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Former Greuel strategist signs on with competitor Williamson

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The consultant who oversaw former L.A. Controller Wendy Greuel’s race for mayor last year has signed on with a competitor to Greuel’s campaign for an open congressional seat.

Bestselling author and spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson revealed that L.A.-based consultant John Shallman is among several new additions to her campaign team announced Monday.

Williamson, a former Democrat, is running as an independent in an increasingly large field to fill the Westside-South Bay seat being vacated by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills).

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Williamson entered the race in the fall, long before Waxman’s surprise Jan. 30 announcement that he would retire at the end of his term after 40 years in Congress.

Several other candidates for Waxman’s 33rd District jumped in after the announcement, including Greuel, one of the better known of several Democrats to get into the race in a district historically dominated by that party.

Shallman steered Greuel’s costly race for mayor last year. She got past the large field in the primary but lost in the general election to Eric Garcetti.

Greuel is at least the second former Shallman client in as many years to have the consultant go to work for a competitor. Shallman steered then-City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s unsuccessful 2012 race for Los Angeles County district attorney.

When Trutanich lost in the primary, he pivoted to the city attorney’s race. But he lost his 2013 re-election bid to former Assemblyman Mike Feuer, who had retained Shallman Communications for the race.

Williamson reported raising about $350,000 for her campaign and lent herself an additional $32,000, according to the latest finance reports on file with the Federal Election Commission. Fundraising will be an important factor in the race, political observers say, because candidates will need money to reach voters in the district, which sprawls from the Westside and Malibu down the coast through the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

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Among the others signing on to Williamson’s campaign was Joe Trippi, a nationally known campaign consultant and media strategist. Trippi also worked with Shallman to help elect Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro) to Congress in a highly competitive special election in 2011.

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jean.merl@latimes.com

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Twitter: @jeanmerl

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