You may have received deceptive emails and texts from Mike Bonin’s “Stop The Right-Wing Recalls” campaign recently. We need to set the record straight. Mike Bonin and his paid anti-recallers have used nothing but lies to attack our campaign. We are seeking to remove a corrupt, destructive man from the Councilmember office that belongs to us, the voters, and we are using the democratic process afforded to us. He has no record to stand on, lies and targeted harassment are all he has left.
Bonin’s Lie: “Right-wing recall”
The TRUTH: There is nothing right-wing about this campaign. It is a multi-partisan campaign run by two life-long Democrats. Mike Bonin will be replaced by another Democrat (the two leading candidates to replace him currently are Traci Park and Allison Holdorff Polhill). Our volunteers are a political cross-section of our community, mostly Democrats, identical to the political makeup of Council District 11. There is no “outside MAGA influence” -- just a large number of fed-up constituents. Bonin feels it is okay to insult his voters, but it is not. All people deserve safe schools, parks, and neighborhoods regardless of their political affiliation or housing status.
Bonin’s LIE: “Dark money recall”
The TRUTH: If you look at our public filings, you will see that our money comes from hundreds of individual residents from West Los Angeles fed up with failure and corruption. You can find our public filings here under the committee name Protecting Our Beaches Schools Neighborhoods And Parks - Committee to Recall Mike Bonin (Recall Bonin 2021). Our first filing covering Q2 contributions is available now, and our second filing covering Q3 contributions was submitted November 1 and will be up on the public data portal soon -- we encourage you to check back for it. Mike Bonin on the other hand has only received money from about a dozen individuals, mostly residents of other areas. You can view Bonin’s anti-recall committee filing here. Of note, he received the majority of his money from three sources: $26,000 from two PAC’s, and a $5,000 donation from Diane Middleton, a Commissioner of the LA Harbor Board. This is a position that is appointed by the City Of Los Angeles, and was also previously occupied by Bonin’s father-in-law. Dark money? See for yourself. Nothing to see here folks...
Bonin’s LIE: “$49M cost to recall” and “wasting taxpayer money”
The TRUTH: Firstly, if Bonin truly is concerned about the cost of a recall election, he should step aside immediately once we have qualified with enough signatures to call for an election. We currently have more signatures than he has ever gotten votes (Bonin received 31,865 votes in the last election) and every recent poll we have seen shows he will never win a recall or regular election, which is why he is fighting so hard to sabotage our signature collection efforts. Bonin is clamoring hard on the cost of a recall, but we know he could not care less about efficient use of taxpayer money. Rather, he is desperately throwing any and all misinformation out there hoping people are too uninformed or ignorant to seek and understand the truth. Recently, mass texts from Bonin’s camp claimed that this recall would cost “$49 million dollars.” Obviously this is another lie. Previously Bonin claimed this recall would cost $1.2 million (this figure is on his official rebuttal statement on our petition). While it is a shame to spend money that could go to other causes, Mike Bonin’s frivolous waste of taxpayer money easily eclipses this amount. $1.2 million dollars is .001% of the city budget, and a great investment on stopping his wasteful spending. Bonin was behind the HHH debacle which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars. He just recently took $5 million dollars of taxpayer money to “clean up the Boardwalk”, but he has ignored multiple requests from various parties for transparency around how this money was spent. Sales tax revenue was lost due to his policies hurting businesses. These are just a few of countless examples of his waste of taxpayer money.
Bonin’s LIE: “Signature gatherers are committing misdemeanors”
The TRUTH: Mike Bonin has knowingly falsely accused the campaign of committing crimes, which is itself a crime. He claimed our volunteers are “not offering Mike’s official response.” This is laughable, as it is literally on the petition for anyone signing it to read, right below our notice of intent, available in both English and Spanish as required by law. Our signature gatherers are circulating bound petition booklets with the exact petition content that was approved by the City Clerk. Our petition is also available online to print and send in, which includes Bonin’s official response, as you can see for yourself . His response itself reads like a drunk 3am tweet, so we aren’t even sure why he wants to publicize his response, which is another long list of lies. As far as not disclosing top donors, every petition has a donor sheet with it, top donors are listed on our website at the bottom of every page, and every piece of literature we send out.
The TRUTH: Mike Bonin is unethical and dangerously vindictive. This is not a man any good, compassionate person should stand by or defend.
Many members of the business community, and even former friends and staff, have shared personal stories with us about his vindictive behavior as their reason for supporting the recall. We have had people who deal with Bonin tell us they want to sign the petition but are fearful of what he might do should he find out. We experienced this firsthand when Bonin used his official anti-recall committee to smear our campaign and then dox the leaders of our campaign, which resulted in vandalism. Read about it here: LAPD responds to report of vandalism at home of Bonin recall backer (LA Times). Our campaign has been run solely by facts and quotes from Bonin himself. Please have a look through our Twitter account and see for yourself. Meanwhile, Bonin has run on lies and targeted harassment. He lashes out and attacks his “perceived enemies.”
If you would like to join our movement of more than 30,000 people, please sign the petition. All signatures must be in by November 9th.
How to help:
Ask every registered voter you know to sign the petition. Please print out the petition and find at least one registered voter to sign it. Follow the instructions, including filling out the affidavit on the last page, and get it back to us ASAP (it must be in our hands on or before November 9th).
If people tell you they have signed, make sure they signed with a pen on paper. ***There was a change. org petition circulating. People think they have signed because they signed online. Signatures must be ink on paper to count.***