YEGPARIAN: 2012 ELECTION- GRIMY GATTO V
by Garen Yegparian
October 17, 2012
This time, in exposing some of Assemblymember Mike Gatto’s
reprehensible actions, I am indebted to a blog called “Mayor Sam”
(). The folks writing this website have
been doing excellent work documenting Gatto’s errant behaviors ever
since he was first a candidate. You might enjoy reading some of the
reporting they have done.
>From Mayor Sam we learn of Gatto’s insensitivity to the mentally
handicapped. It seems a few years ago, Gatto, like many others, was
trying to make money by registering domain names on the internet,
which he thought might be desired by someone in the future. No harm
in that. But among the names he grabbed were RightTarded.com and
LeftTarded.com. This is clearly a political word play on “retarded”
combined with the left and right ends of the political spectrum. This
is just one more example of why many Democrats have trouble stomaching
Gatto.
Mayor Sam also exposes Gatto as someone who abuses the public trust.
How else would you describe what follows? In 2002, Gatto was working,
according to Federal Election Commission records, on Congressman
Brad Sherman’s reelection campaign. Of course, high-season for this
kind of work is after Labor Day, September-October-November. Yet
somehow, on Oct. 9, Mike Gatto managed to claim 227 hours’ worth of
work when he billed the City of Los Angeles, based on a six-month
“personal services contract.” The contract was signed on Sept. 19. It
was only officially approved on Oct. 2. Pretty impressive, isn’t it,
how in just 19 days (about 3 weeks), Gatto was able to work 227 hours
(about 4-and-a-half work-weeks), all while simultaneously campaigning
for the Congressman he was working for. Is this the kind of person
we should have in the state legislature in these tight financial times?
But Gatto’s duplicity and unpleasant tactics don’t end there. Shortly
before Greg Krikorian, Gatto’s opponent in the race for the 43rd
Assembly seat, filed his papers to run for the position, he started
getting phone calls. At the time, Krikorian’s parents were going
through some health issues, and he was busy helping them. Yet Gatto was
“persistent,” even telling Greg’s wife Christine it was “an old friend
calling” when he phoned Greg’s home fairly late at night. When they
spoke, Greg was left with the impression that he was being threatened.
And speaking of Christine, it turns out she had some financial
problems, which the Glendale News Press decided to report on, making
it seem, inaccurately, that Greg Krikorian was involved, too. Aren’t
you curious as to how this newspaper, short-staffed as it is, came
up with this story? Does anyone doubt it was Gatto’s minions that
planted the seed of that hit piece with the paper?
Of course, all of this might be considered normal campaign antics. But
because it involved people other than the candidates, their actions,
and comments, it bears some scrutiny. I might have even thought
nothing of this, but for Gatto’s reaction to something I’d written
during his first campaign, in 2010, for this Assembly seat.
During that campaign, Gatto’s first child was born. As a campaign
mailer, he sent a picture of himself, his wife (still in a hospital
bed), and their newborn. I had observed that this was tacky and
exploitative. Gatto was incensed that, as he saw it, I had involved
his family in the campaign. Yet, he had no problem doing exactly that
to someone else. Just another example of his double standards…
You have probably already received your absentee ballot. Make sure to
vote, and vote soon, and most importantly, vote for Greg Krikorian so
we can be freed of the embarrassment of having Mike Gatto representing
the 43rd Assembly district.
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/10/17/yegparian-2012-election-grimy-gatto-v/
http://mayorsam.blogspot.com