The LET’S ACT! slate took down a campaign video for the undergraduate student government elections that featured L.A. mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel at the Garcetti campaign’s request.
The video was put up by LET’S ACT! members on Tuesday afternoon and featured clips of Garcetti and Greuel, among images and text that advocated for the slate.
The video encouraged students to vote in the Undergraduate Students Association Council elections this week and in the L.A. mayoral election later this month.
In the video, Greuel said “Let’s act in Los Angeles. As a Bruin, it’s important to get people excited about government and public service, and no better place to do it than student council at UCLA. Go Bruins.” Garcetti said “UCLA, act for a better Los Angeles.”
Matt Abularach-Macias, a fifth-year political science and Chicana/o studies student and the member of LET’S ACT! who made the video, said he received permission to film both Greuel and Garcetti at different times last week. He said the slate saw the opportunity to highlight its commitment to the wider Los Angeles community by including both mayoral candidates.
“We never intended for it to come across as an official endorsement,” he said. “We’re not trying to misrepresent anyone at all.” Some people, however, said they thought the video implied that Garcetti and Greuel were endorsing Let’s Act! candidates.
Mary Hodge, deputy campaign manager for Garcetti, said the Garcetti campaign was unaware of the video until the office received several complaint calls. Hodge said she then called Abularach-Macias, asking him to take it down because it was misleading.
“We absolutely support students participating in student government elections, however, this video urges people to vote a certain way and (Garcetti) is not taking a position in the UCLA student government race,” said Yusef Robb, a senior adviser to the Garcetti campaign.
Aurelia Friedman, a campus representative for the Greuel campaign and a first-year political science and psychology student, said she was confused when she first watched the video.
“Why would either candidate want to endorse a slate right now when slate poltics and L.A. politics are completely separate?” she said.
Friedman then called representatives of the Greuel campaign who she said were also confused about the video.
Dan Loeterman, a spokesman for the Greuel campaign, said he had not seen the video, but Greuel does not endorse any USAC slate.
LA PLAYS SUCH DIRTY POLITICS. SHAME!
Let’s be real here, both slates had to remove videos this election season.
BU creates a racists video, and does not understand why it offends the Asian/Chinese/Chinese-American community. LA! creates a video featuring LA mayoral candidates. But it’s not like LA! edited the videos to make the mayoral candidates say “let’s act,” they did it own their own.
This is just me, but racists videos are the worst kind of dirty politics.
Correction: BU and LA had to remove videos this election.
I am happy to say that Bruin Alliance has not. Either way, I think the LA video was not insensitive, which makes me happy since I voted for BA and Lets Act.
Racists? the video was made BY AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT… FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS!!!
This video warped the message that Gruel and Garcetti were trying to say (which was encouraging students to get involved in student government), and turned it into a Let’s Act! campaign video. If I were either of the mayoral candidates focusing on my massive LA-wide campaign I would be FURIOUS that I was tricked into UCLA’s petty slate politics.
This is just me, but liars/frauds are the worst kid of dirty politics.
I’m not associated with any party, so I don’t really care about this video fight.
But, I do have to question your post, since you seem to know about the BU video. If the video was made so international students could get involved with student government elections, then Bruins United failed. That video was clearly BU campaigning while speaking a few words in Chinese.
Lastly, if the mayoral candidates were really that furious, they would have released a public statement or something. Which they didn’t.
They were probably annoyed by students calling them complaining about a student government video. Which leads me to my last question, I wonder who was making those whinny calls?
Hi,
First, in regards to the BU video. The opening scene with with the fake news anchors are the students who made the video. Kenny Chen to be specific.
Also, as someone who is politically engaged, and plans on voting in the mayoral election, I was quite turned off by the video. The video clearly warped what Garcetti and Greul were saying and made it into a Let’s Act! campaign video. I was one of the people who made the calls, because after speaking with Matt, he wouldn’t take it down. After making phone calls, Garcetti’s team released the following statement:
“Eric Garcetti supports students getting involved in UCLA’s student government, but has not endorsed anyone or any slate for the 2013 UCLA student government election. The Garcetti for Mayor campaign has contacted the “Let’s Act” slate and asked them to take the video down.”
Feel free to contact me if you want any more information. uclastarr@gmail.com
The Asians video was made by pres candidate Carly Yoshida. She is an international student and I don’t know why those La camp call everything rascist.
How was the video racist? People are to PC here at UCLA. Japanese students and China students and orientals from all over are going to be the majority! Why not reach out and welcome them to our campus.
There’s a difference between having a nonpartisan video encouraging international students to vote, and a video by BU done in poor taste for votes.
I agree more needs to be done to engage the international community, but not at the expense of disrespecting peoples’ cultures.
Although an unfortunate situation, I appreciate the LA campaign letting supporters know of this ahead of time before the DB published something. That shows the campaign is willing to acknowledge mistakes, and try to run a transparent campaign.
The BU video was done in poor taste. Very happy to hear that the the Garcetti and Gruel video was dropped also. Shame on you all! May God forgive you.
LOL