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MY VIEW - I have to admit, I was never a fan of Franky Carrillo’s candidacy for State Assembly, but the most recent revelations about his Conflict of Interest statements make my prior concerns pale in comparison.
I was suspicious when he suddenly jumped from running in a Congressional race into the 52nd District race, moving from his ranch nearly 100 miles away just days before announcing his new campaign. At a minimum, he didn’t care about serving in the State Assembly (in which I had served proudly years ago), but was just looking for a political position.
Franky was then recommended for support by the far-left Democratic Socialists of America – Los Angeles. One of DSA’s primary areas of focus is to abolish police in LA. With Franky having been falsely imprisoned for murder (a crime he didn’t commit), they clearly believed they could count on his distaste for law enforcement. In LA City Council meetings, we heard months of obscenity-filled testimony at every meeting from DSAers calling to eliminate the LAPD by decimating its funding. A DSA recommendation was hardly an argument in his favor.
Then in late May, LA Magazine unearthed in their research of public documents details of his pending divorce. Among the most concerning items in her sworn statements, Franky’s wife Efrat Sharony details how he left many guns laying around the house easily accessible to their young children, despite Franky’s campaign website that states, “Guns hurt people every day; we must continue to get guns off our streets and increase awareness of the harm they cause to our communities with their accessibility.” But he had no problem with accessibility to his young children.
His wife also notes that her daughter didn’t want to visit Franky because he had kicked their dog, which had bitten Efrat and others, and that she had witnessed him hurting animals before.
Cruelty to animals and irresponsible gun ownership—a red flag in life, but also for voters about to select their Assembly representative. Democrats for the Protection of Animals found this to be a laughably easy choice between Franky Carrillo and his opponent Jessica Caloza.
The divorce filings also cast severe doubt upon his residency in the 52nd AD. Franky told the Court that he was remodeling his home, but according to his wife, he never remodeled the home (which was gutted) and instead rented an apartment in Pasadena, which according to the documents, is not in the 52nd District. \
Now the coup de gras! Franky had never filed a legally required Form 700 Conflict of Interest statement – a form where all candidates for office are required to detail their stock holdings so the public is aware of potential conflicts of interest. Oops! He made it all the way past the March 2024 Primary Election, without filing his Form 700. After complaints were made against him for not filing, he finally did file ON JUNE 11th. Could he have been hiding something?
Well, guess what he was hiding? The ultimate in hypocrisy!
Here’s what he has said, writing to the Glendale Democratic Club, for example. “I have run a campaign without donations from developers, the oil and gas industry, the pharmaceutical industry, police/law enforcement unions, the gun lobby, or the insurance Industry. I reject campaign contributions from all of these groups.” One would assume he wouldn’t touch these special interests with a ten-foot pole.
“We must create new laws to reform campaign finance in elections” he said. Of course, we would assume he follows the current campaign finance rules meticulously.
It’s really admirable that he won’t take money from these interests, but it turns out he is happy to make money from them! And why pass new campaign finance laws when one can just violate the current ones with impunity. Hypocrisy, anyone? Here are just some of his special interest investments detailed in Franky’s very late Form 700 filing:
Oil and gas and energy and related investments include up to $100,000 EACH in BP (of BP Oil Spill fame, the largest marine oil spill in history), Chevron, Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Enbridge (oil and gas equipment and services), leading climate change deniers ExxonMobil, Southern Co., LyondellBasell Industries (chemicals) and Ramaco (coal mining). His TC Energy investment was only up to $10,000.
Pharmaceutical investments of up to $100,000 each include ABBVIE, AMGEN, CSL Limited, GSK, Haleon, Gilead Sciences, Icon, and Pfizer. Big Pharma, anyone?
Big Tobacco investments of up to $100,000 each include British American Tobacco, and Phillip Morris.
Altria Group was only up to $10,000.
Insurance investments of up to $100,000 include AIA Group, and Chubb.
Development and real estate-related investments include up to $100,000 EACH in Geberit USA (homebuilding and construction supplies),), Ventas (residential and commercial REIT), and Welltower (Residential and commercial retail). Realty Income (residential and commercial REIT and Orion Office (Residential and commercial REIT) are only up to $10,000.
Semiconductor industry investments include ASML at up to one million dollars and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing at up to $100,000
Purveyors of junk food and drink investments of up to $100,000 each include Wal-Mart (also known for bad labor practices), Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Pernod Ricard (beverages), and Nestle.
So what will DSA say about their recommendation now? They are holier than thou about contributions from big special interests. But they probably never even thought to ask if a candidate had investments in them. I bet that will be an added question from now on. Not to mention – Frankie self-funded roughly 80% of his primary campaign with his personal wealth – meaning the money he made off of these industries went directly into his campaign.
And what about campaign finance violations? Not filing campaign finance forms from the Primary Until JUNE to avoid rather embarrassing disclosures. Not too cool, right DSA?
In case you may be wondering, there is a fine alternative to Franky. Jessica Caloza, his opponent in the November 5th General Election, is an excellent, highly qualified choice for the seat. She served in the Obama Administration in Education, was a highly valued member of the Garcetti staff in several capacities, was an excellent LA Public works Commissioner (doing good work on infrastructure, the environment and in support for labor) and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. My observation is that she is bright, capable, hard-working, energetic and honest.
I expect if the voters of the 52nd AD pay any attention, the choice should be quite clear for them. They would be lucky to have Jessica Caloza as their representative.
The 52nd District is comprised of the following neighborhoods: Atwater Village, Cypress Park, Eagle Rock, East Hollywood, East Los Angeles, Echo Park, El Sereno, Elysian Heights, Elysian Valley, Glassell Park, Glendale, Highland Park, Lincoln Heights, Los Feliz, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills, Mt. Washington and Silver Lake.
(Paul Koretz is a former LA City Councilmember, CA State Assemblymember and West Hollywood Mayor and City Councilmember.)
