It got a bit heated at a Thursday news conference between Wendy Greuel supporter Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and a Garcetti campaign staffer.
The Greuel campaign held a news conference to accuse the Garcetti campaign of dirty tactics. Wendy Greuel was not present at the conference. The campaign claims someone or some group pretending to be a pollster is calling voters and saying negative things about Greuel.
The Garcetti campaign insists it had nothing to do with that.
All of this comes as one of Greuel's attack ads is coming under fire. It mentions ties between Eric Garcetti and real estate developer Juri Ripinsky, who was sentenced to prison in 1994 for bank fraud.
Ripinsky's attorney, Paul Sorrell, is threatening legal action. Thursday he told Eyewitness News: "There are various false and defamatory statements that Wendy Greuel has been making in the media including in this ad. Our client intends to evaluate those inaccuracies and intends to evaluate his legal rights and remedies against Wendy Greuel and anyone else involved in disseminating these false and defamatory statements."
"I don't know anything about that. I just know these ads are a distraction by Ms. Greuel to get away from the fact that she's funded by the DWP 'super-PAC'," said Garcetti.
The Greuel camapaign issued a statement Thursday afternoon: "This ad is 100 percent factual. Sadly, a 30-second commercial doesn't allow enough time to tell the whole Rapinsky/Garcetti story which could easily fill a 60-minute documentary."
The election is on May 21.
Garcetti and Greuel are scheduled to debate Friday at 7 p.m. on the campus of California State University-Los Angeles. Tune in to ABC7 to watch, or watch the debate live on abc7.com/live.
