Death Threats Alleged in LA Mayor's Race

You've gotta love California elections. Back in 2003, the state's voters recalled Governor Gray Davis and selected from a cadre of actors to replace him. (The guy from Predator beat out the one from Diff'rent Strokes and another one from Sex Spa 2.)

More recently, the mayor of Los Alamitos in Orange County was forced to resign for insinuating that President Obama was a watermelon-slurpin' yokel, while activist Cindy Sheehan ran a campaign starring Roseanne that suggested Nancy Pelosi was a George W. Bush clone. (Try repeating that one at CPAC.)

But the latest news might take the cake. In the Los Angeles mayoral campaign, which culminates in Tuesday's election, one candidate is accused of leveling death threats at his rival. The accuser is a marijuana preacher and a 4-time winner of High Times magazine's Stony Award. The accused is a freelance rapper from Venice Beach who has harassed the city council at every meeting for the past 2 legislative terms.

And these are the Republican candidates!

No, just kidding. But the accusations are real...

Police questioned a Los Angeles mayoral candidate Thursday on whether he made a death threat against another candidate.

David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg -- one of nine contenders trying to unseat Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- was met by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department when he arrived for a debate at Claude Pepper Senior Center on La Cienega Boulevard.

Police sources said he was taken to the Wilshire Division station and asked about comments he allegedly aimed at candidate Craig X Rubin.

Mr. Rubin, the aforementioned pot preacher, accuses Mr. Dogg (pictured above) of threatening to kill him if he showed up to the debate. While such words didn't phase Pastor Rubin, they apparently did scare off the incumbent mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who has skipped every single one of the debates, presumably for fear of being killed by a white rapper.

Now the decision goes to the voters. Should Zuma Dogg somewhow defeat the heavily favored Villaraigosa, while at the same time getting arrested and sentenced to jail, it would present an awkward situation going forward.

Not that this has discouraged California voters in the past.