OC Political

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

San Juan Capistrano: Where City Councilmen Keep Resigning – well maybe not

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on March 10, 2015

Chris Nguyen reported a few days ago that San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Sam Allevato announced his resignation from the City Council [San Juan Capistrano: Where…].  Apparently Councilman Allevato is having second thoughts about pulling that trigger according to the OC Register [San Juan Capistrano councilman reconsiders resignation].

Although Mr. Allevato lost very badly in the last election (all of his supporters on the council were voted “off the island” so to speak) and he now finds himself at the minority end of some 4 to 1 votes, I can understand having won several elections not wanting to just throw in the towel and walk away.

I would recommend to Mr. Allevato that if he decides to stay on the City Council, he consider that after being in the majority for so long, the voters of his town decided to make some changes – they want the city to go in a different direction than when his group was in the majority.  He should consider that the concerns of the citizens of the City of San Juan Capistrano have expressed via the last election are something he should give some legitimacy too.  I am not saying Mr. Allevato (or anyone else) should throw away his convictions or that he should pander for votes / support on issues he does not believe in.

But as the saying goes “elections have consequences” and being in the minority is not as fun as being in the majority.  However it is the current reality of his council and he should at the very least consider extending the olive branch to his fellow city council members – and they should do the same.

 

Posted in San Juan Capistrano, Uncategorized | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

More Reasons for Assemblywoman Gonzalez to BUTT OUT of the Great Park Audit

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on March 10, 2015

As follow up to my last post on Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’ attempt to hinder the audit of the Great Park finances [To San Diego Legislators], the OC Register has a follow up article that implicates Gafcon, Inc. in a potential conflict of interest situation.

Apparently, per the new article, during the deposition of former Irvine Mayor Sukee Kang he disclaimed any knowledge that during the planning of the Great Park, “…Stu Mollrich, a partner in public relations firm Forde & Mollrich, a Great Park subcontractor that answered to the Great Park Design Studio, a collaboration between Gafcon and landscape architect Ken Smith….”, that Mollrich had hired Gafcon to oversee the remodeling of Mollrich’s Laguna Beach home.   Mr. Kang expressed surprise at this information as did City Manager Sean Joyce who noted that Great Park Design Studio was supposed to oversee the work of Forde & Mollrich on the Great Park project.

It would appear that Gafcon, Inc. and Forde & Mollrich both neglected to inform the City of Irvine of this arrangement during the time they were working on the Great Park project.  Was this a reportable conflict of interest that the City should have been informed of?  I do not know but this certainly does not pass the smell test of arms length transactions for the benefit of Orange County and Irvine taxpayers on the Great Park project.

If you wish to read the latest article go to Great Park contractors….

The more layers of this onion get pealed back, the more it smells of cronyism and a massive waste of taxpayer funds.   Yet more evidence that Assemblywoman Gonzalez and the other San Diego legislators should simply BUTT OUT of this very needed audit.

Kudos to the City of Irvine council majority Mayor Steven Choi and council members Jeffery Lalloway, Christina Shea and Lynn Schott for continuing with the audit.  The people of Orange County and Irvine deserve answers regarding the Great Park finances.

Posted in Irvine, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Jim Silva: Conservative leaders rightly back Don Wagner for Senate

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on March 9, 2015

This came over the wire to OC Political earlier today from former Assemblyman/former Supervisor Jim Silva (a slightly edited version was published in the Daily Pilot this afternoon)…

With the special election for state Senate District 37 set for March 17, the familiar lament about negative advertising fills the op-ed pages, blogs and social media sites.

He said this, she said that, he said the other thing, with each of the two front-runners denying the particular charges leveled against them.

So with all this noise, who do you believe? Who is best suited to represent the 37th Senate District in Sacramento?

The answer can be found by looking at the endorsements of the elected officials you know and trust. Assemblyman Don Wagner’s endorsements are a who’s who of Orange County conservative leaders: District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens both endorse him as the best candidate to keep our community safe.

Four of the five current county supervisors (Lisa Bartlett, Andrew Do, Todd Spitzer and Michelle Steel), and three of the four who served the last term with candidate John Moorlach (State Senators Janet Nguyen and Patricia Bates as well as Spitzer), have endorsed Wagner as the best candidate to work effectively in Sacramento to pass legislation that helps Orange County and California. Orange County Auditor-Controller Eric Woolery, Assessor Claude Parrish and Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen likewise endorse Wagner.

All three of Orange County’s congressional representatives, Reps. Ed Royce, Mimi Walters and Dana Rohrabacher, the vast majority of the Republican caucus in the state Assembly, and many others round out the overwhelming support Wagner enjoys among those who have worked with him and Moorlach.

The reason for this overwhelming support is simple: Wagner has a well-earned reputation for taking a common-sense approach to the problems that face Orange County and the state and, while maintaining his conservative principles, working across the aisle to get legislation passed and signed by the governor.

That is why Wagner has been recognized as the legislator of the year by the Orange County Republican Party and the Orange County Business Council and has received the Collaborative Lawmaker Award from the Association of California Cities.

Orange County needs a principled and effective leader in the state Senate, and Wagner is that candidate.

Posted in 2nd Supervisorial District, 37th Senate District, Republican Central Committee | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Don Wagner Continues His Negativity and False Allegations Against Moorlach

Posted by Walter Myers III on March 9, 2015

Wagner Hit Piece on MoorlachSportscaster Heywood Broun coined the well-known phrase, “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.” I believe this also applies to the “sport” (or rather blood sport) of politics. I have always supported Assemblyman Don Wagner, and saw him as a noble man of high character. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing that man in his campaign for State Senate, but the opposite. I don’t know if it is his campaign advisers that are goading him into an attempt to destroy the excellent character of his opponent John Moorlach, but even if that is the case, Wagner is accepting that advice and acting on it. He is conducting a vicious, public employee union fueled campaign in a number of ways that I won’t detail here, but what I do want to address is his latest charge (per the clickable graphic to the left) that Moorlach supports amnesty for illegal immigrants based on an Orange County Register article dated February 22, 2013 (note the date on the document is February 24, 2013, but that only reflects the difference between digital vs. print dates). Presumably, Wagner is referring to the following excerpt from the article:

“Moorlach, who emigrated as a child with his parents from the Netherlands to Orange County, said it’s not time yet to discuss his views on issues such as immigration, as that would imply he’s made up his mind to run. However, he said, ‘I prefer some of the proposals that have been proffered by the Lincoln Club and Sen. Marco Rubio.’

Last year, the Lincoln Club adopted a policy statement on immigration reform that would allow undocumented immigrants to transition to guest-worker status and a pathway to legal residency, not citizenship.”

Note that the article clearly states the Lincoln Club policy Moorlach supports promotes a pathway to legal residency, and not citizenship. As a board member of the Lincoln Club and a proud contributor to the Lincoln Club immigration policy statement, I can affirm our position is that illegal immigrants are not entitled to citizenship because they broke the law coming to this country and should not be rewarded for conscious and willful lawbreaking, regardless of the reasons. However, our policy statement does extend some grace to those who have immigrated illegally and have been here for a long period of time, but only after our borders are secured so we won’t have the same problem in the future. The worst part of this subterfuge by Wagner is that a number of members of the Lincoln Club have had extensive conversations with Wagner on the Lincoln Club immigration policy during and after its crafting, which he himself has said he supports. He has told me himself that he supports it and he stated the same when speaking at a recent Lincoln Club meeting. So to use an article against Moorlach that doesn’t even support his baseless charge, and to then say that Moorlach supports amnesty based on the same policy that he supports himself, there is most definitely the smell of desperation in his campaign.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, this communication in favor of Wagner that is purportedly from the Conservative Republicans of California, Orange County, is actually not sanctioned by this group. I have learned conclusively that Wagner’s campaign produced this piece, so Wagner is wholly responsible for sending out a hit piece with false charges under the banner of a conservative political group with the express intent to deceive the public. So personally, I am done with Don Wagner, and believe me it does hurt me to say this. Wagner is the perfect example of what happens to well-intentioned people who go to Sacramento, and once they get a taste of power they begin to lust after it, and will do anything to keep it. All of the conservative principles he says that he espouses, those of character, dignity, and truthfulness, have gone by the wayside because being a State Senator trumps all of the values that he promised to cling to while in public service. It truly is a sad day in Orange County that Wagner has resorted to such tricks over a political seat. As the Bible says, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Posted in 37th Senate District | 27 Comments »

San Juan Capistrano: Where City Councilmen Keep Resigning

Posted by Chris Nguyen on March 5, 2015

On Tuesday, San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Sam Allevato announced his plans to resign less than month after John Perry was appointed to replace Councilman Roy Byrnes who announced his resignation six weeks earlier.

According to the Orange County Register, Allevato resigned because he felt “blindsided” by “total retribution” by the City Council majority who wished to remove him from the board of directors of the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), which runs all of Orange County’s toll roads, (other than the 91 Express lanes, which are run by the Orange County Transportation Authority).

New Councilman John Perry had made the proposal to remove Allevato from the TCA.  Prior to joining the Council, Perry had led an unsuccessful recall effort against Allevato.  Councilwoman Kerry Ferguson supported Perry’s proposal to remove Allevato from TCA because she wanted to bring “decorum” and “professionalism” to the Council.

The 90-year-old Byrnes announced his resignation in January declaring that he had accomplished his goals and wanted to move on.

Byrnes was elected in 1972 at the age of 48, served one term, and then was elected again in 2012 at the age of 88 before resigning in January 2015, three months after the November 2014 elections.

(Allevato had himself been appointed to the City Council in March 2004 to succeed Councilman John Gelff who had suddenly passed away at the age of 54 in February 2004, just nine months before the election.  Allevato was re-elected in November 2004, 2008, and 2012.)

Councilman Derek Reeve was first elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.  Councilwomen Pam Patterson and Kerry Ferguson were both first elected in 2014.  For the stability of San Juan Capistrano, hopefully, Reeve, Patterson, and Ferguson don’t resign.

Posted in San Juan Capistrano | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Will the GOP Majority In Congress Ever Stand for Anything?

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on March 5, 2015

A massive capitulation by the Republican leadership in the House and Senate!  Of course I am referring passage of the “clean” bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through September.  Keep in mind the defunding of the unconstitutional executive orders on immigration of just the Department of Homeland Security was the Republican leadership’s idea in the first place!

Now the Republican leadership is blaming conservative members of their own party for “threatening” to defund DHS.

1. Why bother to take a stand if you will abandon that stand when the going gets tough?

2. Why should the conservative members of the House and Senate believe their “leadership” if they cave in and pull the rug out from under them even on the leadership’s own plans to confront a President who believes the Constitution is not binding on him.

3. Why should those same House and Senate members believe these “leaders” when they not only abandon their own plans but try to pin the “blame” on the conservatives for standing up for the Constitution?

4. Why should we rank and file Republicans believe the leadership when they tell us anything?

Jim DeMint of the Heritage Foundation has an article on this issue that is well stated and I commend it to you [Daily Signal].

Posted in 38th Congressional District, 39th Congressional District, 45th Congressional District, 46th Congressional District, 47th Congressional District, 48th Congressional District, 49th Congressional District, Republican Central Committee, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

To San Diego Legislators Who want to Stop (or Delay) the Irvine Great Park Audit – BUTT OUT!

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on March 4, 2015

The OC Register has published an article noting that San Diego Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez has asked the California State Auditor’s Office to investigate the investigative audit the City of Irvine is conducting on the Great Park fiasco.  According to the article the Assemblywoman wants this “audit of the audit” done very quickly.  [San Diego Legislators]

Why is Assemblywoman Gonzalez so intent on stopping or delaying or discrediting this audit?  Some simple facts to consider:

1. One of the main vendors of services on the Great Park that may be implicated in the looming scandal is Gafcon, Inc. of San Diego.

2. Prior to being elected to the Assembly she worked for Gafcon, Inc.

3. Gafcon, Inc. contributed to Assemblywoman Gonzalez’ campaign.

Hum…you decide if there is another motive here of protecting home tuff or maybe more.  Maybe a lot more!

I would respond to Assemblywoman Gonzalez (and the other San Diego legislators who also signed onto this):

Where were you when the prior City of Irvine majority was spending over $200 million in the people’s money only to get a large orange ballon and almost nothing more for their money?

Where were you when the Great Park Committee was wasting this money in secret and on no bid contracts while citizens of Irvine and Orange County were asking questions and raising concerns over the cost of the project with so little results?

Where were you when it became apparent that vast sums of money were wasted, unaccounted for, spent on questionable expenditures some of which appear to be politically orientated to keep the Agran machine in power?

Where were you when key witnesses refused to give information / testimony to the auditors and the City’s retained attorneys investigating this boondoggle (with its chief witness Larry Agran recently refusing to obey a lawfully issued subpoena)?

Orange County Assemblyman Don Wagner (who represents part of Irvine as part of the 68th Assembly District) has wisely issued his own letter to Assemblywoman Gonzalez asking her to wait until the Irvine auditors have completed their work before having the SAO’s office review their audit.

I have a little more blunt message for Assemblywoman Gonzalez – BUTT OUT!

Disclaimer: I am supporting Assemblyman Don Wagner in his current race for State Senate in the special election of March 17th. [Wagner for Senate]

Posted in 37th Senate District, 68th Assembly District, Irvine, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Ông Don Wagner được sự ủng hộ của các lãnh đạo Vietnamese American như sau

Posted by Chris Nguyen on March 4, 2015

Matt Cunningham over at Anaheim Blog has had pretty thorough coverage of the mailers in the SD-37 special election.  However, I think I got one in the mail yesterday that I’m pretty sure Matt couldn’t possibly have received (unless something is seriously wrong with Don Wagner’s mailer list).

(Click on each thumbnail below for a larger, readable version)

WagnerVietnameseMailerBack

WagnerVietnameseMailerFront

According to PDI, there are 11,980 Vietnamese voters in 7,255 houses in the 37th Senate District.

Wagner’s mailer features his endorsements from the two of the highest-ranking Vietnamese American elected officials in California: Senator Janet Nguyen and Supervisor Andrew Do.  It also features the endorsement of Congressman Ed Royce, who is popular in the Vietnamese community.

Wagner’s mailer also hits on three issues near and dear to Vietnamese voters: small business, education/affirmative action, and taxes.

The Vietnamese vote is truly up for grabs as John Moorlach and Don Wagner have similar name ID.  At the Orange County bankruptcy in 1994, there was one Vietnamese American elected official in the country (not county, country), and the Vietnamese community has become much more engaged in politics since then, but the Orange County bankruptcy is not an issue that resonates with Vietnamese voters, so with this mailer from Wagner, Moorlach will need to respond with his own Vietnamese outreach.

Posted in 37th Senate District | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Correa Probably Regrets Authoring SB 183

Posted by Chris Nguyen on March 3, 2015

An OC Political reader with a strong knowledge of recounts pointed out SB 183 (Correa, 2011) to me.  I had earlier written about the difficulty of getting new results in recounts in California.  SB 183 is the bill that made successful recounts virtually impossible.

Prior to SB 183, recount strategy typically relied on getting ballots tossed for identifiable marks, such as the infamous flower ballot of 2007.

Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) put an end to that with SB 183.  Identifiable marks no longer invalidated ballots.  Consequently, the only way a ballot can be tossed is if the voter voted for more candidates than were available on the ballot (e.g. two candidates for Supervisor, four candidates for three city council slots) or voted both yes and no on a ballot measure.  Even then, the whole ballot wouldn’t be tossed, just the race in which the voter overvoted.

With more accurate ballot counting software and SB 183, recounts of anything other than provisional ballots are almost pointless in California.  That’s why the Garden Grove mayoral recount had no vote changes, the State Controller recount had 8 vote changes statewide, etc.

As one friend suggested while I talked to her about this situation, perhaps Correa wrote SB 183 in 2011 expecting to narrowly lead in a future election and wanted to prevent a recount from overturning his result.  Instead, he found himself narrowly behind in 2015 and wasn’t able to overturn the result.

Correa’s SB 183 of 2011 was actually identical to SB 387 of 2009 by Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), which was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who

The provisions of this bill allowing elections officials to process ballots that contain extraneous non-identifying marks are acceptable; however, I am concerned that remaking a ballot that contains personal identifying information compromises ballot secrecy and increases the opportunity for fraud.

The only difference two years later for SB 183 (Correa) of 2011 versus SB 387 (Hancock) of 2009 was a new Governor, Jerry Brown.

The two key changes in SB 183 were for Elections Code Sections 15154 and 15208:

SB 183 modified Elections Code Section 15154 as follows:

Any ballot that is not marked as provided by law or that is marked or signed by the voter so that it can be identified by others shall be rejected.

SB 183 struck this sentence out of Elections Code Section 15208:

Any ballot that is marked in a manner so as to identify the voter shall be marked “Void” and shall be placed in the container for void ballots.

SB 183 also replaced the voter instruction “All distinguishing marks or erasures are forbidden and make the ballot void” and replaced it with “Marking the ballot outside of the designated space to vote for a candidate or measure may compromise the secrecy of the ballot.”

Promoted by Common Cause and now-disgraced Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Correa introduced SB 183 on February 7, 2011. It passed the Legislature on near-party-line votes (oddly, Assemblyman Chris Norby voted against it in Assembly Appropriations and for it 12 days later on the Assembly Floor).  Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 183 into law on October 9, 2011, and it took effect January 1, 2012.

Posted in 1st Supervisorial District | Tagged: , , , , , | 9 Comments »

SD-37 Special Election: AD-68 Ballots Outpacing 2nd Supervisorial District Ballots

Posted by Chris Nguyen on March 2, 2015

Wagner, Moorlach, and Namazi

Business Owner/Assemblyman Donald P. Wagner, former Orange County Supervisor John M. W. Moorlach, and Naz Namazi

In the SD-37 Special Election (polls close in 15 days), 28,555 ballots have been returned so far.  Of those, 11,940 (41.8%) have come from the 68th Assembly District, 9,988 (35.0%) have come from the 2nd Supervisorial District, and 6,627 (23.2%) come from neither of those districts.

Assemblyman Don Wagner has represented the 68th District since 2010 and was on the ballot there most recently in both June and November of 2014.  Former Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach represented the 2nd District from December 2006 until January 2015 and was on the ballot there most recently in June 2010.  Moorlach served in Countywide office from March 1995 to December 2006 and was most recently on a Countywide ballot in June 2006.

The Wagner camp should be pleased by their district of strength leading Moorlach’s district of strength by 6% in ballots returned in SD-37.

Naz Namazi remains a wildcard who could eat up as much as 5% of the vote.  Write-in Democrat Louise Stewardson is probably good for another 4% of the vote.

While well over 60% of the votes are from Republicans, the wildcard is what did non-Republican voters do?  There are 5,783 Democrats (20.3%), 3,783 NPP (13.2%), 596 AIP (2.1%), 185 Libertarians (0.6%), 49 Greens (0.2%), and 20 Peace and Freedom (0.1%).

Faced with three Republicans on the ballot, only a fraction of those Democrats are going to notice their write-in candidate, and the Greens and Peace and Freedom voters were only 69 people.  The NPPs, AIP, and Libertarians comprise 15% of the vote.

Which candidate campaign most effectively to the non-Republicans, and especially the Democrats?  Wagner and Moorlach are both acknowledged as two of the leading conservatives in Orange County.  Which campaigned best to Democrats?  Or which IE best campaigned to Democrats?

Posted in 37th Senate District | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »