Mayor Tom Bradley has a good name in the city of Los Angeles, as well as in the Black community, and mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel has undoubtedly gained traction by using it.
In an interview with Our Weekly, published June 28, 2012, she spoke of receiving the Tom Bradley youth leadership award when she was a 17-year-old student at John Kennedy High in Granada Hills. That led to her serving on Bradley’s youth council for two years and an internship in his administration while a student at UCLA. After that, she worked on his staff for 10 years.
If Greuel were simply trading on Bradley’s good name, she would be a poor candidate for the city’s top elective office, but Greuel has her own varied and impressive laurels to rest upon were she so inclined–four years at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton Administration, seven years as City Councilwoman from the second district, and almost four years as city controller. Her claim of having identified $160 million in waste as city controller has been sharply contested by other mayoral candidates, but even half that amount would be an important savings for a city budget drenched in debt.
Her experience outside government has lent strong substance to her campaign for mayor. Who on the Council has more varied governmental and business experience than she? Beside government, she worked in the corporate affairs department at DreamWorks SKG entertainment studio from 1997 to 2002, and in her earlier years for her own family’s small business.
Greuel has proven herself as loyal, not only to the former mayor, but to his vision of fairness and inclusiveness. She has cultivated friendships in South Los Angeles as well as in other areas of the city.
As a loyal and admiring former Bradley team member for so long, she has every right to use the Bradley name because of her longtime proven allegiance. The Black community is clearly divided in this election, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This community, like most others, is not monolithic, and we have the right to vote our convictions. Greuel has the support of such heavyweights as U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, Magic Johnson, and Bradley’s daughter, Lorraine. We could add to that the support of former President Bill Clinton.
Eric Garcetti has the backing of City Council President Herb Wesson, current Council members Bernard Parks and Jan Perry, and former Council members Nate Holden and Rita Walters.
Our Weekly is throwing its support behind Wendy Greuel. It’s no knock on Councilman Garcetti. It’s just that Greuel’s involvement with the Los Angeles Black community, Valley Girl though she is, has been more visible and substantive.
