OC Political

A right-of-center blog covering local, statewide, and national politics

Archive for March, 2012

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OC Republicans Shoot Selves in Foot; OC Democrats’ Worst-Case Scenario Evaporates

Posted by Chris Nguyen on March 16, 2012

In a pre-Prop 14 world, it made absolute good sense to contest every single partisan race.  Each qualified party was guaranteed exactly one candidate on the November ballot.

Prop 14 changed all that.  The top two candidates, regardless of party and regardless of whether anyone breaks 50%, advance to the November ballot.  If the top two candidates were members of the same party, presumably the more moderate candidate would win.  If there were two Democrats, the less liberal one would win thanks to Republican voters.  If there were two Republicans, the less conservative one would win thanks to Democratic voters.  Furthermore, the party with two candidates facing off in November would then spend a fortune in an intraparty battle, freeing the excluded party to spend its human and financial resources elsewhere.

In Orange County:

  • Republicans feared a November bloodbath in AD-74 between Allan Mansoor and Leslie Daigle, in which the less conservative candidate would win.  In AD-74, Republicans comprise 42.5% of registered voters, Democrats 29.0%, and no party preference voters 23.7%.
  • Democrats feard a November bloodbath in AD-69 between Tom Daly, Michele Martinez, Julio Perez, and Paco Barragan, in which the least liberal candidate would win.  In AD-69, Democrats comprise 49.7% of registered voters, Republicans 27.5%, and no party preference voters 19.1%.

Conventional wisdom held:

  • If no Democrat filed in AD-74, Democratic voters would back Republican Leslie Daigle over Republican Allan Mansoor in both June and November, as Daigle is less conservative than Mansoor.  Republicans would squander valuable human and financial resources in an intraparty battle for AD-74, freeing Democrats to spend their resources elsewhere.  However, if a Democrat were in the AD-74 race, presumably that person would be in the top two to face off against the winner of the Mansoor-Daigle fight.
  • If no Republican filed in AD-69, Republican voters would back Democrat Tom Daly over the other three Democrats (Michele Martinez, Julio Perez, and Paco Barragan) in June, as Daly is the least liberal of the four; the Republican voters would continue to back Daly over whichever Democrat he faced in November, as Daly would still be the less liberal candidate.  Democrats would squander valuable human and financial resources in an intraparty battle for AD-69, freeing Republicans to spend their resources elsewhere.  However, if a Republican were in the AD-69 race, presumably that person would be in the top two to face off against the winner of the Daly-Martinez-Perez-Barragan fight.

For about half a week, many in OC, including yours truly, thought the Democrats’ worst nightmare had materialized: a Democrat in AD-74 and no Republican in AD-69, as Robert Rush joined the Democratic Party and entered the AD-74 race while Republican Robert Hammond withdrew from AD-69 to join the Orange County Board of Education race.

Well both party’s fears came to naught and we revert to status quo in November with likely one Democrat versus one Republican.  As my intrepid fellow blog editor Chris Emami wrote, an obscure gentleman by the name of Jose Moreno (not to be confused with Anaheim City School District Trustee Jose Moreno) filed as the sole Republican in AD-69 with barely two minutes to spare.

Robert Rush (D-74) and Jose Moreno (R-69) could spend the next three months in Siberia, and both will still be in the top two in their June races by virtue of having “Democrat” and “Republican” after their names, respectively, allowing them to advance to November, where they will be summarily destroyed by their opponent.

(In case you’re wondering, Rush has a ballot designation of “Business Owner/Accountant” and will be second on the ballot after Daigle but before Mansoor while Moreno has a ballot designation of “Orange County Eligibility Technician” and will be third on the ballot after Daly and Martinez but before Barragan and Perez.  Many voters will be left scratching their heads as to what an eligibility technician is, and if you’re one of them, here’s an explanation of what that is.)

Democrats won’t squander their resources on an intraparty AD-69 battle in November nor will Republicans squander their resources on an intraparty AD-74 battle in November.  Both parties will revert to the old rules of spending their resources against each other in November.

Former Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte once said in reference to a San Francisco Mayoral race: “When you’re a conservative, and you’ve got a choice between a socialist and a communist, you back the socialist.”  Democrat Robert Rush has enabled the most conservative candidate to win in AD-74, and Republican Jose Moreno just enabled the most liberal candidate to win in AD-69.

Posted in 69th Assembly District, 74th Assembly District | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Ugh OCEA Back In The Mail Again

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 15, 2012

I am getting sick of all the junk mail being sent to my mailbox this early in campaign season. OCEA has yet again put out a hit piece on Anaheim Councilmembers Harry Sidhu, Kris Murray, and Gail Eastman. Needless to say this is getting really old , really fast. Here is a copy of the mailer that arrived in my mailbox yesterday:


The strategy just simply does not make sense to me. They are obviously looking to win 2 seats in the November election with what appears to be the slate of John Leos and Jose Moreno (not the same one trying to run for Assembly.

I guarantee you that they will beat Sidhu who is not on the ballot due to term limits, but good luck beating Murray or Eastman when they won’t even be on the ballot until 2014

Posted in Anaheim, Mail | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Republicans Will Have A Candidate In AD 69. Or Will They???

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 15, 2012

Despite being sick yesterday and having to cancel most of my meetings I was stuck going to the Orange County Registrar of Voters to assist a client with filing his paperwork. As many of our readers may already know, yesterday was the close of the filing period for races that went into extension. It turns out that we had another game of “Beat The Clock” on our hands.


Republican candidate for AD 69 Jose Moreno got in the door at 4:54 PM and told the person helping him file his paperwork that he only had 20 signatures and had an associate that was bringing more signatures.

Sure enough at just a few seconds before 4:58 PM Central Committee Member Tim Whitacre ran in the door with 22 more signatures. This however left them with just 42 signatures and this is before the validation process began.

After the doors were already locked it appears that Lupe Moreno arrived and I believe she had some more signatures in her hand but I cannot be certain.

Getting 40 out of 42 signatures proven to be valid is not an easy thing to do, so it is very possible that Moreno will not actually qualify for the ballot.

With no Republican in the race it would not be a bad thing for the party as it forces a lot of Democratic Party money to be squandered in this race (Kindee Durkee would be proud). If a Republican jumps in the Democrats will not spend anything leading up to November and will focus on supporting Quirk-Silva in AD 65 and possibly even Daigle in AD 74.

We should have an answer by later today.

Posted in 69th Assembly District, 74th Assembly District | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Fountain Valley CRA Meeting Tonight

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on March 15, 2012

This just came across the wire from a member of the Fountain Valley CRA, announcing the upcoming meeting that they have:

Just a reminder that we will be meeting tomorrow night tonight, our usual place,

Carrow’s restaurant, Magnolia just south of the 405.

Guest speaker, Supervisor Janet Nguyen

Lots of other items on the agenda: Election of Delegates to County and California CRA Convention, report from nominating committee and more
Hope you can make it.

Dinner 6:30, Meeting at 7

Posted in Fountain Valley | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Newport Beach decides to make Huntington Beach cooler place

Posted by Scott Carpenter on March 15, 2012

In a decision that can only be described as absurd, the Newport Beach City Council has unanimously decided to remove decades old fire pits from the beach. Citing complaints from residents, environmental hazards and health risks a collection of Nanny State Republicans have decided to ruin a unique recreational area of the beach.

For those readers unfamiliar with the Newport fire pits, they are located in a remote southern section away from the larger more populated main beach area. No reasonable argument can really be made for this decision other than pure government control on a local level. The fact that residents “complained” about the fire pits is even more absurd of an excuse being cited. The resident complaint excuse is not even worthy of being described by the term NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) at least traditional NIMBYs are complaining about something that will be built, not something that was constructed decades ago.

Though this decision is outrageous and I could rant for pages about reasons these fire pits should remain, there is a silver lining. As I previously mentioned, the vote was of this ban was unanimous. That means that Councilwoman Leslie Daigle gave Assemblyman Allen Mansoor further evidence why she is unfit to carry the GOP banner in the State Assembly. Daigle has earned a reputation of a big government RINO and an opportunist during her stint as an elected official, and over the course of the last few months her actions have proven that. This most recent decision is typical of the Nanny State attitudes Daigle has favored though. This leaves me grateful that Assemblyman Mansoor remains the OC GOP’s choice to represent AD 74.

Final note on this topic: While attending Concordia University in Irvine the Newport Fire Pits were a regular destination for myself and fellow Concordia (and UCI) students. While in college my LA County based friends from High School and I had an ongoing debate over what was a “cooler place” for a beach bonfire: Huntington Beach or Newport Beach. I always advocated for Newport Beach. But thanks to this recent decision I have to finally concede that Huntington is now the “cooler place”

H/T to Jack Wu for background on this piece.

Posted in 74th Assembly District | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Fun Stories From OC ROV Friday: Long Pham Made It Fun

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 14, 2012

At the time it did not seem like a lot of fun but looking back on it I can honestly say that it was probably one of the wildest things that I have ever seen during a filing period. Much like Travis Allen who I blogged about yesterday Long Pham ran into the Orange County Registrar of Voters at what I believe was around 4:55 PM although it might have been a couple of minutes earlier than that.

What ensued after this could only be described as unbelievable. Other people were at the office to witness this so this story can be corroborated. Cue the Benny Hill theme music as we begin.

Long Pham walks in at approximately 4:55 in the evening and ends up pulling a number from the dispenser I think he was #99 and at that time #94 was being served.

At about 5:10 he was called up to the counter and then proceeded to finalize his paperwork for the 72nd Assembly District. This came as no surprise to anybody as it was the move that he was expected to make. It took a while for him to finish his paperwork which is customary on the last day of filing. As he finished around 5:35 PM he walked over to grab another number and then proceeded to sit down.

When he pulled the number I figured that he had decided to run for County Board of Education. However, it turns out that he was simply helping his wife with her paperwork for Republican Party of Orange County Central Committee. This took about another 30 minutes and they both finished this up around 6:10 PM. Right after he finished, he walked over, grabbed another number, and sat down.

Sure enough the third time that he went up to the counter it was to finish up his paperwork for Orange County Board of Education. I thought it was a big mistake since running for 2 offices would have hurt his chances for both. He was given the oath of office around 7:15 PM which took a while because I believe that a ruling was being waited on as to whether or not he could legally run for both offices. He no sooner took the oath of office for Assembly than he decided to go back up to the counter for another request (very few people were left which made it unnecessary to pull more numbers.

Apparently he had a very quick change of mind because at 7:20 he decided that he no longer wanted to run for Orange County Board of Education. The question then ensued as to whether or not he could withdraw from the race, but finally at 8:15 PM it was decided that he could withdraw. Once he pulled out of the race.

In all honesty though Dr. Long Pham seems like a really nice guy and his wife also seems extremely nice. This post is not intended to make him look bad in any way shape or form. As a matter of fact he gave me a great story to tell.

Posted in Orange County Board of Education | Tagged: , | 5 Comments »

OC Political March Madness Pool

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 14, 2012

Reposted From Monday: This is the last day to enter the contest, It’s free and you can win a $40 gift card.

It is not a secret that I as well as the other two bloggers who are admins here are all a part of “Custom Campaigns” a local Orange County political consulting firm. It is that time of year again with “March Madness” upon us.

Since an office pool with three people would be no fun for anybody involved, we thought that it would be interesting to put together an office pool that includes the readers as well.

Did I mention that we are offering a $40 gift card for the winner of the pool, and it costs nothing to enter (technically I guess that makes it a contest and not a pool).

In order to receive the password to enter the pool you must leave a comment here with your real first and last name. Include your e-mail address as well (this is visible only to us), so that we can send you the password to be able to enter the pool.

Good luck and we look forward to having a great turnout for this so please feel free to invite others.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Filing Closes Tonight

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 14, 2012

Tonight is when the filing period closes for races that went into the extended period. These races include:

CD 47
AD 69
AD 72
OCBE 1

Stay tuned to OC Political for an update after filing closes of who took advantage of this extension. Despite the fact that the filing period should not have been extended in AD 69 and AD 72.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Special Report From Craig Alexander On The Stop Special Interest Money Now

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on March 14, 2012

 Greetings fellow Californians!  As you know, 2012 is an important election year.  Of course the Presidential primary and general election are important.  But in California we have an opportunity to end the union and corporate dominance over California politics from Sacramento to our own counties, cities and school districts. I would like to give you information about the initiative so you can see why I believe passing it is vital to our State.  Mark Bucher is Chairman of the campaign to pass this initiative. Mark advised that the initiative qualified for the ballot on December 6, 2011.

Let me begin by asking you some questions.  1. Who do you believe is the largest contributor to politics in California? 2. Are corporations always contributing to conservative politicians and causes? 3. In the last 10 years how much money has been spent by “Special Interests” in California?  4. Finally, doesn’t a proposed law by an individual constituent have as much chance of being enacted as those sponsored by Union Bosses and Corporate Executives?

Answers:

1. The largest contributor to politics in California over the last 10 years is the California Teachers Association closely followed by another government employee union and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of America.

2.  No – corporations contribute to their own interests as evidenced by their cooperation in the raising of taxes on all Californians in 2009.

3. Between 2000 and approximately 2009 the top 10 contributors to politics contributed just over 1 Billion dollars to state and local elections.

4.  No – laws sponsored by special interests have a passage rate far greater than that of non-special interests (i.e. you and I).  In fact 40% of all legislation in Sacramento is written by Special Interests or their lobbyists.

What will the passage of the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act do?  Right now employee unions and corporations are allowed to involuntarily take money from their union members / corporate employees and place it directly into their Political Action Committee.  Plus they can contribute directly to politicians’ campaigns.  The passage of the Stop Special Interest initiative will change all that and level the playing field.

Specifically, the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act will:

1) ban both corporate and labor union contributions directly to state and local candidates.

2) prohibit government contractors from contributing to state and local officials who can award them contracts.

3) bar corporations, government employers, and labor unions from collecting funds from employees by payroll deduction and using that money for politics.

4) Preserve every employee’s right to contribute to campaigns by means other than payroll deduction (for example, by check or by monthly debit from an account or credit card), but it ensures that those contributions are voluntarily authorized by the employee in writing annually.

Given the amount of money coming into politics from Unions and Corporations, and since this initiative will to a large extent limit the amount of money they can collect via involuntary payroll deductions, you can see how the passage of this initiative will break the control of unions and corporate special interests in Sacramento and in our cities, counties and school districts.

The politicians will be forced to pay attention to and receive contributions another group of people: their constituents the voters!  You and I!

For today this is all I will write to you on this subject.  I encourage you to find out more about this initiative before the unions and corporations begin their disinformation campaign about the initiative.  You can obtain more information at

http://stopspecialinterestmoney.org/

This initiative is so important that I have volunteered to be a guest speaker for the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act’s Speaker’s Bureau.  So if you have a group you would like to have someone speak about this important initiative, please contact me at cpalexander@cox.net or you may contact the Speaker’s Bureau’s manager Elizabeth Hansell at lizhansell@gmail.com or 310-446-4800.

Posted in California | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Santa Ana and the Kyoto Protocol

Posted by Charles Hart on March 13, 2012

In the winter 2012 issue of Santa Ana Green, a quarterly newsletter of the City of Santa Ana, the article “City of Santa Ana Moves Forward with Climate Action Plan” made the front page. The article proudly informs us that at the November 7, 2011 City Council Meeting, our Council unanimously approved an agreement with International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) Local Governments for Sustainability to develop a Baseline Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Climate Action Plan. Our Executive Director of Public Works, Raul Godinez II said that Santa Ana has taken a leadership role by being part of the Kyoto Protocol. You all remember the Kyoto Protocol that came from the 2007 United Nations Earth Conference that attempted to hamstring the United States and other developed industrial nations while allowing nations such as China and India to continue their development virtually unfettered.

This is such a terrible plan that even our liberal congress rejected it. Unfortunately the money behind the green movement has been successful in going around our federal government and striking deals with our state and local governments. In 2007, Santa Ana’s Mayor Miguel Pulido signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which urges federal and state governments to enact policies and programs to meet the Kyoto Protocol target of a 7% reduction in emissions to below 1990 levels.

One of the first steps to the plan that our City Council agreed to is to identify and account for the sources of emission in Santa Ana from government buildings and facilities, as well as community wide. The plan is to identify and measure emissions from electricity, natural gas, water, waste and transportation. The City then plans to “Target improvements.” Of course this will be at the owner’s expense. In other words reduce your emissions or be fined or run out of Santa Ana. This Community Action Plan (CAP) claims it will produce positive benefits for the community such as improved air quality, reduced energy bills and traffic congestion. In fact our Council is studying ways and implementing the construction of more apartments in already congested areas near downtown without expanding our streets  and parking, with the intent to pressure people out of their cars and into mass transit (our Mayor also serves on the Orange County Transit Authority). The City also supports “smart meters” that measure electronic emissions an allow remote shut downs if you exceed what the government determines to be a “fair amount”. If you go online to the United Nations website and read the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21 you will see just how invasive the “green movement” is upon our individual liberties.

Our City Council (including the RINO that claims to be a business friendly Republican – Carlos Bustamante) has committed $55,855 to participate in this CAP. That may not sound like much to government. But when our City has mismanaged money so badly that we have been forced to surrender our 128 year old Fire Department to the County Fire Authority, and has cut the number of Code Enforcement officers and incurred $25 million dollars in deficits, the $55,855 seems huge.

The only “green” our City needs to be pursuing today is the color of money. We need to bring businesses back into Santa Ana by NOT CAPPING their ability to produce revenue for our hometown.

 Your fellow Patriot,

 Charles Hart for Santa Ana City Council 2012

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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