Wendy Greuel joins others in rescinding endorsement of Glendale council candidate

Another prominent politician has withdrawn their endorsement of Glendale City Council candidate Zareh Sinanyan following accusations that he posted ethnically charged and vulgar comments online as far back as five years ago.

Los Angeles City mayoral run-off candidate Wendy Greuel on Friday rescinded her support, following the high profile withdrawals of her competitor, Eric Garcetti, L.A. City Councilman Paul Krekorian and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).

In a statement, the Greuel campaign said it was withdrawing support in light of accusations that “Mr. Sinanyan may have published hateful and offensive” comments.

“Wendy does not believe these comments are appropriate for any candidate seeking public office, and she has withdrawn her support for Mr. Sinanyan,” the campaign said.

In his letter to Sinanyan’s campaign rescinding his endorsement on Tuesday, Schiff’s office called the comments “deeply disturbing and not befitting any member of the public, let alone one seeking to represent the city on an elected body.”

The comments — which center mostly on Armenia’s geopolitical enemies by referring to them as “lazy,” “degenerate thieves,” “dirty” and more vulgar terms — came to light in a widely circulated email, prompting the City Council on Tuesday to schedule a discussion for next week on whether to strip Sinanyan of his seat on the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee.

Sinanyan did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but on Thursday, his campaign director, Elen Asatryan, said that he planned to address the council’s concerns at the Tuesday meeting.

Josh Cox and Brittany Levine contributed reporting.

--Jason Wells, Times Community News

Follow Jason Wells on Facebook, Google+ and on Twitter: @JasonBretWells