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Great Park Vote Gets Delayed

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on November 17, 2013

This last week the vote to push forward on the Great Park was set to take place. I was not initially planning to cover it, but a large number of readers have asked me to weigh in on what took place and to give a brief analysis.

To give a bit of background on the situation, Councilmember Jeff Lalloway voted with Larry Agran and Beth Krom to delay the vote on the Great Park which came as quite a surprise to me and based on the e-mails that I received a large number of readers.

Here is my overall analysis on what this means and what hopefully will happen.

In a year of historic GOP losses, 2012 had a glimmer of hope when Republicans regained majority control of the Irvine City Council. Wresting control from Larry Agran’s majority was the first step in getting the Orange County Great Park on the right track.

After months of negotiation with a development partner, the Irvine City Council had the opportunity last Tuesday to move the Park forward. But, to 688 acres of sports facilities, gardens and wildlife corridor, Republican Councilmember Jeff Lalloway and Democrats Beth Krom and Larry Agran said, “no, not just yet.”

In addition to getting the Orange County Great Park built, the development partner announced that Broadcom was in discussions to move their corporate headquarters to the Great Park, instead of a speculated move to the District in the City of Tustin.

Getting infrastructure at the Great Park, keeping thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs in Irvine, fulfilling promises to build a world-class destination for Orange County’s enjoyment. Why is Jeff Lalloway stalling? The development deal will expire at the November 26th City Council meeting. With virtually no development fees left to build the Park, this is the last, best and only hope to fulfill the promise of the Orange County Great Park.

Councilmember Lalloway needs to help protect the Republican majority of the Irvine City Council by doing what’s right and advancing development proposals at the Great Park. If he truly wants to protect Irvine’s interests, he will support Mayor Steven Choi and Councilmember Christina Shea in finally moving the Park forward.

Posted in Irvine | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Guest Op-Ed- The Lincoln Club Endorses Robert Ming: The Right Thing Done in the Right Way

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on September 25, 2013

We are posting a rebuttal to a recent post written here on OC Political. The rebuttal comes from Lincoln Club member David Bahnsen who originally posted the piece on his blog. In the interest of full disclosure I am a member of the Lincoln Club of Orange County.

The Lincoln Club Endorses Robert Ming: The Right Thing Done in the Right Way

Matt Cunningham has posted a bizarre piece over at OCPolitical expressing his dismay at the Lincoln Club’s decision to endorse Robert Ming for the OC Supervisor’s seat in the 5th District.  It is bizarre because Matt expresses a long-held admiration for the club, and then says he has never “been more disappointed in one of the club’s actions than its endorsement of Robert Ming”.  He later in the article says it is not about Robert Ming, but about the process by which the club gave the endorsement.  A few comments are in order.

Matt is not a member of the Lincoln Club, and to my knowledge never has been.  He is certainly not in the club’s leadership, was not at the board meeting in question, and is not in any position to know or understand what the club did, or what its policies and protocols are.  He is welcome to endorse Frank Ury, and he is welcome to work for that candidate’s campaign (though I do not know if he does or not).  Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

The Lincoln Club is free to endorse who it wants, when it wants, and it is not accountable to political bloggers or political consultants.  In fact, we would be happier if political consultants were ALWAYS upset with what we were doing, for surely it would mean our cause would be righteous.  But I digress …  The club, is, however, accountable to its own bylaws.  In this case, the club went above and beyond the call of duty in fidelity to our own rules and regulations.  Our Executive Committee met prior to the board’s consideration of an endorsement and unanimously voted, on the merits, to endorse Robert Ming in the Supervisor’s race.  The club requires a 75% super-majority of its Board of Directors to endorse a Republican candidate when there are other Republican candidates in the race.  In this case, because Frank Ury entered the race, a Board vote was required for Mr. Ming to receive our endorsement.  The club has run into these situations numerous times over the years, and we have sometimes voted to provide an endorsement in a contested race (Shawn Nelson comes to mind in a previous Supervisor’s race) and sometimes voted not to (DeYoung/Bates, Spitzer/Pauley, and a dozen other non-supervisor races).  These decisions have always happened according to protocol – our own internal protocol, not ones dictated to us by the blogosphere.  The process has barely ever involved candidates coming to speak to the club.  There have been instances where that was deemed necessary or fruitful, but those instances are the exception, not the rule.  Robert Ming was asked to leave the room while the Board discussed the proposed endorsement.  Our board is not filled with political novices and ignoramuses.  We know the candidates and have relationships with those whose candidacy we are asked to consider.  Robert Ming is probably the easiest endorsement vote I have cast in my entire time as leader in the Lincoln Club.  He is everything the club stands for: The epitome of fiscal responsibility, a devoted family man, a competent leader and business professional, a man of faith and conviction, and contra 99% of those you will ever see mentioned on a OC political blog, he is an astute and philosophically-inclined student of political thought.  Our club would be blessed to have HIS endorsement of us.  Robert has served in our committees for over a decade and as an elected leader in Laguna Niguel is very well-known to the club and its leadership.

Frank Ury may or may not be a number of the things that Matt Cunningham says he is.  The point is that our club feels so strongly about the qualifications and abilities of Robert Ming that we unanimously voted to endorse him.  Matt says that we were two votes short.  Again, this misnomer could have been easily cleared up had Matt done any homework.  Our bylaws require a 75% threshold for endorsement; in Robert’s case, we got 100%.  To the extent that there were some absent board members at the meeting, we secured the votes of absent members after the fact (so as to leave no doubt about the board’s commitment to its chosen path).  This is also very common in our history and practice.

The reality is that it is none of Matt’s business how we conduct our business.  We are a private organization and are under no obligation to defend ourselves to him.  Only Matt can speak to what his real agenda is here in this unjustified attack on the Lincoln Club.  As a matter of defending our public record I have chosen to reply to clear up the blatant falsehoods uttered in his piece.  We were faithful to our own bylaws, faithful to our own traditions, and in this case, took an action supported by every single board member present at the meeting (as well as the Executive Committee which met two days prior).  Our actions amount to the vanilla task of endorsing a candidate we consider to be one of OC’s conservative stars.

The club is on solid footing in its endorsement of Robert Ming.  All over the county the buzz is growing for Robert’s candidacy as his endorsements continue to mount.  We are proud of this endorsement and hope all Orange County residents will look at what Robert stands for when they consider the options in this race.

Posted in 5th Supervisorial District | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fountain Valley Sticks With Rainbow Disposal As Trash Hauler (Contract Not Put Out To Bid)

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on September 16, 2013

On the subject of City Government, here is a story in Fountain Valley that involved the trash contract not being put out to bid, AGAIN. On a 4-1 vote with Mayor Mark McCurdy being the lone dissenting vote, the Fountain Valley City Council voted to continue using Rainbow Environmental yet again. If it appears that I have some kind of issue with Rainbow Environmental that would be factually inaccurate, most individuals that I have talked to about trash haulers have told me that Rainbow Environmental is one of the best and most reliable in the business. The issue I see at play is the fact that this contract was not at least put out to bid.

FountainValley

Kudos to Mayor McCurdy for his vote on this item as it was a good idea to at least explore the available options for Fountain Valley on this contract. I would not be in the least bit surprised if Rainbow Environmental was the most competent company for this project based on pricing and competency, but reassurance for taxpayers through an open and transparent bidding process is never a bad solution for a municipality.

Given the long relationship that Rainbow Environmental has had with Fountain Valley I understand that the Councilmembers might have felt a bit of loyalty toward maintaining the status quo, however the main allegiance should be towards ensuring that taxpayers are getting the best deal possible. Again, it quite possibly would have stayed with Rainbow Environmental, but this would be good to have the process potentially save a few dollars.

Regardless of how well a city is run, I think most people would agree that putting things out to bid is a good idea based on the fact that it creates healthy competition between companies that want to provide services. Often times placing it out to bid will provide reassurance that the company currently working with the municipality is the best option available. Pricing is not the only factor to look at when putting an item out to bid either. For example, in construction when multiple companies bid on a project the low bid may same like the easy choice but if that low bidder comes back to the City Council with multiple change orders because they are ill-equipped to handle that specific project, it may end up costing the City more money to work with that company as opposed to one of the higher bids.

Fountain Valley has a track record of fiscal responsibility, limited regulation, and few complaints, however it would not hurt to have a contract for trash hauling services go out to bid more than once every 50 years.

Posted in Fountain Valley | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

RINO Witch-Hunt Against Placentia’s Conservative Yamaguchi?

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 26, 2013

Jeremy YamaguchiThere is a weird controversy that has been taking place in Placentia this summer. Councilman Jeremy Yamaguchi is being attacked for his role in one of the City of Placentia’s concerts in the park. Basically, Yamaguchi is being accused of having a conflict of interest with his status as a Councilman and his activities as a VOLUNTEER for the City.

The issue really is much ado about nothing: there is no kind of financial conflict of interest that took place because volunteers inherently have no financial interest.

Yamaguchi has worked for companies that have provided sound services for bands that participate in the concerts in the park and Yamaguchi has been providing his services to the City as a VOLUNTEER. I think it is rather refreshing for a Councilmember to provide volunteer services that don’t involve simply showing up at an event, smiling, waving, and/or gracing everybody with their presence.

According to a memo from Placentia’s city attorney quoted by the Orange County Register:

“In summary, we cannot state with certainty that conflict of interest laws have been violated; however, Mr. Yamaguchi’s income history, coupled with his activities as a volunteer, could lead one to believe that an appearance of a conflict exists.”

What a strange quote.  The city attorney basically says, “We can’t find a conflict but somebody might think there’s a conflict.”

Yamaguchi’s activities as a volunteer should have no effect on what he can and/or cannot do as a City Councilmember in the City of Placentia. If he is not profiting in any way financially, I don’t see what the issue is.

One thing that caused me to raise an eyebrow is the fact that Yamaguchi is currently the conservative minority on the Placentia City Council along with Councilman Chad Wanke. The non-conservative majority of Scott Nelson, Connie Underhill, and Joe Aguirre are all technically registered Republicans.

More often than not, when city staff and a Council majority are questioned, they don’t like it.  This sometimes leads to efforts to try to discredit the dissenters by making them look bad at both Council meetings and in the media.  I’m not sure if this is the case in Placentia, but where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.

What I do know for certain is that Jeremy Yamaguchi has been an excellent vote on the Placentia City Council and obviously cares about his community. People like Yamaguchi should be applauded for their efforts and not dragged over the coals.

Posted in Placentia | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

2nd Supervisorial District Campaign Finance Reports: Steel Way Ahead

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on August 2, 2013

michellesteelallanmansoorjimmorenojoecarchio

Chris Nguyen gave an excellent analysis yesterday of the 73rd Assembly District campaign finance reports. I figured that I wanted to contribute to the party by providing a similar analysis of the 2nd Supervisorial District. This analysis is going to show that Michelle Steel is in a commanding lead. She currently has more cash on hand than every candidate running for the 2nd Supervisorial District and 73rd Assembly District combined.

The biggest surprise from this race is Joe Carchio. It was announced by Carchio last week that he was running for the seat. I obviously don’t expect him to report any money raised for the period covering January 1st- June 30th 2013, but he hasn’t even opened a committee yet.

Michelle Steel got the early lead on this race being the first to announce her candidacy. Her fundraising totals are quite impressive with just under $450,000 (includes transfers) in actual direct contributions arriving during this reporting period. That is an impressive number for any campaign, especially a Supervisorial campaign. I must admit that I was surprised that she doesn’t appear to have a campaign website up and running yet.

It is still really early in the race and Allan Mansoor is still only exploring a run for Supervisor, but his numbers are not super impressive. $8,400 (includes transfers) raised is not going to get the job done. He might have a name ID advantage going into the race but he cannot have a repeat performance of what happened in 2012 (getting massively outspent) against Michelle Steel. If he steps up his fundraising this election I can see him putting together some impressive fundraising numbers from some local grassroots organizations. At this point though it may be too late.

Jim Moreno raised the second most at $12,785 and did not have to transfer anything over from his College Board Account. This number is not great compared to Steel but I will give him credit for raising more than Mansoor. It will be interesting to see what he raises for this campaign as I do consider him a bit of a wild card candidate to make it to the run-off.

One of the more interesting statistics that I noticed from the reports are the lack of expenditures. Generally, candidates end up spending a lot of money up front, but that is not the case in this race with Steel leading the pack on spending at a whopping $6,593. I have a feeling that spending will go dramatically up during the next reporting period for all of the candidates.

Here is the breakdown:

Candidate Contributions Other
Income		 Candidate
Loans		 Unpaid
Bills		 Expenditures Cash on Hand
(COH)		 COH Minus
Unpaid Bills		 COH Minus
Unpaid Bills
& Loans
Steel $449,939 $0 $0 $4,750 $6,593 $552,030 $547,280 $447,280
Moreno $12,785 $0 $2,100 $0 $3,221 $10,692 $10,692 $7,471
Carchio N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Mansoor $8,400 $0 $0 $0 $175 $8,225 $8,225 $8,225
Notes: Figures may be off by one dollar due to rounding.

Campaign finance reports for January 1-June 30, 2013 were due at 11:59 PM last night.

In order to provide the complete story, it must be noted that Michelle Steel did transfer money from her Board of Equalization account and Allan Mansoor transferred money from his Assembly account. Here is a chart to showing the breakdown of how much was raised and how much was transferred:

Steel
Mansoor
Transfer to Supe
 $198,619 $1,000
Raised for Supe
 $251,040 $7,400

Ladies and gentlemen this race is very one sided as of today. Michelle Steel has over 25 times as much money as all three of the other opponents COMBINED! I admit that Allan Mansoor has a name ID advantage going into the race and he did beat Leslie Daigle in 2012 despite being massively outspent, but if he doesn’t step up these numbers his chances of getting elected are very unlikely.

Posted in 2nd Supervisorial District | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

GOP Picks Up Competitive Senate Seat

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 26, 2013

I waited a few days to post about the 16th Senate District race in order to make sure that I did not jinx it for Andy Vidak. The good news is that the California Republican Party has announced that the results appear to be official. In the near future stay tuned for an article praising new CRP leader Jim Brulte for being somebody that understands campaigns in the post Prop 14 world.

Here is the press release issued by CRP earlier today:

Congratulations to Senator-Elect Andy Vidak

The California GOP congratulates Republican Andy Vidak who has been elected to the California State Senate from the Central Valley’s 16th Senate District.

Andy and his team ran an outstanding campaign reaching out to thousands of voters in Kings, Kern, Fresno and Tulare Counties. He worked hard and earned this win.

This victory also demonstrates the power of the Republican Party when we work together.

Hundreds of volunteers from throughout California drove to the Central Valley and walked precincts in the scorching heat. The last weekend alone we had over 500 volunteer days from outside the district volunteers. Volunteers also went to phone banks throughout California and made over 30,000 phone calls into the district. This was in addition to the thousands of callers and walkers who reside in the district.

Kudos also go to Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff. He and his caucus spent hours on this race walking precincts, talking to voters and raising funds to support Andy in his campaign. The Assembly Republicans, under the leadership of Connie Conway, also supported the campaign by walking, recruiting volunteers and contributing funds.

Our Volunteer groups…with the Young Republicans, College Republicans and California Federation of Republican Women leading the way, provided an unprecedented level of volunteer support in this critically important race.

Finally we congratulate you, the dedicated volunteers and supporters of the California Republican Party. Your ongoing support and encouragement has helped in this victory.
Thank you for helping us rebuild this party from the ground up. We have a lot of work to do, but we now know that when we pull together, we can win.

Congratulations again, Senator-elect Andy Vidak.

Sincerely,

Senator Jim Brulte, Chairman
California Republican Party

Posted in California | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Poll Results in CD 45: Spitzer Is The Frontrunner

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on July 2, 2013

This morning Jon Fleischman posted the results of a poll conducted by Lewis Consulting Group, that showed the favorables/unfavorables of some potential candidates along with results of some hypothetical matches. The results were not what I expected to see, with what appears to be a wide open race amongst a few front-runners. I talked to John Lewis this morning after the poll was released and he had this to say, “The goal with this poll was to try and best replicate predicted 2014 turnout. This is clearly a wide open race and results will largely depend on who decides to run.”

200px-Spitzer_portrait_wiki
You can view the entire poll by clicking CD45-Crosstab-Tables-I.

Lets start by taking a look at the raw numbers for favorables vs unfavorables for each candidate in the running, in order to use a single number to represent favorability, I am taking the percentage that represents favorables and subtracting the percentage that represents unfavorables in order to create a net favorability ranking system. Here are the rankings based 0n this net favorability:

(R) Todd Spitzer +25% (OC Supervisor)
(R) Ed Royce +20% (Congressman)
(D) Sukhee Kang +13% (Former Irvine Mayor)
(R) Mimi Walter +13% (State Senator)
(D) Steve Young +12%  (Perennial Dem Candidate)
(R) Gary Miller +10% (Congressman)
(R) Don Wagner +10% (State Assemblyman)
(R) Scott Baugh +8% (Chairman of OCGOP)
(D) Beth Krom +4%
(D) Barack Obama -28% (This was simply his approval rating, I am fairly certain he has no intention of seeking this seat)

The fact that Todd Spitzer had the highest net favorability was not especially surprising to me because a lot of my non-political friends are aware of some of his public safety initiatives that he has worked on. I am most surprised by Steve Young having a 12% net favorability rating, although my instinct states that perhaps some football fans got confused on this one.

This data does not also take into account that some other potential candidates are looming out there, including but not limited to Steven Choi (Current Irvine Mayor), John Moorlach (OC Supervisor), and some of the wealthy private sector individuals that could self-fund a campaign. On the Dem side I hear rumblings of Irvine Councilmember Larry Agran jumping into this race and I would argue that he would be the Democrat most likely to advance to November.

My favorite part of the poll was the hypothetical match-ups that were polled including the following scenarios:

Mimi Walters vs. Gary Miller vs. Beth Krom

Walters 25.0%
Krom 21.3%
Miller 21.0%

This matchup is interesting because Walters is definitely in this race and I have heard from more than a couple of insiders that Gary Miller is strongly considering a move back to Orange County to run for this seat due to the fact that his current seat is one that could very easily go blue in 2016. A 4% gap is not very hard to overcome especially when you consider margin of error of any poll.

Mimi Walters vs. Ed Royce vs. Beth Krom

Royce 25.7%
Krom 22.3%
Walters 20.3%

I am not surprised that Royce is leading in this matchup due to the fact that he is a sitting Congressman who has higher name ID than Gary Miller in Orange County. The surprising part is that Walters is within striking distance of him and could beat him in a head-to-head matchup.

Mimi Walters vs. Todd Spitzer vs. Beth Krom

Spitzer 29.0%
Krom 22.0%
Walters 19.7%

Wow!!!!! This result on its own shows me that Todd Spitzer can have this seat if he wants it.

Mimi Walters vs. Ed Royce vs. Beth Krom

Walters 26.7%
Krom 23.0%
Wagner 15.7%

Don Wagner is my personal favorite of all the candidates considered in this poll but these numbers look to be a steep hill to climb in a hypothetical matchup that includes Walters.

Mimi Walters vs. Steve Young vs. Beth Krom vs. Sukhee Kang

Walters 41.0%
Krom 10.3%
Young 8.7%
Kang 7.3%

These numbers show that a Democrat winning this seat is highly unlikely. I believe that Larry Agran would be able to finish ahead of all of the rest of these folks in CD 45 on the Dem side.

Posted in 45th Congressional District | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Transcript Of John Campbell Retirement Announcement

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on June 28, 2013

As reported here on OC Political yesterday, John Campbell announced his retirement on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. We wanted to be able to expand on this coverage for our readers and Hugh Hewitt has made it easy by posting a transcript of the interview on his website. Click here to go to the website. The transcript went as follows:

HH: June 27th, 2013, Congressman John Campbell is in studio with me at 34 minutes after the hour live. He’s back on the West Coast, and about to make a little bit of news, Congressman Campbell. Tell people what you told me.

JC: Okay, let me, wait a minute, is my microphone…there we are, hearing the feedback. You know, Hugh, eight years ago almost to the day, I’m not sure exactly what day it was, but it was in June, eight years ago in 2005, I sat at this microphone with you and announced that I was going to run for Congress for the 48th, which I’d originally said I wasn’t going to do, and said on this show about a week before, and then you and others changed my mind and I ran, and am now in my fifth term in Congress. Well today, I’m reversing the bus a little bit. And today, I’m announcing that I will not seek reelection for a sixth term in 2014, and that in fact, I’m going to retire from Congress at the end of this term in another 18 months.

HH: Now when you told me this a couple of days ago, I was absolutely shocked, because you’re the chairman of a powerful subcommittee on a very powerful committee, you are 58 years old, you are in good health, but you have great reasons, and they are reasons that go to living a genuinely significant, happy and good life. Would you explain those to people?

JC: Okay, and yeah, you know, you could say that I haven’t peaked in Congress, and I probably haven’t. I think I’m fairly well-regarded on both sides of the aisle and so forth there, and that you know, many people leave after they’ve hit the crest and now they’re coming down, or they’ve been a chairman and now they’re not anymore or whatever. But you know, it’s never been about the power, the influence or the position for me. It’s been about serving, and it’s been about using the experience that I have, and whatever talents God gave me, to make a positive contribution. And I’ve been in full-time elected office, or I will have been by the end of this term, 14 years, including my time in the state legislature in California, which is full time as well. And I’m not a career politician. I’ve never intended to be a career politician, and so this was always something I intended to do for a while. And 14 years, first of all, and by the way, I’ve had three different offices representing four different districts, and won 16 straight elections over that 14 year career, but…primary and general elections. But it’s just time…

HH: Undefeated, untied as we say in the business.

JC: There we go. Just, it’s kind of like a USC football team.

HH: No, not really, because you’re not on probation.

JC: Yeah, yeah. Oh, no. Wait, okay, anyway, you know, it’s just time for me. You know, when…I’ve got various personal issues. I’ve actually missed some time in Congress in the last month, and will probably miss a little more, because I do have some issues that might require surgeries in my knee and my hip.

HH: They’re not chronic, they’re not, when you get older…

JC: They’re not chronic, they’re not bad.

HH: You’re not dying.

JC: No, but…

HH: You’re going to be bothering me for years with USC crap. I’m not worried, I’m not weepy.

JC: No, no, there’s nothing like that, but there’s some things like that that enter in, your kids, your family, various different things. I still have a business outside of Congress and so forth. And if I’m not able and there to give absolutely everything to this job, then I should, then I need to think about other things.

HH: Now you know what my reaction was, and I’ve known this for two days, is that this is an extraordinarily healthy thing that I wish many other Beltway people will listen to, that it’s not the end of the world to give up your job in D.C. where you have power and influence to go do something significant with the rest of your life. You’ve been very successful in business. You’re very much revered in your community, you have a wonderful family. The Captivating Mrs. Campbell is great, I know your boys. Your business, whatever you choose, we’ll talk about what you’re going to do next later. But how healthy, and this is just so rare. I mean, what did the leadership say when you told them? They must be stunned.

JC: Yeah, I told them yesterday, and I think they were surprised, but they understand, and they understood I’m not a lifer. I’ve never been, and although Generalissimo Duane is always talking about my going Beltway, I can safely say I never did that, and that my life was never in Washington. My life was in California, and here and now, increasingly in Kansas. But it’s, yeah, there are a number of my colleagues who can’t imagine walking away from the title, from the prestige, from the power, from the fawning that people who are interested in your voting card, and what you might be able to do with it, that they give you. But that’s never been what it’s about for me. It’s always been about just using the talents God gave me.

HH: Public service.

JC: And this is, by the way, as a Christian that you know that I am, this is something that involved a great deal of prayer over the last few months.

HH: How absolutely corny.

End of segment.

More on this story next week.

Posted in 45th Congressional District | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

BREAKING NEWS: Congressman John Campbell Retiring

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on June 27, 2013

On the Hugh Hewitt show just moments ago Congressman John Campbell announced that he will not seek re-election in 2014. To make it clear, this is not because of any type of scandal or wrongdoing, it appears he is simply ready to go back to private life (rather refreshing to see). This is quite a surprise to me and I am sure many other people. More on this story over the next few days as it becomes available. Best wishes from our blog to Congressman Campbell and his staff (who are always a pleasure to work with).

UPDATE 4:19 PM- Flash Report Editor Jon Fleischman just tweeted that he spoke with Senator Mimi Walters and she intends to seek the seat being vacated by Congressman Campbell in 2014.

UPDATE 6:00 PM- Forgive my Twitter style posting but this all happened as I was with a client showing a property. Here is the statement released by Congressman Campbell about his retirement:

“I have decided that I will not seek re-election to represent California’s 45th Congressional district in 2014. At the end of this term, I will have spent 14 years serving in full-time, elected politics. I am not nor did I ever intend to be a career politician. I am ready to begin a new chapter in my life. It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the district where my wife and I have raised our children. I look forward to continuing that representation for the balance of the 113th Congress. I have been blessed to have the unwavering support of my family, friends, and the residents of Orange County throughout these years, and for that I will remain forever grateful. My passion for the conservative issues for which I have fought so vocally over that span has not waned. But in the future, I will continue the fight for more freedom and a less authoritarian government as a private citizen rather than elected official. Drive fast and live free.”

Posted in 45th Congressional District | Tagged: , | 8 Comments »

Cypress Election Results: Measure A Goes Down In Flames

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on June 26, 2013

The Cypress election was not a very close one. Take a look at my post previewing the race by clicking here.

Not much to say about this one. Take a look at the results:
Cypress Election Results

Posted in Cypress, Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

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