The Los Angeles Police Department's rank-and-file union dropped another $850,000 into the effort to elect mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, the biggest single contribution over the two-year campaign, according to reports filed Wednesday.
The Police Protective League, which represents roughly 10,000 officers, has devoted more than $1.43 million to Greuel's candidacy since the campaign began. That makes it a close second to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which represents workers at the Department of Water and Power and has devoted $1.45 million to Greuel's candidacy.
Spending by city employee unions in the mayoral contest has been hotly debated because City Hall faces continuing budget troubles caused in part by rising costs of employee salaries and benefits. The next mayor will serve on the committee that negotiates pay agreements with police officers and DWP workers, as well as the union that represents firefighters, which has spent $425,000 on various efforts to elect Greuel.
Rival Eric Garcetti's campaign charged Greuel has become "a wholly owned subsidiary of super PACs. The heavy impact of independent money, versus the people-powered base that I have, is a real contrast in this race," Garcetti said at a campaign stop in Venice.
Greuel's campaign hit back by unveiling a new TV ad criticizing Garcetti for accepting campaign contributions from Juri Ripinsky, a real estate developer convicted in the 1990s in a bank fraud case. Garcetti voted for a development project backed by Ripinsky in 2007 and, since 2008, received more than $11,000 in contributions from Ripinsky and his relatives.
The ad is part of a larger Greuel effort to cast Garcetti as a politician who is "in it for himself." The 30-second spot shows Garcetti praising Ripinsky as "incredible" at a polo match in Will Rogers State Park that doubled as a campaign fundraiser. "What's more incredible?" says the narrator in the video, as Garcetti embraces Ripinsky. "Collecting money from a felon at a polo match? Or voting to approve his development project?"
"This just shows that Eric Garcetti will say and do anything to get elected," Greuel strategist John Shallman said in a statement.
Garcetti contends that Ripinsky has paid his debt to society and deserves a chance to rehabilitate himself. His campaign also asserted that Greuel repeatedly accepted money over the past decade from Charles Francoeur, a real estate developer convicted on theft and conspiracy charges in the 1990s.
"Only an incompetent and discredited smear artist like Wendy Greuel would attack someone for doing the same thing that she has done," said Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman.
Garcetti has ignored Greuel's demand that he return the money. Greuel sought to distinguish herself from her opponent by giving back $2,600 donated to her mayoral campaign by Francoeur and his wife. She gave another $4,000 to an after-school program — the same amount provided by Francoeur and his wife to previous Greuel campaigns, according to her spokesman.
The charges and countercharges came amid a day of high-profile events for the candidates. Garcetti spent part of the day touring the offices of Google in Venice, taking part in one of the company's fireside chat-style Q & A sessions. During his visit, he discussed topics ranging from bicycle safety to efforts to upgrade the city's information systems, which he described as "cutting-edge technology from 1982."
Greuel attended a reception in Beverly Hills that preceded a dinner honoring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton has played a prominent role in the campaign, endorsing Greuel and appearing in TV ads promoting her that were shot by a group called Working Californians, a committee that has received a large share of its financing from the DWP union.
david.zahniser@latimes.com
james.rainey.@latimes.com
maeve.reston@latimes.com
Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
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