Los Angeles Voters Should Reject Alex De Ocampo for City Council

On March 5, 2013, Los Angeles city voters will elect a new mayor and residents of Los Feliz will be electing a new council member to replace termed-out Tom LaBonge in district 13.  The city of Los Angeles has a lot of significant issues to handle such as a public sector pension crisis, massive budget deficits, crumbling roads, corruption in city hall, and other government failures.  Sometimes a political race comes down to who not to vote for.  There is someone you should not vote for under any circumstance and should be laughed out of the public spotlight:  that person is Alex De Ocampo, who is running for city council in district 13.  I went to high school with Mr. De Ocampo and know him personally.  I am his friend (on Facebook).  Based upon my experience with him, I have found that his ideology is utopian statism and is absolutely incompatible with the principles of a free society.  His solutions are government centered at a time period in which government failures are all around us.   He is not skeptical of any stance that will increase the power and reach of government and he is only skeptical of the private sector.  He does not believe in individuals, but merely groups of people who are to be nudged, punished, coerced, or pushed from government edicts.  To Mr. Ocampo and his ilk, it is a completely foreign concept to think that individuals can look out for their own interests without a bureaucrat dictating the minutia of every part of life . Even as a utopian statist, he is a remarkably shallow and superficial person.  A quick look at his Twitter account at twitter.com/Alexdeocam79 will show Tweets that lack any attempt to even persuade people to his view.  He was a member of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council.  His experience as a member of the Greater Griffith Park was basically as a seat warmer.  I read the minutes from the Greater Griffith Park meetings and it is clear that, aside from being late occasionally to meetings, he did not say anything remotely meaningful in improving our community.  Nor did he propose any policy that can be even remotely beneficial to our community.  In fact, it appears that even he knows that he was useless: his web site merely lists his membership on the board and does not list a single accomplishment!  Aside from his general uselessness as an officeholder on the Greater Griffith Park neighborhood council, it is clear that he represents the type of politician who tries to win a seat merely to get bored and get elected to the next office.  Haven’t we had enough unqualified, incompetent, and ideological nutty hack politicians?  Just say no to Alex De Ocampo this March 5, 2013.