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ELECTION WATCH - This month former Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo sent out a desperate email in an effort to revive a flailing campaign for a state Senate seat to represent Northeast and Eastside L.A.
Carrillo’s email in early December came exactly one year after she left the state legislature. Carrillo vied unsuccessfully for a seat on L.A. City Council, finishing in fourth place in the primary election in March 2024. Newcomer Ysabel Jurado ultimately won the seat to serve District 14.
In her email this month, Carrillo attacked current front-runner for the 26th District Senate seat, attorney and community college district trustee Sara Hernandez. Hernandez has bested Carrillo in fund-raising for the open seat by a margin of nearly two to one. Hernandez has also earned coveted endorsements, including by the members of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), in October. Carrillo was the only announced candidate, of five, who failed to appear before the club for consideration.
Carrillo’s recent appeal for support also included a whopper of a bogus claim. “I have never accepted contributions from oil, tobacco, private prison corporations or other special interests,” Carrillo professed.
But Carrillo cannot massage away the hard truth disclosed in official state documents.
At a luxury retreat in October 2019, then-Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo accepted $1,500 in hotel lodging and more than $200 in spa treatment by oil drillers and pipeline operators.
Take a look: Western State Petroleum Association paid for Wendy Carrillo to receive a spa treatment at Ritz Carlton valued at more than $200.
Wendy Carrillo has pretended to be an opponent of fossil fuels and the pollution and plastic blight they contribute to.
Opposing an oil pipeline in North Dakota is how Carrillo says she “found myself and I found strength and my courage.”
But Carrillo appears to be just another Sacramento politician who makes claims that run afoul of facts and insult the intelligence of voters who are paying attention.
It’s also worth taking a closer look at Carrillo’s assertion she has never taken a contribution from a private-prison corporation.
In 2017 and 2018, Carrillo’s first two campaigns for the legislature were fueled with two maximum donations of $4,400 each by a political committee called Women In Power. At the time, some observers viewed the word “power” in this committee’s name as a sly reference to fossil-fuel interests, whose donations to politicians were becoming a point of controversy.
However, having a separate committee that could accept the money of fossil-fuel companies and then make its own donations to candidates could mask the origin of the money. It could be a convenient diversionary device for some Democrats trying to depict themselves as environmentally friendly. Indeed, state disclosure documents show Women In Power did receive money from at lease two gas companies, Sempra and PG&E, in 2017 and 2018. That period coincided with “Me Too” activism and breakthroughs for accountability and representation for women. Women In Power served as a clever title — and as an ingenious workaround.
State disclosure records show that one of the major donors to the Women In Power committee in late 2017 was Core Civic, a private prison company, based in Tennessee.
So the donations that then-Assemblymember Carrillo received from Women In Power are not direct contributions from a private-prison company; but they do include dollars intermingled from that source.
Fact-checking politicians is a duty not limited to election season. The nonstop firehose of lies from Donald Trump and his team keeps all Americans committed to decency, respect for diversity, and democracy on our toes and pressing the b.s. button hourly.
Wendy Carrillo is not too far behind. If given another shot in elected office, she might catch up. Her email this month showed little regard for facts. It showed even less regard for the awareness of voters and our ability to smell deception.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns have appeared in USA Today and leading newspapers across more than 20 states. Based in Eagle Rock, he serves as president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), California’s largest grassroots Democratic club with over 1,100 members. Hans brings decades of organizing and policy experience to his work, advancing equity and accountability in local and national politics.)
The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or editorial positions of CityWatchLA, its publishers, editors, or sponsors.
