Newsletter No. 77
- jeanadelsman4
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Dark Money in Torrance campaigns . . .
Chen outed as a Trumper . . .
Campaign cops missing in action . . .
Torrance voters have started to connect the financial dots on Mayor George Chen’s campaign funds, and they are beginning to go public with their findings.
The most recent postings come from Kenny Johnson, who is just a concerned citizen. He like so many residents has become increasingly alarmed about the direction that Chen has taken the City in. So, he began researching what Chen and his cohorts have been doing in the dark.
In my book, he may get the credit for lighting a fire under Torrance voters. Johnson is the author of a Facebook post that has drawn a panicky reaction from Chen’s supporters. More about that in a moment.
He is also “Dodging Cars,” the nom de plume on a Reddit post headlined “Dark Money in Torrance Elections.” After Johnson acknowledged that he wrote it and gave me permission to name him, I complimented him on the quality of his research.
If you would like to view the post, but are not up on Reddit, he also posted on Torrance Town Hall’s Facebook page.
On the Facebook post, he offered up two interesting pie charts. After looking at them, click on “all comments” – there were 178 when I was writing this newsletter. They will list the most relevant first, and fortunately that’s Sera Fina’s.
Fortunate because the comment is actually a reprint of the Reddit post, which goes into depth on the material in the pie charts.
The original Reddit post reports on the money taken by not only Chen but also District 1’s Jon Kaji and District 5’s Aurelio Mattucci. Mattucci is now running for Torrance treasurer.
And then you can enjoy the comments from Chen-Kaji-Mattucci supporters who twisted themselves into pretzels trying to call Johnson’s data lies. When the C-K-M contingent were told that the posts quote government records, they kept on attempting to undermine the truth.
Someone else sent me a link to the Current Report (https://thecurrentreport.com/feds-indict-shangri-la-industries-executive-exposes-development-firms-role-in-buying-political-influence-donating-to-sheriff-luna-and-board-of-supervisors/).
My source said it ties Chen and Kaji to Shangri-La. While they are not mentioned in the Current Report article, my source pointed out that Shangri-La, which is in legal hot water, is linked to the PAC tied to Chen and Kaji as the Reddit post details.
Complicated? Yes, but worth grasping what they are up to.
In his research, Johnson found that in 2022, the PAC put a little more than $20,000 into Kaji’s election campaign.
“The AA Victory PAC spent almost $21k helping Kaji get elected. That may not sound like a lot, but for a local city election, that's a lot. There are some candidates who raise less than that for their entire campaign. For a District seat of about 25,000 residents? That's pretty big,” Johnson pointed out.
Kenny Johnson Part II:
A damning Chen meme has been popping up on various Torrance websites and has been shared among Facebook users.
The meme has a smiling Chen mugshot with a quote praising Donald Trump as “the kind of leader the country needs. He is the kind of leader the world needs.”
People in the know are well aware that Chen is a Trumper, but Chen has been cautious with his public persona. So, who was the source of the meme and where did the quote originate?
Johnson told me, “Chen gave an interview in 2022 to a local MAGA influencer named Tom Smith The interview is really enlightening. Chen gets into a lot of the far-right culture-war topics.”
Then he made it easy for me – and for anyone who would like to watch or read a transcript for themselves:
“You can watch it here: https://libertychronicle.us/george-chen-for-torrance-ca-mayor-watch-in-depth-interview/.
I put together an AI-transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/148PECZcDCOrweUo4Ipgiy7vJQV4JBfd3BTAJvMUfSQ/edit?usp=sharing.
"And then there is his praise for Donald Trump -- and this was in 2022! I clipped that portion here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CYuYrVB6d0VsSR0aTtTOQpuJjtz2XCF6/view?usp=sharing.”
Johnson had also been looking for Kaji’s ties to MAGA and found that he gave $35,000 to the Trump Victory Committee.
Unlike Chen and Kaji, Mattucci has not been at all reticent to boast about his MAGA support in his Facebook posts.
Who’s policing this election?:
This mayoral match-up has so many reverberations of 2016 when Frank Scotto defeated one-term Mayor Dan Walker.
Back then before PACs, Walker raised more than $400,000. And he used City Hall as a backdrop for his campaign mailers.
Scotto decisively defeated Walker and set up the Blue Ribbon Committee on Ethics and Integrity. I was a member of the committee.
At our recommendation, the City Council agreed to a $1,000-per-individual ceiling on contributions and banned City property from being used for campaign photos.
But Chen is using a PAC to upend the financial playing field of this election, and he has made City Hall an integral part of his posted campaign photos. And he has parked his campaign car at City Hall, which is a City violation.
Readers have asked me why the City has given Chen a pass. My answer: I don’t know.
City Attorney Patrick Sullivan is a key player here, but he has not publicly slapped anyone’s wrists. If he has said anything privately, Chen and his slate are ignoring him.
In 2024, he told City Clerk Rebecca Poirier that he wouldn’t act against Planning Commissioner Tony Yeh’s transgressions because it might be considered interfering with Yeh’s District 6 campaign. Yeh lost to Jeremy Gerson.
If you missed that issue, go to www.TakeBackTorrance.com and click on Newsletter No. 42.
For anyone who has seen a violation, go to https://www.torranceca.gov/government/city-clerk/elections/campaign-finance-violations and then let me know that you clicked on the link and filed the complaint form.
Money for good government:
The problem of “dark money,” as voiced by Kenny Johnson, is obvious. Donations from residents who have the biggest stake in who gets elected is one solution.
June victories for Sharon Kalani, Betty Lieu, David Kartsonis, Asam Sheikh and Mike Griffiths mean we will take back Torrance. They don’t need to match PAC dollars, but you can help them get their messages out.
Even if Council candidates don’t live in your district, their votes will affect you. To get the Good Government 4 and a quality treasurer elected, go to these websites:
Before I go:
The City’s deadline for correspondence to be included in the Council’s pre-meeting public supplemental is 5:30 p.m. the Monday before the meeting. The Council will receive anything that comes in later before the meeting, but it won’t be posted until Wednesday. It will be at the top of the agenda.
You can also leave voicemails to be included as Oral Communications in the supplemental. Call 310-618-2404 to leave up to a two-minute recording that will be transcribed. Voicemails have the same deadlines as the emails.
Want to tell the City Council your opinion on an agenda item or address any concerns? The City has changed how to have your comments appear in an agenda item’s Staff Report. You should use the OneMeeting Public Portal at https://torranceca.primegov.com/public/portal?fromiframe=true.
Jean Adelsman
Feel free to share this email -- or tell friends about www.TakeBackTorrance.com. And if you email a response to jeanadelsman@yahoo.com, please indicate whether you are expressing a thought for my eyes only or whether I may share your comments with the whole audience.
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