Candidates for mayor believe local media has ignored them

By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Reporter

KTLA Channel 5 told Los Angeles mayoral candidate
“Melrose” Larry Green to be in Venice Beach early
Monday for an interview on the morning news.

So Green, an accountant and a radio producer, stayed up much of
the night preparing for his opportunity to appear on
television.

After being thrown out of several mayoral debates he was not
invited to, and doing much of his campaigning at ballparks and even
on buses and subways, Green would finally have a chance to use the
mass media to get his message to the people of L.A.

But his chance never came.

“They didn’t show up,” Green said. “They
didn’t even bother to give me a phone call. Maybe because I
didn’t buy television ads, I don’t know.”

“Channel 2, channel 4, channel 5, channel 7 ““
they’re all a bunch of liars. The idea of them focusing on
those six clowns is an insult to democracy.”

Green is not alone. There are 15 people vying for the
mayor’s office.

An adult film director, an airplane pilot, a painter, a
socialist garment worker, a radio producer, a clergy woman, an
Internet text book publisher ““ they’re all running to
be mayor of Los Angeles.

They’re running along with the congressman, state
controller, parks commissioner, councilman, state legislator and
city attorney who have cornered the majority of the media’s
coverage.

“I’m calling this “˜mediagate,'”
candidate and college academic publisher Steve Mozena said.

“There are 15 candidates running for mayor ““
that’s not even one percent of the population ““ and
they’re only talking about six. Everyone brings values and
opinions to the table. The L.A. Times could have easily
covered all 15 … this is America.”

Earlier in his campaign, Mozena sent raw chickens to local
television directors ““ the idea being that they were
“chickens” for covering only six of the candidates.

Green shares Mozena’s frustration with the media, pointing
out that the L.A. Daily News covered all 13 candidates running for
city council in the fifth district.

“Why are the 13 city council candidates in the 5th
district more important than the 15 mayoral candidates?”
Green asked.

But even without too much media coverage, Mozena, Green and the
other “small-time” candidates have found ways to get
their message out.

Mozena said it is a shame the media acted the way it did, but he
is now “focusing on the positive,” doing his best to
find other ways to run his campaign.

“There are other avenues ““ we’ve put out a lot
of yard signs and called people on the phone,” Mozena
said.

“By the end of today we will have contacted 200,000 people
in our telephone campaign,” he said.

On Mozena’s Web site there is an image of a rabbit
nibbling on some grass under a caption reading “Grassroots
Campaign.”

Another candidate, Addie Mae Miller, a community advocate and
clergy member, has also found alternate routes, taking part in
public walks and appearing on radio shows.

“I haven’t been able to raise too much money ““
as a matter of fact I haven’t even tried to raise too much
money. There are ways to get you message out without selling your
soul,” she continued.

Miller said the chief way of communicating her message to the
public is via the Internet.

“The Internet ““ it has some bad stuff on it ““
but it’s democracy. It evens the playing field, it’s
going to take over TV and the newspaper,” she said.

Green, meanwhile, went to the last five Dodger games, talking to
fans about his ideas.

While the “other nine” share the difficulty in
running a campaign without the aid of the media or unlimited money,
they differ in biography and political vision.

While Mozena has the support of liberal actor Ed Asner, Green
worked on the Senate campaign of Rick Lazio, who was defeated by
Hilary Clinton in November.

Miller says she cannot make judgments on other people, and
believes that the election is “in the hands of a higher
power.”

Others are not as religious.

Rob Black, who describes himself as “Porn Meister,
Wrestling Mogul and Mayoral Candidate,” is also running.

“He’ll probably get 95 percent of the porn star and
stripper vote,” said Black’s spokesman and former UCLA
student Volt Wang. “He’s sort of a mini Vince
McMahon.”

Painter Martin Luther King Aubrey Sr., secession advisor Joe
Shea, and businessman and pilot Bob Tur are also running.

Garment worker Wendy Lyons, who represents the socialist workers
party, advocates a national revolution and the establishment of a
government similar to Cuba’s.

Watchthemayor.com producer Francis Dellavecchia’s ideas
are slightly smaller in scope. Dellavecchia suggests a camcorder be
installed in the mayor’s office so the public can watch his
actions on the Internet.

“We need to open up the government, right now most of it
happens behind closed doors,” Dellavecchia said.

“If I’m elected I’ll have an open door every
Sunday, just like Willie Brown in San Francisco.”

The candidates also differ in their opinions of the L.A. police
department.

Black, if elected, will fire Police Chief Benard Parks
immediately, according to Wang.

Meanwhile Green said the media is at fault for relentlessly
attacking the LAPD.

“They’re trying to fight crime, they’re trying
to eliminate gangs ““ on the whole they’re doing an
excellent job,” he said.

While many of the candidates have been critical of the media for
only covering six of the people running, UCLA communications
professor Michael Suman says “you can’t cover
everyone.”

“The networks are going for news value,” he said.
“They’re covering the people who have enough support to
get coverage.”

Nevertheless, Green is sure he would have been elected if he got
the same media coverage as the top six.

“If I had gotten the media coverage, there is no doubt in
my mind that I would have won the election, hands down,” he
said. “I will not respect the results of this election,
it’s a sham. It is less valid than the election of George (W.
Bush) in November.”