Dirty Trick?
UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff called to say that he received a robo-call Monday
afternoon from an unidentified source saying he was from the Republican Party urging voters to support school board candidate Tamar Galatzan.
Zasloff paraphrased the message, which said "All of us republicans have to stick together and vote for Tamar Galatzan and defeat that liberal democrat Jon Lauritzen. Republicans have to have our voice on the Los Angeles school board."
Zasloff, a democrat, says the call is dirty politics at work since Deputy City Attorney Galatzan is a democrat who worked for the Anti-Defamation League.
"Both my wife and I are high-propensity democratic voters. Neither one of us has ever voted for a Republican. It's obvious we're on every democratic calling list there is," Zasloff said. "Obviously, somebody who has got it out for Tamar is calling high-propensity democratic voters pretending to be associated with the Galatzan campaign.
"It's a classic last-minute dirty trick...and people should know about it to determine how they vote.
"Part of the thing that children should learn about in public schools is ethical behavior and nobody running for school board should be engaging in this type of unethical behavior."
Lauritzen campaign manager John Shallman said they had nothing to do with the call. He noted that the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce--who has endorsed Galazan--had been sending out Republican mailers in the past few saying that she was the best choice for the school board.
Why would a call that would be most effective on republicans be aimed at a democrat? Shallman said it was probably a mistake by the people who sent it since they could be unfamiliar with political campaigns.