South Bay : WAR OF WORDS
A Hawthorne activist has accused Councilwoman Martha Bails of lying to voters in election campaign materials.
Bails, who was appointed to the Hawthorne City Council in 1993 to fill a vacancy, uses the terms reelect and incumbent on election signs and campaign mailings. Mark Schoenfeld, president of the Holly Glen Homeowners Assn., said Bails is misleading voters into believing she was elected.
“How can you reelect someone who has never been elected in the first place?” Schoenfeld said. “How can someone who claims to be honest so blatantly lie to voters?”
City Clerk Daniel Juarez said that while the terms Bails uses are technically inaccurate, they are not illegal. The designation that appears under the candidate’s name and the occupation designation on the candidate’s statement are the only places that require Bails to refer to herself as an “appointed incumbent.” Bails said Schoenfeld is unhappy with the City Council’s recent 3-2 vote to transfer control of Hawthorne’s Fire Department to the county.
“I’m still an incumbent, does it matter how I got here?” Bails asked. “We should be concerned with what I’ve done while on the council, which was to balance the budget and save the city from bankruptcy.”
Hawthorne City Council elections are Nov. 7.
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