How Larry Elder blames Snoop Dogg for his massive loss

You’ve by now seen a couple of columns in the paper in which Larry Elder attempts to assign guilt for his dismal performance in the California recall. It is a big task the fiercely talkative Mr. Elder has set for himself, mostly because he lost that election by as historically large a vote margin as possible. Even in a state leaning so heavily toward the Democrats he talks such trash about.

For you folks who haven’t been following the ongoing vote tabulation (about 99% are in), the pro-Newsom No choice is commanding 62% of the total, a tiny fraction under 8 million. In his 2018 tilt against Johnny “Bear” Cox, Newsom received 7,721,410 votes, or 61.9% of the count. These figures show an actual increase in support for the governor, proving that this recall had none of the mass backing claimed by the Republican hard right. It was a tremendous waste of time and treasure.

It gets worse for Elder. There were about 12,750,000 votes cast on the recall question. Larry’s replacement vote total was an anemic 3,469,397, just 27% of that. So you’d think he’d want to move on, right? Yet Elder’s continued finger-pointing and blame-assigning have become almost Trumpian. Especially with his recent attacks on Snoop Dogg, of all people.

Here is how Elder exercises this odd compulsion in his article, “Recall reflections: Snoop Dogg and Obama defended racist status quo”:

“Clearly that shrewd political analyst, Snoop Dogg, knows that a ‘Republican takeover’ threatens Californians far more than rising crime; rising cost of living; highest state income tax in the nation; rising homelessness; poor wildfire management; water shortages that threaten agriculture … and that for the first time in history California suffered a net loss in population, primarily due to median cost of housing that is 250% above the median national home price.”

I don’t see what any of that has to do with Snoop. Solving those kinds of problems are not a part of any rap skill sets I know about. No more so than for the hosts of AM radio political call-in shows.

I’ve met Snoop Dogg. I worked at Interscope Records back in the day in Westwood, marketing unwholesome entertainment options to the kids. My office was just down the hall from partner label Death Row Records. It was quite a place to meet interesting people. And I cannot recall Snoop even once raising the topic of housing, though I’m certain he’s for it.

There’s been some talk about Larry and Snoop knowing each other during bygone times, almost all of it coming from Elder himself. There is even a video on Politico’s website where he claims, “I introduced (Snoop) to the evil weed … I taught him everything he knows.” That certainly made the news. Here is how New York Magazine dealt with it:

“You’d think having a governor who boasted of introducing Snoop Dogg to marijuana — a bit like introducing Michael Jordan to basketball — might be a little rich for Republicans. Then again, considering their affection for Donald Trump, maybe personal misconduct is just another way of being un-woke.”

I don’t think it is out of line to claim that this was all quite personal for Elder. After all he did for a young Snoop, only to be heartlessly abandoned two decades later. Just when he needed him most.

One more item: You may recall that a week before the election Elder launched a voter fraud website, and encouraged MAGAs to report any election shenanigans they might witness. A Trump kind of move that was widely criticized. The site (stopcafraud.com) is now banged up and out for sale.

Which must mean that Elder’s hunt for vote fraud is over. I hope for his sake somebody is disappointed.

John Crawford is the proprietor of the Sierra Madre Tattler.