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Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 20, 2012
UPDATED 9:07 PM- We are now onto bylaws issues and I am done for the night.
UPDATED 9:04 PM- Todd Spitzer is pointing out that the endorsement is controversial and should be sent to the endorsements committee. The ayes have it and the endorsement will be sent to the endorsements committee.
UPDATED 9:02 PM- Charles Hart is now speaking about the work he has done in Santa Ana for both the community and the OC GOP.
UPDATED 8:59 PM- Brett Franklin is now speaking about how Carlos Bustamante is what he referred to as a problem. He is asking that the Central Committee take some time to look into both candidates and not rush to endorse 1 over the other.
UPDATED 8:57 PM- Scott Baugh is making a speech as to the situation that exists when 2 members from the Central Committee are both running for the same office. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Republican Central Committee | Tagged: Bruce Whitaker, Cecilia Iglesias, Charles Hart, Chris Emami, Chris Nguyen, Christina Shea, Colin McCarthy, Costa Mesa City Charter, Dave Sullivan, Denis Bilodeau, Devin Dwyer, Don Harper, Ethan Temianka, Gary DeLong, Gary Monahan, Greg Woodard, Huntington Beach Property Tax Protection Initiative, Jeff Mathews, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Jon Dumitru, Karina Onofre, Lucille Kring, Mark Murphy, Mark Schwing, Mike Munzing, Nancy Rikel, Peter Kim, Ray Grangoff, Rhonda Rohrabacher, Rob Johnson, Robert Hammond, Steve Mensinger, Steven Choi, Thomas Gordon, Tony Beall, Travis Kiger | 3 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 20, 2012
Nguyen was attacked by a dog yesterday, so as a reward to readers you are stuck with me for the week. Chris will be ok, but I suggest avoiding him around a full moon for the next couple of months just to be safe.
Tonight will be the beginning of what I like to call “endorsement fun” with the OC GOP having a list of 31 names of people to endorse. I am hearing rumors that Irvine Councilman Steven Choi may lose the endorsement over his recent vote to ban plastic bags and his previous voter for 3% @ 50 for the police.
Other small controversies include rumors that two Yorba Linda Councilmembers have possibly taken some union money and whether or not Jim Silva is willing to let a former opponent slip through for an endorsement in a race for Huntington Beach City Council.
We will keep you posted tonight and I would predict that at least one wild thing will happen.
Posted in Republican Central Committee | 6 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 10, 2012
As of 7:30 PM this evening all candidates are done filing for office (with the exception of races that go into extended filing).
Forgive us for being a bit busy this last couple of days, but we have a lot of clients running for office this November. We will be doing some updates on the final list of candidates in many races that did not go into extended filing later on this evening and/or over the weekend.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 3, 2012
The rumor that I have just been made aware of is that today i the last day that Red County (Orange County) will be up online. One of the reasons that we started this blog was because we believe that they lost sight over there as to what it meant to be a local blog. As many of you know I got my first real start in blogging at Red County and it is actually really sad to see it go away.
I am actually sort of sad to see it go because it used to be a really good blog back in the days when Matt Cunningham, Chip Hanlon, etc… were running the show over there. Once they started censoring posts that writers were trying to put up and also leaving a 3 day delay between when posts were submitted and posted I realized that things were just not the same.
As we approach 100,000 hits here at OC Political we (Erik Brown, Chris Nguyen, and myself) want to thank the readership and hopefully welcome in some new readership from those that used to read Red County.
Posted in Orange County | Tagged: Chip Hanlon, Chris Emami, Chris Nguyen, Erik Brown, Matt Cunningham, OC Political, Red County | 4 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 2, 2012
Many of you may have read recently about Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez failing to convince a judge to allow her to run for a 4th term on the Santa Ana City Council. It apparently didn’t take her very long to come up with another office for her to run for.
According to the Orange County Registrar of voters filing log Alvarez pulled papers today to run for the Rancho Santiago Community College District, Trustee Area 5. This race currently holds 2 incumbents vying for just 1 seat and Alvarez jumping in makes things very interesting.
It is still very early to make a clear prediction as to who would win, but if the election were today I would say Alvarez is the clear front-runner for the seat.
Posted in Rancho Santiago Community College District | Tagged: Claudia Alvarez | 2 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 31, 2012
It has been a relatively slow news day after yesterdays Santa Ana craziness. One thing that popped into my inbox from Capitol Weekly was an article about the Jerry Brown tax initiative committee raising a
lmost 8 million dollars through the final week of July.
Taxes being raised in California is not a very popular concept right now and most experts believe that the tax increases will fail unless a lot of money comes in to help the campaign. A great barometer for this is the slim margin of defeat for the cigarette tax that was on the ballot this past June. If voters are unwilling to pass a tax on cigarettes in California then it will be an uphill battle to get any other kind of tax raised.
However, with almost 8 million dollars raised at this early point in the campaign it will make for a very interesting and probably close race.
Another question that some have is what impact the Molly Munger PTA initiative (Proposition 38) would have on this as Munger is clearly not happy that her initiative was moved lower on the ballot. Proposition 38 has raised almost 9 million dollars during the same time period.
Posted in California | Tagged: Jerry Brown, Molly Munger | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 30, 2012
The Santa Ana Mayoral race is one Councilmember away from a Brown Act violation at debates with Councilman Sal Tinajero also pulling papers to run for Santa Ana Mayor. This comes on the heels of Councilman David Benavides announcing this morning that he is running for Mayor.
We were tipped off on this just a few minutes ago from a reliable source and will continue to update readers as more information becomes available.
Posted in Santa Ana | Tagged: David Benavides, Miguel Pulido, Sal Tinajero | 3 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 30, 2012
Here is the official press release from the Benavides for Mayor campaign making it official:
Santa Ana Councilmember David Benavides announces candidacy for Mayor; thanks incumbent Mayor for over 25 years at City Hall.
Santa Ana, CA (July 30, 2012) – “Santa Ana is ready to once again be the thriving urban center and heart of Orange County. I am ready to be the Mayor with the vision and commitment to help our city realize its potential,” Benavides said. “As Mayor I will engage our residents and businesses and bring our community together around the common goals of safe neighborhoods, strong businesses, and building our city into a cultural destination – a city in which we can all take pride.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Santa Ana | Tagged: David Benavides | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 30, 2012
Update 2:03 PM- The video appears to be back up and running and I have now been able to find the David Benavides for Mayor website which you can view here.
Update 10:43 AM- It appears that the video is no longer up for public viewing.
It appears that Mayor Miguel Pulido will have an extremely difficult challenge this November with David Benavides announcing that he is running for Mayor.
There is a video that just went up as of today with him confirming the announcement. We do not have a lot of information as of this minute but we will be updating it as information becomes available.
Here is the video
Posted in Santa Ana | Tagged: David Benavides | 2 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 26, 2012
It appears that Orange County Executive Officer Tom Mauk has announced his resignation according to the Los Angeles Times. We here at OC Political do not have a lot of information on this as of yet but will report more when we do. For those that have been living under a rock for the past few months Mauk has come under fire after the arrest of Carlos Bustamante. Many argue that the County did not handle the situation in the best manner and with Mauk being the man at the top of the food chain he is likely to be the one to take the heat on this.
(UPDATE 8:22 PM) The Orange County Register has an article up that fills in some of the blanks on this developing story. It appears that Mauk will not be leaving without a pretty hefty severance package. He appears to be set to get a $270,000 severance.
One of the more interesting points in the Register article was this tidbit:
Mauk’s resignation agreement with county supervisors says the county won’t be on the hook for legal representation if Mauk is charged with a criminal offense arising from his employment. He will, however, be indemnified in any civil lawsuits.
The County has an acting CEO in place until September 11th where they will appoint an interim CEO while they are in the process of finding somebody to take over the post on a permanent basis.
Posted in Orange County | Tagged: Tom Mauk | 1 Comment »
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