A Message from Hal Netkin
Candidate for Valley City Council - District 11

Dear Friends and Supporters,

This letter is to ask for your continued support as "crunch time" approaches. As you know, with your help and support I have succeeded in establishing a viable candidacy for the new Valley City Council, against very great odds. Only the fact that my intentions from the start have been to sincerely make a difference in the city where I live has kept me going. As you would guess, the costs have been high, both financially and personally. If I had been in this for the political gains, it would not have been worth it to do.

However, those of you who have come to know me have discovered that this is a personal issue for me, and I have committed my retirement years to making a positive difference in the community. the Valley has been good to me, and "the American Way" has been good to me. Now it's time for me to give something back by helping the Valley get closer to its former greatness, and fix some of the problems that have made our city weaker, less safe, out of balance, and out of control. My dream is to fix Van Nuys and to set an example for other communities that have suffered the deterioration and downward slide that the Valley has.

I'm running against three other candidates, who have each spent between two and seven times what I have spent. It's truly a David and Goliath scene in miniature... a retired well-meaning senior citizen betting his last hurrah on a grassroots campaign for all the right reasons, versus politicians and politician wannabees with questionable agendas, using questionable tactics or worse. Now I want to win this campaign if for nothing else to show that an honest candidate running an honest campaign can still win in America. I want to show the Valley that hidden agendas, slimy tactics, selling your soul, and lies backed up by big phony smiles aren't the only way to get in office.

Will you share my fight? Will you stand up and support my candidacy to show Jamie Cordaro and the other candidates that decent people can see through the lies and the advertising money? Will you help prove once and for all that voters are not as gullible as the con men think they are, and that voters are smart enough to see who's sincere and who's not? Because push has come to shove, and it's the last few weeks before the vote.

In the last weeks, I've seen the insincerity and sleazy campaign tactics that I won't use. I've had one candidate out-spend me by seven times, plastering fake money with his face on it all over my own property as if to taunt me, and other people's homes without their permission. I've seen people playing race stereotypes, people telling half-truths and un-truths, and way too much of people with campaign slogans but no plan to fix any real problems.

This letter is an emergency request for last-minute campaign contributions and donations. I need to put my name and my proposed solutions out there, so people can choose wisely. Unlike others, I actually have the fortitude and the resolve to make a difference. The other candidates want to start a lucrative political career. I want to make this my legacy, a contribution to the place I call home.

You all are aware of Jamie Cordaro whom the L.A. Times considers the front runner in my District 11, only because he has out spent the rest of us running in this district.

I decided not to roll over and lose the election because of the unethical manner in which Cordaro is conducting his campaign -- nor will I stoop to his level to fight him. But I will expose him with this flyer.

The mass distribution necessary to disseminate the flyer in such a short time cannot be achieved without your help. Sorry, unlike most political candidates, I won't promise you special treatment or a lucrative business deal once I'm elected. All I promise is to dedicate myself to making a real difference for the Valley. Will you contribute to a candidate who says that honestly and sincerely? I hope so.

Thanks to all of you including those of you not in my proposed district -- even those of you who don't live in L.A. -- for your votes and past contributions.

Now I humbly request your eleventh hour help. Please click here:

Hal Netkin
(10/17/02)

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