Right-wing political hit man-for-hire, Basil KimbrewI was saddened this week when a friend of mine, a smart and idealistic young guy who has been working on the ground for candidates, told me he's getting out of the field. "The consultants," he told me in disgust, "run the whole show and its all about lining their own pockets." In the past we talked about the consultants have taken over the DCCC and run the committee not to elect candidates but to enrich themselves. It's exactly as bad-- and dysfunctional-- on the other side of the aisle. Consultants are, more or less, a special class of criminal. And it has infected politics locally as well. This week, here in California, one convicted felon/consultant, Basil Kimbrew, working for Mike Gipson, a candidate for Assembly for Compton, went beyond the loose standards of his profession in trying to undermine Gipson's progressive candidate, Micah Ali, in the race.Elected to the Compton School Board in the 1990s, Kimbrew was convicted on falsifying his residency for the election, a felony. He started a political consulting firm in 2002 and soon was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing money from the Compton School district. (He had been well-connected enough to get the sentence suspended in favor of a strict 5-year probation that included a complete ban from political consulting or political campaign activities-- which he immediately violated by consulting for candidates in the 2006 election cycle, including his defense attorney Anthony Willoughby’s failed Assembly race. The DA asked, and the judge agreed, to have Kimbrew serve his two-year sentence. After he served his time in prison, he returned to political consulting and went to work on Prop 8, the anti-gay equality amendment to the Constitution. He sells his services to conservative groups needing someone who can help trick traditionally Democratic voters into supporting their right-wing agendas. He's a perfect fit for Gipson.The attack Gipson paid him to make on Ali is typical of Kimbrew's kind of sleazy politics-- just more so. This week, respected journalist Betty Pleasant, blew Kimbrew's cover and exposed him too the community.
That ex-convict Basil Kimbrew, who was arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned for engaging in political hanky-panky in Compton several years ago, is at it again some more!! Through his “California Friends of the African American Caucus” website, he twice blasted this week some scurrilous accusations and innuendoes against a Compton official, who, in my opinion was simply doing his job, and tied him to a popular Los Angeles woman with impeccable credentials and character to some kind of evil deed. And for what reason? Politics. I am so angry about this that I’m finding it difficult to write about it without using the full range of my expression-- a range that includes words that would not be permitted in a family publication.This is the thing: Basil has twice accused Micah Ali, president of the Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees, of funding his prospective campaign for the state Assembly by awarding a “lucrative” contract to the St. John Wellness Center for it to establish a clinic on the campus of Dominguez High School. Basil comes to this conclusion because Ali is employed by the Los Angeles County Education Federation (LACEF) that has some kind oversight of the St. John Wellness project, which has established many on-campus clinics for children at plenty of Southland schools.Basil’s email blast implies that Ali was in cahoots with stellar attorney Cynthia McClain-Hill, who is noted for her altruism and community service, because she serves on the LACEF Board of Directors. In Basil’s mind, since Ali works for the LACEF and McClain-Hill serves on the LACEF board, ergo, together they hatched a devious plot to obtain a political campaign contribution by awarding a Compton school district no-bid, $1-a-year contract to establish a St. John’s clinic on one of their high school campuses. Is that insane, or what?Of course, Ali denies this, and I believe him because this convoluted scenario makes no sense; and while I don’t know Ali, I do know McClain-Hill very well and she would not engage in such a needless quid-pro-quo. After all, she’s in a position to provide the clinic without getting Ali any money whatsoever. And besides, where is Basil’s proof? He’s simply making a series of wild, unsubstantiated accusations for which he ought to be sued. So why is he doing it? From what I gather, Basil is fronting for two infamous empty suits: Carson City Councilman Mike Gipson and Compton Assemblyman Isadore Hall who are positioning themselves for an upcoming political race in which they’d rather Ali not enter. Yep, Basil is up to his old tricks. Ignore him.
A couple years ago we covered Ali's successful school board race and emphasized that "sleazy charter operators hope to funnel tax dollars into corporate profits-- and high management fees and salaries-- by de-unioninzing the education system. Foward-thinking progressives like Micah are at the forefront of putting the interests of students first and foremost while protecting the hard-won gains of his community's teachers." With Rove-like tactics, Gipson and Kimbrew, are trying to turn Ali's strongest assets into a negative. Blue America has endorsed Micah Ali for this seat and if you'd like to help make the Assembly a little more independent and a little less corrupt, you can contribute to his campaign here.
