Kaifesh video doesn't support Goel's 'Hollywood mafia' claim

A video clip released Wednesday by 8th Congressional District GOP hopeful Manju Goel fails to back up her claim that her Republican primary opponent, Larry Kaifesh, used the term "Hollywood mafia" to describe his campaign funding sources.

In the video, taken during a public forum shortly after Kaifesh entered the race last fall, he is asked by an audience member to describe how he intended to raise money for the race.

"I have an extensive network across the country and across the area," Kaifesh responds. "I spent a lot of time in Hollywood. It's done very well."

Goel claimed at a news conference Monday that Kaifesh used the precise term "Hollywood mafia." She said she had recorded evidence to that effect, but the video clip sent to the Daily Herald two days later did not contain the term.

In an email that accompanied the clip, Goel wrote, "The important thing is Larry's inconsistency. Say one thing to one audience and another to another audience.

"In his email to constituents, he clearly says that after 9/11, the only time he has spent outside his Marine assignment in Iraq and Afghanistan was in District 8, yet on the other hand he says in this video that 'he has spent a lot of time in Hollywood and it has done very well'" she added.

Among the 39 individual contributors to Kaifesh's campaign apart from himself, five are from the greater Los Angeles area, according to his Federal Election Commission report.

Martin Bowen of Temple Hill Entertainment and homemaker Catherine Bowen of Woodland Hills, Calif., contributed $2,600 each to Kaifesh's campaign.

Los Angeles resident Stephen Ferraro Jr. of United Talent Agency contributed $500.

Sean Perrone of Kaplan Perrone Productions, who resides in Beverly Hills, Calif., contributed $250. And retiree Arthur Perrone of Newport Beach, Calif., contributed $1,000.

Kaifesh said he lived in the Hollywood area while in the U.S. Marine Reserves in the mid-90s, but has been on active duty since 9/11. This has included overseas deployments every other year since then, while his most recent posting was at the Pentagon. He returned to his native Carpentersville last fall, he said.

Goel lives in Aurora, which is outside the 8th District.

The district is roughly centered in Schaumburg and includes parts of Northwest Cook, central DuPage and eastern Kane counties.