The LA Weekly's David Zahniser asks how it is that Assemblyman Richard Alarcon spent more than $415,000 running for election when he didn't have an opponent. Zahniser's answer: "For starters, by helping out the women in his life — the ex-wife, the ex-girlfriend and now, the current girlfriend whose rental house makes him a legal resident of the district" where he is running for city council.

Last year, Alarcón’s Assembly campaign donated $600 to W.A.V.E., the women’s shelter headed by his ex-wife, Corina Alarcón. Alarcón’s campaign described this contribution using a phrase that appears repeatedly in his spending reports — “campaign paraphernalia/miscellaneous.”

Alarcón gave $1,465 to his new fiancée, Flora Montes De Oca, who in turn leased office space to his Assembly campaign. Montes De Oca also owns the house on Nordhoff Street that Alarcón now uses as his residence for the council race. (Without it, he would reside outside the 7th Council District, which covers Sylmar, Pacoima, Arleta and part of Panorama City.)

But the big money went to Alarcón’s girlfriend of roughly seven years, Hacienda Heights resident Laura Caro, who received $75,500 from Alarcón’s Assembly campaign between April 2005 and May 2006.

Alarcón described Caro as a campaign consultant even though several L.A.-based political professionals — GOP campaign consultant Allan Hoffenblum, Democratic consultant Rick Taylor and Democratic consultant Bill Carrick — said they had never heard of her.

The Weekly also slams Alarcon with another piece bylined by political blogger and columnist Bill Bradley, and lets LAUSD teacher and activist Doug Lasken handicap the school board races without identifying who he is (at least online.) Zahniser also examines the big money being pumped into the board contests before next week's election.