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Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 10, 2012
H/T OC Register for a story on Stanton choosing to put a utility tax increase on the ballot for the June 2012 election. The rate increase would be from 5% to 7.5% and the vote was a 4-0 vote with the following council members voting to place the item on the ballot:
Brian Donahue
Al Ethans
David Shawver
Carol Warren
There is an unfortunate vacancy on the council due to the resignation of Ed Royce Sr. who was often the lone conservative voice on the council.
It seems that every time that things start to go south for a City or School District they look to take it out on the taxpayers in the form of a tax increase or school bond. According to the article it is possible that the Council might look to reduce the tax if economic times improve. Realistically though I do not see Stanton lowering the rate back down to 5% if they get this passed. At the end of the day it comes down to the voters of Stanton and what they decide they want to see happen.
Posted in Stanton | Tagged: Al Ethans, Brian Donahue, Carol Warren, David Shawver | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 10, 2012
It has now been two weeks and we are still here. We are making every effort to grow the blog without forgetting that it is rooted in providing everything from a local perspective. Some minor changes to the blog include a list of recent comments on the right sidebar.
We have also created a twitter feed for the blog for those of you that don’t want to follow us on WordPress or choose to follow us on both. You can find us by searching for @OCPolitical. We would like to thank all of the contributors here on the site and also most importantly those of you taking the time to read the blog.
Facebook has not been forgotten, as you can like our Facebook page set up for “OC Political” and keep up to date with all of our posts.
Next week should be fun with a lot of action starting up during the opening of the filing period for all candidates running in the June Election.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 9, 2012
It is no secret that Obama is a closet conservative when it comes to education policy and he showed his true colors when he allowed 10 states a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law passed by President George W. Bush. The most disappointing thing to me was that California was not on the list of 10 states. The list includes:
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Kentucky
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Jersey
Oklahoma
Tennessee
This bill when written was a “Frankenstein’s Monster” created by both George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy. It had the best of intentions, but failed miserably and it is now time to repeal it in phases. Hopefully California can get rid of this thing in the near future.
Posted in California, National | 1 Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 9, 2012
In a genius move this week the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to fine people for throwing footballs and frisbees on the beach, Because as we all know this dangerous activity has cost numerous lives in Los Angeles and needed to be put to a stop. Not only is it now a fine that residents will face, but it is a $1,000 fine.
If you want to throw a frisbee or football you will now be stuck going to the horrible beaches in Orange County to do so. A $1,000 fine is not something that people are going to want to have to seal with, so I fully expect to see a dip in the Los Angeles economy at and near the beaches. On top of this apparently it is alsp now illegal to dig holes in the sand of over 18 inches effectively putting a ban on sand castles in L.A. County.
Even though you can no longer buy plastic bags in Dana Point or walk your dog at the Beach in San Clemente, at least in Orange County we are still able to throw footballs, throw frisbees, and dig holes in the sand.
Posted in Orange County | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 8, 2012
Rick Santorum shocked the world last night and this blogger as well with his victories in both Minnesota and Colorado. Please note that I am not counting Missouri intentionally as it was nothing but a glorified poll. This win puts Santorum ahead of Gingrich in the overall delegate count, although Romney still has a fairly substantial lead over both of them. Ron Paul is not even a factor anymore with his small amount of delegates. The Race stands as follows in terms of number of delegates after the latest round of elections:
Romney 87
Santorum 35
Gingrich 32
Paul 13
What is most amazing to me is that Rick Santorum was on the brink of possibly dropping out after a poor showing in Nevada. He now has a new life to his campaign while Gingrich is left reeling.
With Romney still in a substantial lead this is not a great position for Santorum to be in despite the good night. Arizona and Michigan are up next on Tuesday (unless you count Maine who will finish their week-long caucus on Saturday) and I expect Romney to win both, but then again I thought the same ting about Colorado as well.
Needless to say this primary will likely run a little bit longer than we all initially expected.
Posted in National | Tagged: Rick Santorum | 1 Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 7, 2012
According to the newspaper Người Việt, Tyler Diep has dropped out of the 72nd Assembly District race and will be running for re-election to the Westminster City Council. This comes on the heels of Los Alamitos Councilman Troy Edgar jumping into the race after switching from the 47th Congressional District earlier today. He stated that there was no pressure put on him by any other candidate or political entity to drop out of the race. You can expect to see him endorsing Troy Edgar in the very near future I would guess.
This is a bit surprising though because Diep was leading in the fundraising battle for this race with over $120,000 cash on hand in his account. You can read the story in Người Việt by clicking on the link here. Might I suggest this Google Translate link. The translation is not perfect but it will give you a rough idea of what exactly happened.
The big winner in this would appear to be Huntington Beach Councilman Matt Harper, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that OC Board of Education Member Long Pham actually benefits more from this turn of events. With Diep dropping out, Pham is now the only Vietnamese Republican remaining in the race with a possibility of Harper and Edgar splitting the vote. At the end of the day, though, I would now handicap this race as advantage Harper, assuming he does step up his fundraising.
Posted in 72nd Assembly District | Tagged: Long Pham, Matt Harper, Troy Edgar, Tyler Diep | 3 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 7, 2012
In a surprising turn of events Los Alamitos Counclman Troy Edgar has dropped out of the 47th Congressional District race and jumped into the 72nd Assembly District race. Edgar was the fundraising leader in CD 47 if you count money loaned to yourself ($400,000). This was in a race that included former Congressman Steve Kuykendall and Long Beach City Councilman Gary DeLong.
Realistically this race would have been a tough one for Edgar despite having the fundraising lead because Orange County is a small portion of the new district and on top of that the Democrats have a registration advantage. Having State Senator Alan Lowenthal running on the other side of the aisle does not help things either.
The Assembly race is no picnic either though having to go against Westminster Councilman Tyler Diep, Huntington Beach Councilman Matt Harper, and Orange County Board of Education Trustee Long Pham. However, this is a safe Republican seat and the last one of these guys standing will likely run away with this in the General election when facing off against Joe Dovinh who is likely to make it to the run-off.
I am impressed with the fact that Edgar dropped out of the Congressional race considering he has to walk away from some of the money in his committee that he set up for the congressional race. Los Alamitos is a small part of AD 72 but if Edgar is willing to throw some money at this race I could see him pulling this off.
Posted in 47th Congressional District, 72nd Assembly District | Tagged: Gary DeLong, Joe Dovinh, Long Pham, Matt Harper, Steve Kuykendall, Troy Edgar, Tyler Diep | 3 Comments »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 7, 2012
Is it just me or is anybody else starting to get sick of these Republican primaries? Today is yet another election day in Colorado and Minnesota.
Colorado- Romney looks like he is going to run away with this one and it should not come as a huge surprise. What does surprise me though is that Santorum appears to be running 2nd in the polls, with Gingrich and Paul about the same. 36 delegates are at stake in this election in a closed non-binding caucus.
Minnesota- Santorum and Romney are polling extremely close to each other for the lead, but Gingrich and Paul are not that far behind. This one will definitely be the most fun to watch in what could end up being a big night for Romney if he wins both. 40 delegates are at stake in this non-binding open caucus.
Stay tuned for a recap tonight of the results.
Posted in National | Tagged: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul | 1 Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 7, 2012
H/T OC Register on the consideration of a plastic bag ban by Dana Point and Laguna Beach. This is not a new story as many cities have already been in talks of passing such an ordinance in Orange County. This is not good news for local businesses in this city as it will be another unfunded mandate for these businesses passed by a government agency. It blows my mind how much time cities waste on such pointless ordinances that have such little impact on te day-to-day operations of city business.
Time could be much better spent on items such as fixing pot holes, cutting wasteful spending, or trying to decrease homelessness. Banning plastic bags which is intended to protect the environment will have a miniscule impact on the actual amount of pollution. Although some bad apples exist that do litter, I would argue that most people do throw away their trash or potentially reuse their plastic bags in a number of different ways.
Whether this ordinance passes or not people will still have a need for plastic bags and will likely go purchase hefty bags from Target and restart this entire cycle. That is until the cities that ban plastic bags in stores also decide to ban the sale of plastic bags as well.
Posted in Dana Point, Laguna Beach | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 6, 2012
Just a quick note about weekends for our readers. If you check the blog on the weekends, you might notice a lack of content. The reason simply is our bloggers will often run out of steam after a hard week of blogging, or sometimes, there is no news over the weekend. However, this is good news for Monday readers, as content will be back up and running as you can see from what appears to be a pretty brutal article from Lassie from early this morning.
This week might be a bit slow in anticipation of the filing period beginning next week, but please hang in there with us. We look forward to covering the entire filing period with an in-depth analysis on a daily basis. Thank you for your continued readership.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
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