Apartment Owners Open Campaign to Defeat Wachs
- Share via
The Apartment Owners Assn. has urged 40,000 landlords throughout Los Angeles County to “give ‘til it hurts” to defeat San Fernando Valley Councilman Joel Wachs, the council’s leading rent-control proponent, in the April 14 Los Angeles city election.
The association, in an article in its monthly magazine, urged landlords to contribute to Jerry Hays, a rent-control foe who is one of three Wachs opponents in the central and northeast Valley’s 2nd District race.
“Give ‘til it hurts,” the article implores. “Because if you don’t, you may not have anything to give if Wachs and others like him continue in office.”
Hays said Friday that he has received about $1,000 from apartment owners since the article was published. But, he pointed out, the magazine only began arriving at apartment owners’ residences this week.
Hays Raises $25,000
Hays, a self-employed businessman, raised about $25,000 before the appeal went out, including $500--the largest amount permitted from one source under the city’s campaign-financing law--from the Apartment Owners Assn. Wachs’ other opponents, Jack E. Davis, a retired railroad brakeman, and Georgetta Wilmeth, a homemaker, raised less than $1,000 collectively, according to the latest campaign reports filed at City Hall.
Estelle Tenenbaum, president of the association’s political action committee and author of the magazine article, said her group believes that Wachs is vulnerable because he is running in an almost entirely new, more conservative district created by last year’s council redistricting.
“Joel Wachs and other supporters of rent control have personally cost you thousands of dollars and untold stress, and most important of all they have made a mockery of property rights and everything this country was founded on,” the magazine article says.
Wachs ‘Not Worried’
Wachs said Friday that he is not worried. He has raised more than $600,000 in campaign funds over the past few years and plans to raise more for an intensive mail campaign. Furthermore, he said in an interview, about half of the district’s residents are renters.
Wachs also said he has taken steps to mobilize tenants to head off the association’s attack and that he will let renters know that Hays “would go in there and get rid of rent control.”
Wachs’ new district is made up of areas previously represented by Councilman Ernani Bernardi and the late Councilman Howard Finn. Bernardi co-sponsored the city’s rent-control law with Wachs. Finn once described himself as a lukewarm rent-control supporter.
More to Read
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.