It was the closest of the races in the March 8 election, but the re-election of City Councilman Bernard Parks has emboldened a business group that hopes to become more of a force in city politics.
The Los Angeles Business Federation, a loosely knit conglomeration of 80 businesses in the city, wants its influence felt in the 2013 mayor's race - which translates into a need to raise more money.
Tracy Rafter, the former Daily News publisher who founded the BizFed, said the group will meet today at the City Club downtown to map out its strategy.
"We used the Parks race to see how we can work together in future elections," Rafter said. "It was almost a pilot program for us to see if we could make a difference."
The BizFed spent $28,600 and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce spent nearly $52,000 to get Parks re-elected. That amount was dwarfed by the amount contributed against him - more than $200,000 - and the nearly $1 million spent to boost the campaign of his opponent, businesswoman Forescee Hogan-Rowles.
"We want to show that business can make a difference if it gets involved," Rafter said. "There are 110,000 businesses in the city and we want to try to get them more involved."
The politics of 2013 are not focused solely on the mayor's race.
In a swap of committee assignments, Councilman Dennis Zine - looking to run for city controller - was named the chair of the council's Audits and Governmental Efficiency Committee, the
panel to which all audits by Controller Wendy Greuel are first sent.In return, Councilman Paul Koretz will take over as head of the Personnel Committee.
Zine has said he will run for controller if Greuel follows through on plans to run for mayor. Serving as chair of Audits gives him a bully pulpit in which to review the controller's office.
For Koretz, it also allows him to remain close to labor issues dealing with city hiring.
Ever since he was elected to the City Council in 2005, Councilman Bill Rosendahl has tried to keep a secret about his private life. Now he is coming out.
No, it is not about being gay. It's about the fact he has kept chickens at his Mar Vista home for years. He has supplied his colleague with free eggs for years but refused to talk about it with reporters.
He broke his silence this weekend, appearing on the radio show "Good Food" on KCRW (89.9 FM). The show aired on Saturday, but is available on podcast.
The gift that keeps on giving: The move by Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, to decertify Vernon as a city continues to draw a lot of political heat.
Last week, Perez spokeswoman Shannon Murphy characterized Vernon officials as "corrupt" and said their consultants were "continuing to mislead the people of Vernon and the public."
Not so, says Fred MacFarlane, who represents Vernon.
"Slanderous press aide diatribes against hard-working businessmen and women in Vernon and the hundreds of thousands of men and women they employ ... are not what the people of the state of California ... should expect," MacFarlane said.
Murphy said she was not talking about the people who work in Vernon.
"I'm talking about the officials and the people they hire," Murphy said. "First-class international travel at taxpayers expense, indictments for misusing public funds. It's clear there is a history of corruption there. Vernon makes Bell look like Disneyland."
Rick Orlov is a Daily News staff writer. His Tipoff column appears Mondays. For a daily fix on politics, visit the Sausage Factory at insidesocal.com/politics. To contact him, call 213-978-0390 or write to rick.orlov@dailynews.com.
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