Friday Mixer: Mayoral candidates play nice; then don’t

The LA mayor’s race kicks it up another notch (apologies to Emeril Lagasse). There’s new acrimony in the campaign to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Gene Maddaus (LA Weekly) and Jim Rainey (Los Angeles Times) joined us for discussion on all the recent debates. There was one this week. Another tonight. There’s also one coming up Monday.

The candidates started the week keeping their campaigns low-key to be sensitive to the news events in Boston.

A few days later, they were right back in the ring.

A website mysteriously popped up in the meantime, calling mayoral hopeful Eric Garcetti “Prince Eric”. Alleging he never really held a real job. When asked about it, the Greuel campaign demurred. And curiously, the website was taken down.

New TV and radio ads are out. Some power-hitters on the small screen –such as Lakers great Magic Johnson, California Senator Barbara Boxer and former LA Mayor Richard Riordan – appeared on camera in support of Greuel. Meanwhile, Garcetti found niche audiences (Latino, African-American) on commercial radio stations.

And with absentee ballots going out next week to Angelenos, the campaigns are hoping some spaghetti sticks to the wall.