OC Political

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

Time to show Feinstein the door

Posted by Thomas Gordon on February 6, 2012

20120206-114543.jpg

Why would someone 78 years old seek re-election to an office that she would hold until she reached 84 years of age?

Good question, but it couldn’t be for the $ 174,000 annual salary she draws from the taxpayers.

Her personal wealth is reportedly between 50 and 150 million dollars all of which is held is blind trust separate from her husbands.

This year Mrs.Feinstein is drawing some challengers.

Al Ramirez, a conservative businessman from Santa Monica has jumped into the race as has Dan Hughes, a conservative businessman from Oceanside who has raised $ 100,000 in the last 30 days.

Elizabeth Emken from Danville is looking to challenge and has already lined up endorsements from OC Republican Assemblymembers Don Wagner and Jim Silva.

Why Democrats keep supporting Mrs Feinstein is a mystery. She co-sponsored PIPA and voted to support the Patriot Act. She’s been in politics since 1978, more than half her life. And with personal wealth in the 100 million range, she’s clearly one of the 1% they loathe.

So will she get rewarded with another 6 years?

Only time will tell…..

Posted in California, National, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

A Quick Note on Weekends

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 »

Congressman Gary Miller’s Weekly Newsletter

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on February 3, 2012

February 3, 2012

House Votes to Repeal Unworkable CLASS Act

On Wednesday, the House voted to repeal the CLASS Act, the long-term entitlement program included in the President’s health care law. Late last year, the Obama Administration was forced to cancel the program’s implementation because it could not certify that the program would be fiscally sustainable in the long term, confirming concerns raised by the Chief Actuary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid shortly after the health care law was enacted. While some have argued that repeal is unnecessary, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has indicated that if left in place, a federal court could force the Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement the CLASS Act, despite these serious concerns about its future solvency. Congressman Miller hopes that the Senate will act quickly to take this unworkable program off the books and work with the House to address access to quality, long term care without busting the deficit and hindering job creation and economic growth.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 39th Congressional District | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Bill Campbell’s Third District Report

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on February 3, 2012

Photo of Supervisor Campbell, Bill Campbell Supervisor 3rd District, Newsletter, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 3rd Supervisorial District | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Trump Pulls a Rope-a-Dope and Endorses Romney

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 2, 2012

For whatever reason all the speculation was the Donald Trump was planning on endorsing Newt Gingrich today, but as many of you already know that did not happen. This morning Trump came out and endorsed Mitt Romney on the heels of the Nevada and Maine election this Saturday. This forther builds on the recent momentum that Mitt Romney has experienced after a big win in the Florida Primary on Tuesday.

If Mitt wins both Nevada and Maine which I expect that he will on Saturday then you can pretty much stick a fork in Newt because he is done. Some of you might argue that Trump is not that big a deal because a lot of people hate him, but I counter with the fact that he has a strong following as well.

Posted in National | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Who Will Be the Next OC Auditor-Controller?

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 2, 2012

As many people may have heard, Auditor-Controller David Sundstrom (Republican) is leaving Orange County to take a job up in Northern California. My attitude is good riddance, as Sundstrom is an elected Republican who endorsed numerous Democrats and did not in my opinion do enough to help the Republican cause. This however does leave the question, who will be the next person in this spot?

According to the County website, at least one of the following requirements must be met:

  • has a valid certificate issued by the California Board of Accountancy showing the person to be a certified public accountant or a public accountant; or
  • has a baccalaureate degree from an accredited four-year institution, with a major in accounting or its equivalent, and has served within the last five years in a senior fiscal management position in a county, city, or other public agency, a private firm, or a nonprofit organization, dealing with similar fiscal responsibilities, for a continuous period of not less than three years, or
  • has a certificate issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors showing the person to be a designated professional internal auditor, with a minimum of 16 college semester units, or their equivalent, in accounting, auditing, or finance, or
  • has served as county auditor, chief deputy county auditor, or chief assistant county auditor for a continuous period of not less than three years.

and one of the following requirements:

  • has served in a senior financial management position in a county, city, or other public agency dealing with similar financial responsibilities for a continuous period of at least three years, in the role of treasurer, tax collector, auditor, auditor-controller, or the chief deputy or assistant of these offices;
  • has a  B.A., M.A, or PhD in business administration, public administration, economics, finance, accounting or a related field;
  • has a valid California certification as a certified public accountant (CPA)
  • has a valid certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst; or
  • possess valid certification as a Certified Cash Manager.

Hmmmm, I wonder what Keith Carlson is up to.

Posted in Orange County | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

OC Registrar of Voters Awesomeness

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 2, 2012

I have always felt lucky to live in Orange County for a number of reasons, one of which is the innovative and forward thinking of our Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, and his staff. They have always had one of the better websites, but a friend of mine last night pointed out a brand new feature on their website: candidates are allowed to pull papers online, although they will still need to go file them in person.

It may not seem like a big deal, and understandably this will have very little impact on somebody who lives near the O.C. ROV. Picture somebody who lives in San Clemente or La Habra, though and how much easier this will make life on them.

Posted in Orange County | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

OCEA Targeting Anaheim

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on February 2, 2012

Over the past few months, a series of mailers have been sent out to Anaheim residents attacking Councilwoman Kris Murray and promoting some type of transparency in government ordinance. It surprises me that this is the angle they are taking since Anaheim is one of the more transparent cities with a “Transparency in Government” button on the front page of their website. However, it should come as no surprise that former and future candidate for Anaheim City Council John Leos is featured on these mailers.

It has become clear that the groundwork is being set for a John Leos run for Council in 2012, not that this is any surprise. With Harry Sidhu and Lori Galloway both termed out leaving a couple of open seats, it makes it a very big election.

Current candidates (along with what they reported raising) include:

Jordan Brandman- $110,560
Brian Chuchua- $20,100
Rudy Gaona- Not Filed Yet
Lucille Kring- $0
John Leos- $0
Linda Linder $0
Steve Lodge $16,700

Posted in Anaheim | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Total Durkee Embezzlement: $1.4-$1.7 Million from Correa & Solorio; Combined Cash on Hand Far Less Than Nguyen

Posted by Chris Nguyen on February 2, 2012

It had been well-reported in the Fall that Kinde Durkee is charged with embezzling “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from Senator Lou Correa and over $677,000 from Assemblyman Jose Solorio.  Well, now we know the totals: over $1.7 million between the two.

According to Solorio’s campaign finance filings from his four accounts, he lost $721,176, and another $154,053 is being held by the LA Superior Court pending resolution of the Durkee case.  This means Solorio’s losses could be as much as $875,229.  This leaves Solorio with $124,820 cash on hand.  However, he has $13,489 in unpaid bills, which leaves him with just $111,331.

From Correa’s campaign finance filings from his two accounts, he lost $795,739, and another $68,744 is being held by the LA Superior Court pending resolution of the Durkee case.  This means Correa’s losses could be as much as $864,483.  This leaves Correa with $52,683 cash on hand.  However, he has $2,346 in unpaid bills, which leaves him with $50,337. (He did set up a third account, which was a legal defense fund, in September after Durkee was charged, but that account only has a $200 personal loan from Correa).

The unintentional big winner in this is Supervisor Janet Nguyen.  Correa and Solorio are Nguyen’s two most formidable potential challengers.

Nguyen has $282,577 cash on hand and $11,826 in unpaid bills, leaving her with $270,751.  Solorio and Correa have $161,668 combined.

For visual learners:

Embezzled Held By
Court		 Cash on
Hand		 Unpaid
Bills
Solorio $721,176 $154,053 $124,820 $13,489
Correa $795,739 $68,744 $52,683 $2,346
Nguyen $0 $0 $282,577 $11,826

For the record, I am not related to Supervisor Nguyen. The last name Nguyen is held by 36% of Vietnamese people.

Posted in 1st Supervisorial District, 34th Senate District, Fundraising | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

3rd Supervisorial District: No Surprises in Spitzer vs. Pauly Cash Race

Posted by Chris Nguyen on February 2, 2012

Former Supervisor/Assemblyman Todd Spitzer entered the race for 3rd District Supervisor in early March while Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly entered the race in mid-October.  About a week ago, Pauly told Frank Mickadeit she had about $3,000 while Spitzer told Mickadeit that he had between $1-$1.5 million.  The numbers in their campaign finance filings should surprise no one.

In the first 2.5 months after entering the race, Pauly raised $2,810, of which she spent $1,637.  That was split between a $74 nonmonetary contribution and two payments: one for campaign literature and the other for her web site.  Pauly had $1,247 cash on hand at the end of 2011.

During 2011, Spitzer transferred $1,011,583 from his DA and Central Committee accounts.  On top of that, he raised $126,229, raising his warchest to $1,137,812.  He spent $154,395 and has outstanding bills of $29,401, for a total of $183,796.  His spending was scattered across virtually anything you can think of: consultants, treasurer, fundraiser, slate mailers, web work, printing, and even civic donations.  Spitzer had $1,099,031 cash on hand at the end of 2011.

For visual learners:

Raised Transferred Spent Cash on
Hand		 Unpaid Bills
Pauly $2,810 $0 $1,637 $1,247 $0
Spitzer $126,229 $1,011,583 $154,395 $1,099,031 $29,401

The new 3rd District consists of 336,640 voters in Anaheim Hills, Orange, Tustin, Villa Park, Yorba Linda, and most of Irvine.  The new district includes the 4,600 voters in Villa Park who elected Deborah Pauly to two terms on the Council, but those voters (along with 44,000 voters in Yorba Linda) also elected Todd Spitzer to two terms on the Board of Supervisors in the 1990s version of the 3rd District.  Substantial portions of the 73,000 voters in Orange elected Spitzer to two terms on the Board of Supervisors and three terms in the State Assembly.  The 36,000 voters in Tustin elected Spitzer to three terms in the State Assembly.

Posted in 3rd Supervisorial District, Fundraising | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »