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Proposition 98 is sold to voters as an anti-eminent domain measure, "but really carries the long-standing agenda of interests that want to extinguish rent control and block water and air quality laws," says today's L.A. Times editorial opposing the initiative. That answers the question of whether the Times would go against the maximum owner. Sam Zell's mobile home business, Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc, has donated $50,000 to the Prop. 98 campaign. The editorial says, "Landlords detected a chance to use the fear of eminent domain abuse for their own purposes. They poured several million dollars into getting advocates to drop the legislative approach and go to the ballot with an initiative that quietly targets the rent control laws in about 100 California cities, including Los Angeles, Santa Monica and West Hollywood."
Also in politics: Latest list of potential successors to Councilman Jack Weiss in Rick Orlov's DN column.
And: Daily News editorializes against Marcus Allen as the new city administrative officer, calling him a "dubious choice" and one whose request for $305,000 in pay is out of line. This is one of those where the DN provides addresses to write your representative. The weekend package of DN stories railed against overtime at City Hall and workers making over $100,000, with the first quote from official FOTDN David Fleming.