On December 8th, voters in Los Angeles Council District 2, which encompasses a large swath of the San Fernando Valley from Studio City to Sunland, will get to make a choice on who they want to be their next Councilmember.  It’s not a choice they should take lightly, as whoever they choose will get to represent them on the Council for the next 14 years (three four-year terms, plus the ~2 years of the unexpired term for which this is a special election).  The race has statewide implications, of course, because should Krekorian win, it will require a series of special elections to replace him in the Assembly, and that will be darned interesting.

First, a little background.  This election is occurring because former Councilmember Wendy Greuel ran for City Controller and won, leaving the seat vacant.  Out of a myriad of candidates, the top two finishers  in the special primary were current Assemblymember from AD-43 Paul Krekorian, as well as Paramount studio executive turned community activist Chris Essel.  Both candidates are very well funded, though Essel has a distinct cash advantage at the moment.  Krekorian has the support of essentially the entire Democratic Party establishment and its affiliated groups, while Essel brings prominent personal endorsements to the table, as well as the LA Chamber of Commerce.  At this point, the race is expected to be a toss-up, and hinges on whether supporters of other primary candidates, especially Tamar Galatzan and Mary Benson, will show up to vote and for whom they will vote.  Turnout is expected to be primarily by absentee and really low.

So much for background.  I’ll introduce this by stating the obvious, as well as a fact.  Paul Krekorian is of Armenian heritage–the district he currently represents in the Assembly has the highest concentration of Armenians anywhere outside Armenia, and Council District 2 has the highest concentration of Armenians in the City of Los Angeles.  Ethnic politics being what it is–see Chu. vs. Cedillo in Congressional District 32–it goes without saying that Krekorian has basically the default backing of the Armenian community.  Which is why, if you’re the other candidate in an election that will have fantastically low turnout, you should go out of your way not to give your opponent’s base any motivation to vote against you.

Enter Chris Essel, stepping in it by attending a “meet-and-greet” with contributions optional held by a boardmember of a Turkish organization that denies the Armenian genocide:

Essel’s opponent in the Dec. 8 special election is an Armenian-American. And CD 2 has more Armenian-Americans than any other council district in Los Angeles.

On Saturday Oct. 17, Essel attended a Beverly Hills fundraiser hosted by a board member of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, a lobbying group that adamantly denies the Armenian genocide. Recognition of this genocide has been perhaps the single most important moral and political issue for Armenian-Americans, who are just as appalled by deniers as Jews are by those who refuse to acknowledge the horrors of Hitler’s Holocaust.

Also attending Essel’s fundraiser were Azerbaijani leaders, whose controversial campaign to get California lawmakers to condemn Armenia for past military actions was defeated by Krekorian earlier this year.

If you don’t know what the Armenian genocide is, or what the longstanding tension between Turkey and Armenia is about, please look it up, as it’s one of the most shameful episodes in human history that for some reason nobody ever discusses.

Now, I’m going to leave aside the obvious moral implications here and discuss the political aspects for a moment.  What the hell, Chris?  Seriously, I can’t think of a worse political move than giving the Armenian community a reason to turn out in larger numbers than they otherwise would have.  Because if the mere existence of the event itself weren’t bad enough, apparently the communities of Armenia’s political rivals felt like this event should become anti-Armenia open season day:

An article on the fundraiser was published two days ago in an Azerbaijani newspaper and appeared on a Turkish website that, among other things, also features videos about Armenia’s “So-Called Genocide.” The article on the fundraiser praises Essel and labels Krekorian’s views “immoral” and his actions as anti-Turkey.

If you think I’m kidding, here’s the website for the organization that the host is a prominent member of.  And here’s a scan of one of the invites to the event. I don’t know who’s advising Chris Essel politically, but I do know for certain that she has access to the same Political Data reports that I have access to.  And those reports say that the Armenian vote on the September 22nd primary was around 11.7% of the general population.  Now, that number is likely to be even higher during the special general, and if I were Chris Essel, I’d be spending a lot of my time making sure there aren’t any excuses for that number to be driven further up.  What I seriously want to know is who on Essel’s campaign decided that attending this event would be a good idea–because if Essel’s political team is that tone-deaf and inept, it makes me seriously question whether she would be capable of getting the advice and counsel that would be necessary to represent all of her constituents on the City Council.