The deceased campaign wasn't for a candidate or a ballot measure — but for the Los Angeles Times. In September, Tribune Publishing, the Chicago media company that owns the Times, fired Times Publisher Austin Beutner after a year on the job. The firing of Beutner — a former investment banker, mayoral candidate and deputy mayor with no previous experience in media — from a very challenging job may have been predictable. But his dismissal touched off controversy. Beutner's supporters portrayed Tribune as distant meddlers in the local paper who saw Beutner as trying to steer the paper to local ownership (billionaire Eli Broad). Tribune executives countered that Beutner couldn't meet company-wide financial targets.