Neeki Media, Part 2: Inconsistencies, Hypocrisy and Lies

Author's note: Neeki Moatazedi is running against Sonny Morper to represent District 2 on the Lake Forest City Council. Moatazedi is a three-year resident and project manager for Southern California Gas Company; Morper is a retired educator who has lived in Lake Forest for 40 years.

During her Oct. 22 press conference, Neeki Moatazedi was on the offensive, linking Mayor Jim Gardner with the PAC that produced “their sick sexual innuendos and outright fabrications” in a mailer that showed Moatazedi in a bikini posing for judges and photogaphers in a physique competition.

She said she ran for office “to protect our city from the inept cronies” Mayor Jim Gardner and former Councilman Adam Nick. “No one who participates in this type of cruel and humiliating character assassination is worthy of the public trust.”

Yet Moatazedi’s financial backers and outright supporters, Councilmen Dwight Robinson and Scott Voigts, funded a smear campaign against Nick which assailed his character for nearly two years.

Additionally, OC GOP chairman Fred Whitaker took his shots at Nick, Gardner, and Mayor Pro Tem Leah Basile, yet he is firmly in Moatazedi’s corner as the county Republicans seek a female star to push their agenda.

Developer Toll Brothers, which wants to build an 800-home project on the Nakase Brothers Nursery property, contributed $68,500 to fund the smearing of Nick in an effort to protect Hamilton’s spot on the council and a favorable vote for their potential bonanza in what will be a billion dollar deal. Other developers and special interests likely to get work from the project also contributed to that smear campaign.

The additional hypocrisy here is that Moatazedi stands linked to the two individuals on the council who supported their friend’s own personal war on women by sexualizing Basile during the 2016 campaign. Neither Voigts nor Robinson felt any apparent outrage at Basile’s face being photoshopped on the apparently nude body of Britney Spears, along with suggesting she was participating in illegal practices. Most interestingly, Moatazedi and her supporters -- Voigts, Robinson or Carolyn Cavecche, who stood behind Moatazedi at her press conference -- have never denounced those tactics in defense of Basile. And while we're at it, Moatazedi didn't say a word about it, either.f

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION

Although Moatazedi continued to pummel opponent Sonny Morper and his guilt by association with Nick, Gardner, and the political action committee responsible for the offending mailers -- she had Cavecche at her side. Cavecche, who served on the Orange City Council with Whitaker, now heads a PAC called the Orange County Taxpayers Association. Two years ago, this PAC endorsed Francisco Barajas for Lake Forest City Council though he had been a resident for only three years, and after being appointed to the Parks and Recreation commission on the vote of Robinson, Voigts and Hamilton, had failed to make a motion or even second a motion in his year on the commission. When contacted at the time, the Orange County Taxpayers Association would not provide the justification for their endorsement, though Barajas was Robinson's running mate and had been mentored by Voigts. At the Moatazedi press conference, Barajas was listed on Moatazedi's media statement as her official media contact.

Cavecche was critical of the negative campaigning even though Cavecche won her third term as mayor in 2010 by hitting opponent Jon Dumitro with a mailer highlighting his bankruptcy 14 years earlier. Cavecche’s additional role was apparently running interference for Moatazedi so she wouldn’t have to answer questions that might be difficult or might provide clarity as Republicans closed ranks around their new “bright shining star” while apparently trying to find an articulate woman to push forward their agenda at the local level.

Robinson, too, has campaigned negatively in Lake Forest, and from a credibility standpoint, did not bring a single campaign promise before the Council for consideration during his first four-year term – although it took him only 45 minutes to initiate rezoning the City’s auto center for the benefit of developers who wanted to build houses there.

Robinson is profoundly Republican and entrenched in the county’s good ol’ boys club, as is Voigts; any candidate Robinson endorses would be similarly like-minded. Robinson has endorsed Moatazedi and Mark Tettemer, who was a soft touch for developers during the eight years he was on the council from 2005-2012, and is trying to unseat Gardner in District 4.

Additionally, the funding that Robinson and Voigts provided was to a political consultant named David Ellis, whose long history of sleazy work includes racist mailers and 11th hour hit pieces of dubious truth. That's who Robinson and Voigts were in bed with financially, and now they're in bed with Moatazedi. If she wants to be critical of Morper for the people who are endorsing him, then she needs to take a critical look at her mirror.

Although Moatazedi would not speak to me – and as Voigts urged her from the sidelines not to speak to me – she did say that she was not a partisan candidate, although her support would seem to indicate otherwise: Robinson, Voigts, Whitaker, Cavecche … right down to her media contact Barajas. This unknown, with three years of residency and no civic history in Lake Forest, is supported by nearly all arms of the OC Republican party, which is powered by developers and special interests. Is it a coincidence that she is employed by Southern California Gas Company, which stands to benefit financially if she approves development for 800 homes, as well as any others, in Lake Forest?

HAVING HER CAKE, EATING IT TOO

Much of what Moatazedi said at her press conference appeared to be aimed at making noise for TV cameras. She said she was “appalled that my opponent claims to know nothing about these horrific mailers. The truth is he emailed me ‘as a heads up’ before they were delivered to voters. This is a clear violation of campaign law and I intend to refer this matter to the D.A. and California Fair Practices Commission for a full investigation. Even worse, my opponent describes these mailers in a flowery tone as if they were just slightly negative. In reality, he was aware and complicit in creating mailers that were overtly sexual, demeaned my personal history and outright lied by implying I am a convicted criminal.”

Apparently, Moatazedi failed to recall that in Morper’s “heads up” he described the mailers as “sleazy," "terrible” and “deplorable” and that he was “offended” and “disgusted,” hardly the image of flowery language she’s trying to impress upon voters before TV cameras with a reach of 17.4 million people.

Moatazedi also provided a Facebook post quoting Gardner and told the cameras, “By his own admission, the Mayor has written that he ‘shopped’ the idea of humiliating me in this way to my opponent.” Given the Gardner quote provided by Moatazedi, her description of Morper as complicit or Gardner as someone who “shopped” the photos, doesn’t hold water. Gardner’s Facebook post read:

“I spoke with Sonny months ago and asked him if he was going to use the photos of Neeki and he said definitely ‘no’. He also asked me not to use them. I don’t think you can blame this on him.”

That's a loose interpretation of shopping the photos. Even as Moatazedi appeared before the cameras and said Gardner "shopped the idea of humiliating me," two bikini photos -- including one used in a mailer -- was on her personal Facebook page for anyone to see. Rather than being humiliated by the photos, she appears to be proud of the photos, which are apparently from a fitness competition in either 2016 or 2017 in which Moatazedi is wearing a bikini to show off her musculature. Not only are they in the public domain on the sanctioning body’s site, but were still on Moatazedi’s Facebook site as of Nov. 4. The first mailer, which initiated this outrage, only references Moatazedi as "Professional Body Builder" and "Bikini Model" in terms of her being a sexual figure. The photos may be out of context -- maybe they don't belong on a political flier -- but Moatazedi admitted in her interview with Stan Yombo that the pictures were real and she had been an "amateur bodybuilder." That she allegedly won an Emmy Award, for which I've not been able to find any proof, is not relevant either in the context of the campaign but that didn't prevent Moatazedi from claiming it in the candidate forum.

Among the comments on her Facebook page for the bikini photo used in the mailer were “Gorgeous” and “WOW, looking amazing babe xx.” Both of those comments were liked by Mission Viejo Councilman Greg Raths, whose endorsement Moatazedi would presumably gladly accept. That photo was “liked” by 24 people with no opposition from Moatazedi, yet her position for the mass media when it benefited her was that it could be used for "the idea of humiliating me."

Another photo of Moatazedi in competition, as competitor No. 45, was liked by 22 people, including Robb Glenn, a personal friend of Scott Voigts, and one of her supporters at the Oct. 22 press conference who made a point of trying to interrupt Morper while he was addressing media.

In fact, Moatazedi's supporters made a point of standing behind Morper as he addressed interviewers. One of them, Benjamin Yu, reached around Bob Holtzclaw to place a sign in front of his face from above -- essentially encircling Holtzclaw from behind. Holtzclaw, with his back to Yu, pulled the sign out of the way, then let go; without ever turning around to confront Yu head-on, Yu flopped several feet away on his backside looking very much like he was trying to draw a penalty in a soccer match. Holtzclaw had his back to Yu the entire time. (See the video, 2:25) Yet Moatazedi posted on Facebook:

"These people are so terrible that Sonny Morper’s campaign manager, Bob Holtzclaw assaulted one of my supporters ON CAMERA. The scare tactics and lies will not work here in Lake Forest anymore."

If Moatazedi thinks that is assault on her supporter, I dare her to copy Yu's move on a sheriff's deputy. It's good to know that Moatazedi was in full spin mode.

It's reminiscent, again, of Robinson's playbook. When a female senior collecting signatures for the recall was attacked outside Stater Brothers on Easter weekend, a man came to her aid and knocked her attacker (a woman claiming to be a friend of Voigts) off of her. Rather than getting all the facts, Robinson immediately labeled the true victim and the man who came to her aid as "thugs." When the store's CCTV was released at my request, it showed conclusively that Robinson had cast aspersion on the victim; the account played out almost exactly as described by this writer that very night, but Robinson reacted without getting all the facts. He never apologized for his mistake. So far, neither has Moatazedi.

Moatazedi said she ”will not take these disgusting falsehoods lightly. Nor are these the garden variety campaign shenanigans. Sexualizing me, implying I was arrested, using bogus case numbers, is beyond the pale and the worst sort of misogynistic and deceitful behavior.” Yet Robinson and Voigts sat on their hands while Basile was being attacked by Councilman Hamilton in an internet blog using the alias "James Ross" who, to this day, has never shown his face even though he could clear some portion of Hamilton's reputation by doing so.

Moatazedi's right about false information. No candidate should have to be subject to falsehoods as Moatazedi claims, nor should a candidate such as Morper be subject to the inaccurate and hypocritical messaging by Moatazedi while protected by her own gang of mudslingers who have done the same thing.

After all, she's the one who said "No one who participates in this type of cruel and humiliating character assassination is worthy of the public trust,” and right now, she's surrounded by such people. And if Morper is not worthy of the public trust, neither is Moatazedi.