Cronies: Laphonza Butler defended fallen Los Angeles political kingpin at his sentencing for corruption
On the right, much has been made of newly appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler's non-residence in California, being a union official living and being registered to vote in the state of Maryland.
Congrats to the state of Maryland on finally obtaining three Senators.https://t.co/FuEm8IWa8u
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 2, 2023
-#California has become so terrible that over 500,000 Californians have fled the state in the last year…
— Cramersez (@Cramersez_2) October 2, 2023
INCLUDING #LaphonzaButler.
THAT’S RIGHT. #GavinNewsom JUST REPLACED #DianeFeinstein WITH A “FORMER” CALIFORNIAN.
BUTLER LIVES & IS REGISTERED TO VOTE IN #MARYLAND#WTF
- pic.twitter.com/F1uXqlGPSk
She may be a non-resident swiftly changing her voter registration, as reported, but she's not an outsider.
Actually, she is an insider, right there in the inner circle of all the worst blue-state cronies.
When Los Angeles's most powerful machine pol, Mark Ridley-Thomas, was indicted for impossible-to-ignore corruption charges, Butler was right there to tell the judge to go easy on her "mentor":
Back in May, Laphonza Butler wrote this character letter to the judge who decided whether how long Mark Ridley-Thomas would go to prison after being convicted in a public corruption case.
— Matt Hamilton (@MattHjourno) October 3, 2023
She noted MRT's help when she came to LA in '09, his backing of labor, & his friendship pic.twitter.com/Isj8D3jp07
Which tells us a lot about her insider status in the one-party blue state of California.
Corruption breeds when there's no chance of any change of power, no opposition looking over one's shoulder, no checks or balances.
Butler, obviously, was part of this tight group that runs California given her insistence on defending Ridley-Thomas instead of calling for clean government.
She also was tight with Kamala Harris, acted as an "advisor" to her during her failed presidential candidacy and remains one of Harris's few open boosters. Once again, the old California machine politics, particularly with Newsom a close friend of Harris's.
Her usefulness to these California Democrats as an important fundraiser, through her recent leadership position at Emily's List, is yet another indicator that money flows from her direction and can continue to flow based on the old cronyism.
Anybody think to ask Butler what Ridley-Thomas did for her and how she "owes" him based on that letter?
This tells us a lot about the narrow little inner circle of California politics, which is all about protecting and defending its own.
Look for some skeletons to emerge from Butler's closet given this one-hand-washes-the-other dynamic of these cronies.
It all but seems inevitable.
Image: Twitter screen shot