Bernson Connected to Mysterious Mailer

A mysterious and controversial mailer that implied that City Council candidate Tony Cardenas would bring casinos to the San Fernando Valley was paid for with money from a fund-raiser held by Councilman Hal Bernson, participants said Thursday.

Bernson has been feuding with City Council President Alex Padilla, who is the key sponsor of Cardenas’ campaign for the 2nd District seat.

Bernson acknowledged holding a fund-raising event, but said he had no involvement in deciding the mailer’s content.

Voters would have no way of knowing of Bernson’s involvement from reading the mailer, which states that it was paid for by Los Angeles Taxpayers for Good Government, an independent expenditure committee.

The group disclosed spending about $9,700 on mail and phone banks in support of council candidate Wendy Greuel, who faces Cardenas in a runoff election March 5.

The mailer, which voters received Dec. 7--four days before the election--featured photographs of Las Vegas casinos with the heading, “Coming soon to a neighborhood near you!”

The text read: “Tony Cardenas is beholden to gambling and other special interests!” and “Our neighborhoods can’t afford Tony Cardenas!”

The Panorama City assemblyman, who has helped some Native American tribes expand gaming on tribal lands outside of Los Angeles, was outraged by the mailer, saying it was nonsense and that there are no tribal lands in the Valley where casinos could be built.

“It was an outlandish mail piece, and it was very cowardly that the people behind it weren’t forthright with who they were,” said Josh Pulliam, a spokesman for Cardenas.

Political consultant Steve Afriat, a Greuel supporter, said he modeled the mailer after ones sent out by the Greuel campaign.

He said as many as five council members had expressed interest in helping raise funds for an independent campaign, but that Bernson ended up sponsoring the main fund-raiser last month at the City Club downtown.

“People were encouraged to give money either to Wendy or to the independent expenditure campaign,” Afriat said, declining to disclose who made contributions.

Bernson said he and Afriat discussed the possibility of helping Greuel, and gathered some of the councilman’s supporters to urge them to help out. “We coordinated it,” he said of the event.

Bernson said he left it to a representative of Afriat to outline to potential donors several options, including contributing to an independent campaign, which are not subject to the city’s $500 limit on direct contributions to candidates.

“One of the things they said was that an independent expenditure was possible,” Bernson recalled. “But I don’t know where the money went.”

The councilman said he thinks Greuel would be a good councilwoman, but acknowledged that part of his interest stems from his animosity toward Padilla, who recently removed Bernson from key council committees. Bernson said Cardenas’ election would shore up support for Padilla keeping the presidency.

Robert Stern, head of the watchdog group Center for Governmental Studies, said the ability of people to send out a mailer just before election day without disclosing who is behind it or paying for it is “very troubling.”