Thread by @nithyavraman

Today the LA Times laid out how my opponent, Councilman David Ryu, is taking money from developers despite promising that he never would.

But it’s not the whole story. And to understand LA politics, I think the whole story is worth telling. (thread) latimes.com/california/sto…

When I first thought about running for City Council, I sat down to look at the money David Ryu had raised.

Even with the primary eight months away, the amount was shocking. But much more shocking was where it was coming from.

It’s way more than just developers.

Ryu has raised $786,000 as of Sept. 30th. It may not seem like much, but for LA City Council it’s unprecedented. The next-highest total is $488,000 for Kevin de Leon in District 14.

There are 19 people running in de Leon’s race. Ryu has raised as much as all of them combined.

Where’s his money coming from? Well, in large part, *not* LA. Only 54% of Ryu’s publicly visible donations are from the city.

Many are from Orange County or out of state — lots of people who don’t live in LA, but have business interests here.

What business do Ryu’s donors represent? Well, despite his talk about not taking developer money, his biggest benefactor is the real estate industry. By far.

He’s pulled in hundreds of thousands from brokers, real estate lawyers, realtors, big landlords, contractors, and more.

The vast majority of these donors are connected to projects in the city or have a long history of working on LA real estate.

The LA City Council controls land use and approves many projects, so donors like these would stand to benefit *a lot* from a councilmember’s favor.

One example: the article mentions the “Flaunt Hotel” being developed in Hollywood. Two lawyers repping the hotel gave Ryu the max.

They also brought in at least $5500 in donations from family and clients, including Flaunt’s CEO, an accused sex abuser. vice.com/en_us/article/…

City lobbyists are in the mix, too. LA ethics law prohibits them from donating, but as you can guess, there’s a loophole!

We found at least nine *spouses* of city lobbyists who gave to David Ryu. Many of these lobbyists represent some of the biggest new developments in LA.

But the people buying influence from David Ryu represent so much more than real estate.

His donor roll is a laundry list of people who need favors from the city. And it’s pretty easy to figure out what they want.

Let’s look at a few of them.

Employees from Live Nation and Nederlander, two huge concert promoters, have given big to David Ryu.

Both happen to be vying for control of the Greek Theater... in Ryu’s district. And the contract comes up for review in what would be his next term. lamag.com/culturefiles/c…

Another max Ryu donor is DART Container, a single-use styrofoam food packaging company.

DART is lobbying hard to stop LA from passing a styrofoam ban, like NYC and Long Beach did.

Ryu also solicited a $5,000 donation from DART for an event last year.
wsj.com/articles/indus…

A guy in Pennsylvania named Richard Smotkin has also donated the max to Ryu.

Smotkin is a lobbyist for Morocco and Qatar, best known for organizing an expensive natural gas-lobbying trip to Marrakech for Scott Pruitt. nytimes.com/2018/05/01/us/…

Smotkin’s wife, his associate Dwight Bush (former Ambassador to Morocco), and Smotkin’s partner Jay Footlik also gave Ryu the max.

Joe Biden returned a donation from Footlik in June, saying he wouldn’t take campaign money from registered foreign agents. mercurynews.com/2019/06/21/joe…

Ryu, like many Councilmembers, also has tens of thousands in donations from the cannabis industry.

Why? The Council recently set caps on pot shop licenses, then gave themselves individual power to lift the caps and give licenses to whoever they chose. latimes.com/california/sto…

These licenses are VERY valuable. It's a no-brainer for entrepreneurs to throw cash to a councilman if it helps them open a million-dollar shop.

Naturally, this process helps the wealthy and connected get rich off a drug that many poorer people are still imprisoned for selling.

I want to make clear that I'm completely in favor of total cannabis legalization and amnesty.

What I'm against is city elected officials giving themselves more influence over an industry — and then selling that influence.

There’s no sugarcoating it: David Ryu and other city electeds have put LA up for sale. Real estate and other big industries have been given free rein to remake the city for profit.

Only those who pay are allowed to stay. Low-income people and people of color are pushed out.

It was in the moment that I looked through David Ryu’s donor list that I decided to run.

I’m so tired of this. I’m tired of fake promises of reform. We need to throw this system out and start over.

We will never, ever address homelessness and climate change if we don’t.

We need to get money out of politics. Until then, I’m trying to run a different kind of race.

We’re looking for donors and volunteers who only seek to help LA become a more just and vibrant city.

If you’d like to join us, go here. Thank you. nithyaforthecity.com