Daily News, May 24, 2023 https://consumerwatchdog.org/in-the-news/los-angeles-daily-news-new-setback-for-efforts-to-protect-californians-living-near-oil-wells/
[7] Nalleli Cobo, “I Grew Up Next To An Oil Well. California Can Protect Others From What I Went Through,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2023 https://consumerwatchdog.org/in-the-news/the-los-angeles-times-opinion-i-grew-up-next-to-an-l-a-oil-well-california-can-protect-others-from-what-i-went-through/