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Posts Tagged ‘Harry Sidhu’

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Clerk-Recorder Interviews: Harry Sidhu

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on April 2, 2013

1:03 PM– Just got back from lunch near the Hall of Administration with a friend of the blog Allan Bartlett who is also sending tweets from the meeting. Now onto the interview that most people are interested in seeing (Harry Sidhu), how will Shawn react?

1:07 PM– Supervisor Spitzer gave a shout-out to the blog. I knew I liked that guy.

1:09 PM– We are now back. For his introduction Sidhu talked about his reasons for seeking the appointment for Orange County Clerk-Recorder.

1:11 PM– The building that was purchased to house the County Archives is a major concern that he has for this position. His experience as a businessman was brought up along with amount of skills that it takes to run as many restaurants as he did. He talked of running government more like a business.

1:14 PM– Sidhu also mentioned that he has been a real estate broker for over 25 years and also over 30 years as an engineer. His ability to get elected to office was also talked about.

1:17 PM– He talked about helping to integrate software in the City of Anaheim with that of the office of Orange County Clerk-Recorder as a Councilmember.

1:20 PM– Supervisor Nguyen asked about his intentions to run. Sidhu answered that he would run although he did see a possibility of running against the appointee if he was not selected.

1:21 PM– Supervisor Nelson asked about running for higher office. Sidhu said that he is not intending to run for any other office.

1:22 PM– Supervisor Spitzer was intrigued by the thought that it was interesting that Sidhu would run if not the appointee. Sidhu said that the performance of the Clerk-Recorder will dictate what he decides to do if he is not the appointee.

1:24 PM– Supervisor Bates asked about the issue of financial management. Sidhu responded that his background in land development, real estate, and local government have given him the knowledge that he needs to manage the office with no problems.

1:26 PM– He talks about his 4 years that he spent on the Anaheim Budget Commission as another experience that he has had in finance.

1:28 PM– Supervisor Moorlach asked his series of questions:

1) Are you receiving a public pension?

No.

2) What is your highest level of education?

A Bachelor’s from Drexel.

3) Have you been involved in litigation with the County of Orange?

No.

4) Have you ever been subject to any political investigation?

No.

5) Have you run for office before? If so, how many times and for what offices?

Awkward moment when he stated that he ran for State Senate and Orange County Supervisor.

6) Do you believe that the office of Orange County Clerk-Recorder needs satellite offices?

Lastly, he talked about the potential for expanding the number of satellite offices.

1:31 PM– Supervisor Nelson asked about his top goals as Clerk-Recorder. Sidhu talked about streamlining the processes in the office of OC Clerk-Recorder and advancing technology.

1:35 PM– Spitzer asked the marriage question. Sidhu stated that he believes in traditional marriage but recognizes that the Supreme Court is making a decision and he will implement whatever they decide.

1:37 PM– Spitzer asked about the Jordan Brandman contract and what he would do. Sidhu stated that the contracts need to be more clear in the way they are crafted. He seemed to hint that he was not impressed by the Brandman Report although he had only seen the draft of it.

1:41 PM– In closing, Sidhu talked about running many successful businesses and how he can translate this to an excellent job he would do as a Clerk-Recorder. Love him or hate him he has a great personal story coming to this country at 18 years old and getting his first job cleaning toilets, getting an education, and parlaying that into a successful business career.

1:44 PM– Nelson deserves some major kudos as he was professional and kept that super classy.

Posted in Orange County Clerk-Recorder | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Clerk-Recorder Interviews: Introduction

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on April 2, 2013

We are now starting the meeting at 9:06 AM.

9:07 AM- Jack Enda came up to speak on behalf of Hieu Nguyen during the public comment portion of the meeting. He spoke of his experiences working for Gary Granville alongside Hieu.

9:08 AM- Darlene Bloom also stood up to speak on behalf of Hieu Nguyen. She was the Clerk-Recorder briefly during the transition period after Gary Granville passed away and before Tom Daly took over.

9:11 AM- Supervisor Nelson stated that first interview should take place at 9:10 AM. He suggested an opening statement for each applicant, questions and then a closing statement by each applicant.

9:13 AM- They are currently deciding on who will ask certain questions that were prepared by the 4th Supervisorial District staff.

Posted in Orange County Clerk-Recorder | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Orange County Clerk Recorder Recap & Preview

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on April 1, 2013

Now that we have had some April Fools Day fun on to the real business for the day. Here is a post that has no pranks or jokes in it.

Tomorrow evening we will likely have a new Orange County Clerk-Recorder in place after what I am sure will be a lengthy and intriguing deliberation by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. I will be in attendance live blogging all of the interviews for our readers and giving my take on what is happening. be here with us at OC Political at 9:00 AM to follow along.

330px-Seal_of_Orange_County,_California_svg

To explain how it will be formatted I will start with a post that details the opening of the meeting. After my original post I will have a separate post for every single interview up until the end of the meeting. After the interviews are done I will have a separate post for the deliberation and appointment. With any luck I might even get an interview with the individual who gets nominated. My suggestion to readers in order to be able to follow along live is to click on each post as it goes up and hit refresh to get a live update on what is going on with that interview.

We have had some of the best coverage of the Orange County Clerk-Recorder saga over the past few weeks often being the blog to breaks stories on this subject. Let’s take a moment to recap the process from the beginning.

Due to the length of the post I am cutting it off here. Click the link to view the rest of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1st Supervisorial District, 2nd Supervisorial District, 3rd Supervisorial District, 4th Supervisorial District, 5th Supervisorial District, Orange County Board of Supervisors, Orange County Clerk-Recorder | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Clerk-Recorder Resumes, In-Depth Bios, and Schedules

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 26, 2013

Update 11:28 PM– Corrections made for brief synopsis of Chris Norby & Larry Bales.

This just in from the Orange County Board of Supervisors website. We now have access to resumes and schedules for the interview process. I initially posted a list of OC Clerk-Recorder candidate bios along with statistics and occupations. Yesterday it appears staff at the County decided to take it a step further by posting each applicants resume among other things into a packet that is preparing us all for the epic meeting on Tuesday April 2nd.330px-Seal_of_Orange_County,_California_svg

In case you were wondering I will be down at the County of Orange on the day of interviews providing our readers with a live blog of every single interview from start to finish. After that hold onto your hats for a live blog of deliberations leading up to the new OC Clerk-Recorder getting selected. Stay tuned for a potential interview with the new OC Clerk-Recorder in our new audio post format if I can snag them after the meeting.

Here is the schedule for Tuesday April 2nd:

9:00 AM-9:10 AM  Opening of Meeting
9:10 AM-9:40 AM  Larry Bales
9:45 AM-10:15 AM  Chris Norby
10:20 AM-10:50 AM  Hieu Nguyen
10:55 AM-11:25 AM  Richard Ackerman
11:30 AM-12:00 PM   Bruce Peotter
12:00 PM-1:00 PM  Lunch
1:00 PM-1:30 PM  Harry Sidhu
1:35 PM-2:05 PM  Michael J. Fox
2:10 PM-2:40 PM  Steven Madoff
2:45 PM-3:15 PM  Steven Rosansky
3:20 PM-3:50 PM  Roy Reynolds
3:55 PM-4:25 PM  Renee Ramirez
4:25 PM-TBA  Deliberation & Selection

Here is a list of candidates in interview order with a link to their packet that they submitted to the OC Board of Supervisors. My thoughts after the links.

Larry Bales
Chris Norby
Hieu Nguyen
Dick Ackerman
Bruce Peotter
Harry Sidhu
Michael J. Fox
Steven Madoff
Steven Rosansky
Roy Reynolds
Renee Ramirez

This was an interesting read to go through all of these applications, cover letters, and resumes in order to figure out how these applicants are angling themselves for the position. Here area few items from the different resumes that stood out.

Larry Bales– He works for used to work for the County of Orange for over 30 years in the office of the Orange County Assessor.

Chris Norby– He puts OC Supervisor as his position as opposed to CA Assemblyman He lists OC Supervisor as his previous employment with Orange County and mentions that he heard about the job from a County employee/friend. I find it interesting that he listed Supervisor Shawn Nelson (1 of the 5 votes) as another one of his references.

Hieu Nguyen– Other than Renee Ramirez he appears to be the only individual other than Renee Ramirez who has experience working in the OC Clerk-Recorders office. He also heard of the position from a County employee/friend. The one think I liked about his packet was that he included letters of reference from supporters including the very well-known businessman Dale Dykema.

Dick Ackerman– He says that he learned of the job through Newspaper/Magazine and has a number of references he lists including OCGOP Chairman Scott Baugh, CRP Chairman Jim Brulte, OC Supervisor (Ret) Bill Campbell, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, and Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway.

Bruce Peotter– As I have stated before he is one of my personal favorites for this position along with Hieu Nguyen. I must admit though that I was surprised with his experience in the office of Public Administrator/Guardian that he applied for Clerk-Recorder instead. His resume/cover letter was the cleanest out of all applicants in terms of formatting and shows that he is extremely qualified for this position.

Harry Sidhu– This one will be tough as long as Shawn Nelson is still a Supervisor next week. In his cover letter he focuses on his private sector experience. In his resume he includes not only his Anaheim City Council experience but also his background as a mechanical engineer, real estate broker, and a business owner.

Michael J. Fox– I was totally hoping to read a filmography on this one but alas my dream was crushed. He learned about the position through Newspaper/Magazine and has a long list of cases he sites as being involved in that shows his background in law is solid.

Steven Madoff– He along with many others in the list learned about the position through Newspaper/Magazine. He is on my list of the most interesting applicants to sit down and have lunch with based on the stories he must have from his years of working for Paramount.

Steven Rosansky– Something is off with this application as he used a totally different application than everybody else that applied for the position. In terms of his cover letter and resume nothing specifically stood out to me other than his experience in Newport Beach as a Councilman, real estate broker, and business owner.

Roy Reynolds– He also states that he learned about the job through Newspaper/Magazine. He included an article that he wrote in the OC Register that referred to his firm conducting polling on behalf of the Costa Mesa Taxpayers Association. Apparently he does his political consulting business as a separate entity from his personal rapid transit consulting which I was unaware of.

Renee Ramirez– In my opinion she went from being the frontrunner to a longshot in a matter of months. She does mention her current occupation as being in the office of OC Clerk-Recorder. She has been employed at the office of the OC Clerk-Recorder since 1991 if I am reading her resume correctly. 2 of her most notable references include former Santa Ana City Manager/Police Chief Paul Walters and Yorba Linda Water Board Member Phil Hawkins.

Posted in Orange County, Orange County Board of Supervisors, Orange County Clerk-Recorder | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments »

Clerk-Recorder Bios, Statistics, and Occupations Oh My!

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 18, 2013

Thanks to Orange Juice blogger Vern Nelson for the idea of grouping the finalists by number of nominees.

Five nominations:
Hieu Nguyen, Santa Ana Republican, 45 years old
Bruce Peotter, Irvine Republican, 54 years old
Renee Ramirez, Orange Republican, 40 years old

Four nominations:
Dick Ackerman (Moorlach, Spitzer, Nelson, Bates), Irvine Republican, 70 years old
Chris Norby (Nguyen, Spitzer, Nelson, Bates), Fullerton Republican, 63 years old

Three nominations:
Larry Bales (Spitzer, Nelson, Bates), Tustin Republican, 70 years old
Steve Rosansky (Moorlach, Spitzer, Bates), Newport Beach Republican, 53 years old

Two nominations:
Michael J. Fox (Nguyen, Spitzer), Lake Forest Democrat, 60 years old
Steven Madoff (Moorlach, Bates), Huntington Beach Democrat, 60 years old
Roy Reynolds (Nguyen, Spitzer), Fountain Valley Republican, 65 years old
Harry Sidhu (Nguyen, Bates), Anaheim Republican, 55 years old

How successful Supervisors’ finalist nominations were:
Nelson: 6 of 6 (100%)
Spitzer: 9 of 10 (90%)
Bates: 9 of 10 (90%)
Nguyen: 7 of 8 (87.5%)
Moorlach: 6 of 10 (60%)

Here they are listed with their occupations:

Dick Ackerman (attorney, former state senator and assemblyman)

Larry Bales (FDIC settlement agent)

Michael J. Fox (attorney)

Steve Madoff (consultant, former executive vice president of Paramount Pictures)

Hieu Nguyen (assistant clerk of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, former OC chief deputy recorder)

Chris Norby (retired teacher, former state assemblyman and county supervisor)

Bruce Peotter (attorney, former assistant public administrator/public guardian)

Renee Ramirez (assistant clerk-recorder)

Roy Reynolds (personal rapid transit consultant)

Steve Rosansky (real estate company president, former Newport Beach councilman and mayor)

Harry Sidhu (business owner, former Anaheim councilman)

Credit goes to the newsletter of Supervisor Todd Spitzer for providing the occupations of all the applicants.

I have finally taken the time to do a bit of research on each of the remaining applicants and am going to provide those bios for our readers:

Hieu Nguyen– Hieu Nguyen along with Bruce Peotter is one of my personal 330px-Seal_of_Orange_County,_California_svgtwo favorites for this appointment. The great thing about Hieu is that he has experience working in the OC Clerk-Recorders office (before Daly) and knows the way things operate from the inside. Nguyen ran for the seat in 2010 (I voted for him) and lost in a landslide the size of which I have not seen very often. He must have gotten some bad campaign advice because that was ugly. He currently works for the County and would be an excellent choice for the position.

Bruce Peotter– I like Bruce a lot and think that he would be an excellent 330px-Seal_of_Orange_County,_California_svgchoice for this position. He has experience working in County Government and was the best chance Republicans have ever had to beat Tom Daly. He is currently an attorney and you can click the link if you want to read more info about his law firm.

He first ran for office in 1998 when he ran for the open Orange County Assessor seat where he ended up coming I fourth place. He ran for office again in 2002 against Tom Daly for the vacant Orange County Clerk-Recorder seat where he finished in the top two thus advancing to the run-off against then Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly. In the run-off he came up a bit short losing the seat to the Democrat Daly who held it for ten years.

Larry Bales– I don’t know much about Larry Bales but must admit that I am SHARP_ELSIMATE_EL-W221surprised to see that he applied for this position. My thought was that he would try to wait out Webster Guillory for Assessor. I say this because he has run for Assessor three times. In 1998 when he first ran for the seat it was an open seat, Webster Guillory won for the first time and Larry Bales came in fifth place. In 2002 he tried for a second time and lost again. This time he came in second place, but only two candidates were on the ballot. He ran a third time in 2006 for what I think might have been just to do it out of spite (maybe?) and the result was no different, unless you consider that he did worse and came in third place.

Renee Ramirez– She is the acting Orange County Clerk-Recorder and has the advantage over all other applicants because if she gets chosen she holds the 330px-Seal_of_Orange_County,_California_svgposition and if nobody can get to three votes she is the de facto incumbent. She has gotten a lot of negative press lately from our friends over at the “Voice of OC” who are looking into a contract that previous OC Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly gave to Current Anaheim Councilmember Jordan Brandman (he was not a Councilmember at the time of the contract).

Ramirez was not involved in the handling of any contracts handed out to Brandman, however, according to the articles I read she apparently claims to have cleared all of the data that was attached to Brandman including hard drive, e-mails, etc… I do find it a bit ironic that the current keeper of County records destroyed County records. This could very well cost her the appointment in my opinion.

You can read the two voice of OC articles by clicking here for the first one or here for the second one.

If destroying any data or records is standard policy for this department the OC Board of Supervisors should take a long look at revising this flawed policy.

Michael J. Fox– I was extremely sad when I learned that this was not the 300px-CourtGavelMichael J. Fox that could take me “Back to the Future” with him. He is an attorney based in Irvine that appears to specialize in business and real estate matters. Here is some biographical information from his law firm website:

Michael J. Fox has a diverse background in addition to private practice. Mr. Fox previously served as in-house counsel to H.K. Realty, J.K Properties and their subsidiaries, entities that owned and managed over 16,000 apartment units in the greater Los Angeles area. Mr. Fox later served as Vice President and Associate Counsel for Fidelity National Title and as an Associate for the firm of Pite Duncan, LLP.

Mr. Fox has hands on real estate and business transactional experience with the negotiation and preparation of real estate purchase and sale agreements, formation and maintenance of corporations, limited liability companies, joint ventures and partnerships. He is proficient in all aspects of real estate transactions and knows how to avoid the pitfalls that can arise during the various phases of a transaction including the due diligence period, analysis, negotiations and preparation of contracts, financing, zoning, permits, title matters and escrow issues. Having litigated numerous cases that evolved from transactional errors, Mr. Fox has assisted clients avoid potential pitfalls and successfully complete both residential and commercial purchase, sale and section 1031 real estate transactions.

Feel free to browse his website if you want to see more.

Roy Reynolds– I met Roy at. California Republican Assembly endorsing kpk7l6-podslargeconvention last year and believe he is a member of the Fountain Valley Republican Assembly. The business card he gave me was for a polling company that he owns and through some research I found out at he is also an advocate for a personal rapid transit system which I understand very little about. If you want to learn more about PRST feel free to do so by clicking here.

Roy also wrote an article on another Orange County blog advocating for the outsourcing of the OC Clerk-Recorder position and he pushed for the Supes to strongly consider going that direction. I like the thought he had from the cost saving perspective but think that he is way off. When voters were presented the opportunity to make the OC Public Administrator an appointed position through Measure A in June 2012 it was rejected by the voters with over 60% of the opposition.

I support saving money, but something can be said for the will of the electorate on any issue.

Steven Madoff– This guy totally got screwed by Bernie Madoff who tarnished300px-CourtGavel the last name of all people named Madoff. All joking aside he is quite qualified for this position with a lot of business experience. His background with Paramount Pictures actually intrigues me and I would rank him as the applicant I would most want to have lunch with. I found an article about him on Billboard that gave a lot more information about specifics on his occupation.

Steve Rosansky– He was a member of the Newport Beach City Council up 100px-NB_SEALuntil this last election where he did not run. In a slight amount of irony he was appointed to the Newport Beach City Council in 2003. He ran for re-election in 2004 and 2008 winning both times. Again, I do find it Interesting that he was appointed to the City Council and now seeks the appointment to Clerk-Recorder.

I found a copy of his original Newport application on a website called Free Newport

Harry Sidhu– former Anaheim Councilman who first tried running in 2002 City_of_Anaheim_Seal_svgbut fell a bit short coming in fourth place (top two win) he ran again in 2004 and was successful in winning one of the two available slots along with Lori Galloway who also won. They were both re-elected in 2008 to their respective seats on the City Council.

Sidhu has tried to get to higher office in the past and has not had the best of luck. In 2008 he took on State Assemblywoman Mimi Walters in what turned into an extremely nasty race (I remember getting the mailers). Walter ended up defeating Sidhu by a wide margin of 74% to 26%. He tried again in 2010 to move on to higher office by making a run at the 4th Supervisorial District which was vacated by Chris Norby. He and Shawn Nelson bloodied each other during this crowded campaign and Nelson ended up winning both in the special primary and the special run-off. The run-off results were not very close, primarily because Nelson was able to run as the incumbent in the run-off, Nelson won 63% to 37%. His history with Shawn Nelson will make for an interesting interview.

Chris Norby– Norby has had a rough year after losing the 65th Assembly seat 170px-CaliforniaAssemblySealto Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva. I will start from the beginning of his career. He was Elected to the Fullerton City Council in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 and served as Mayor in 1991, 1996, 1997.

He ran for the 72nd Assembly District in the 1995 special election but ended up coming in second place to rival Dick Ackerman. If you want to know more about this race take a look at the next bio (Dick Ackerman). Since Ackerman won I wanted to post the election links under his bio.

Norby was not done though as he won a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors (4th District) in 2002 and won re-election in 2006. The 2002 election was particularly interesting because Norby upset sitting Supervisor Cynthia Coad. I found an article about the upset that had an ironic quote from Supervisor Todd Spitzer who at the time was about to leave the Board of Supervisors.

The Norby career continued when he won a special election to the 72nd Assembly District in 2009 after a scandal drove the incumbent Assemblyman to resign (Hey Mike Duvall, how are you doing!). He easily won re-election in 2010. After the redistricting for the 2010 Census took place Norby was hit by a perfect storm that drove him out of office and Democrats into a 2/3 majority in the Assembly.

Dick Ackerman– His political career first began when he ran for and won a 170px-Seal_of_The_Senate_Of_The_State_Of_Californiaseat on the Fullerton City Council in 1980. He was re-elected to the Fullerton Council in 1984 and 1988. Twice during his tenure he served as Mayor of Fullerton (1982, 1986).

Ackerman then ran for the State Assembly in the 1995 special election against three opponents including bitter rival Chris Norby who is also applying for the OC Clerk-Recorder position. Ironically when running for the position he was the California Teachers Association endorsed candidate which I found odd. Ackerman finished in first place, Norby in second, Democrat Shirley Hafner came in third, and Republican Yorba Linda Mayor Barbara Kiley came in last place. Due to nobody garnering 50% of the vote, the top Republican and top Democrat advanced to a run-off election. Ackerman easily won in the run-off election and actually gave the Republicans a majority in the Assembly. He won re-election to the 72nd Assembly District in 1996 and 1998.

After his Assembly tenure came to an end he jumped into the State Senate by winning an election for the 33rd Senate District seat (previously held by John Lewis) in 2000 and won re-election in 2004. If I recall correctly he was the Senate Republican Leader in 2004 and held it to almost the end of his second term.

In 2002 he did lose an election for California State Attorney General where he lost to incumbent Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Posted in Orange County, Orange County Board of Supervisors, Orange County Clerk-Recorder | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments »

More Info: Occupation On Clerk-Recorder Candidates

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 8, 2013

The office of Supervisor Todd Spitzer released a list of all 25 candidates that are left standing for the Clerk-Recorder in their newsletter. You can read the full newsletter here. The next meeting to narrow the field even further is this Tuesday, in my original post I stated that it would take place a week from this Tuesday.

Be ready to follow along live on Tuesday as I will be live blogging the proceedings.

Here’s the updated list with more detailed information:

-Dick Ackerman (attorney, former state senator and assemblyman)

-Dale Anderson (attorney)

-Larry Bales (FDIC settlement agent)

-Andrew Calderon (law firm managing partner)

-Alicia Campbell (Administrative Manager II at OC Public Works)

-William Copulos (retired law firm managing partner)

-Ron Davidson (retired corporate CEO)

-Stewart Davis (corporate program contracts manager)

-Linda Dixon (former Costa Mesa mayor and council member, retired university assistant vice chancellor)

-Elizabeth Fleming (contract attorney)

-Michael J. Fox (attorney)

-Ellie Ghasemi-Fazeli (legal assistant at Office of Orange County Counsel)

-Lydia Lake (attorney)

-Nora Lesnet (Administrative Manager at OC Community Resources)

-Francis Licata (attorney)

-Steve Madoff (consultant, former executive vice president of Paramount Pictures)

-Tanya Mayweather (regional credit/collections manager)

-Hieu Nguyen (assistant clerk of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, former OC chief deputy recorder)

-Chris Norby (former state assembly member and supervisor)

-Bruce Peotter (attorney, former assistant public administrator/public guardian)

-Renee Ramirez (assistant clerk-recorder)

-Roy Reynolds (transportation consultant)

-Steve Rosansky (real estate company president, former Newport Beach council member and mayor)

-Harry Sidhu (business owner, former Anaheim council member)

-Steve Waechter (sales manager/computer consultant)

Posted in 3rd Supervisorial District, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Orange County | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Here’s The Updated Clerk-Recorder List 3-5-2013

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 6, 2013

We have narrowed down the field of candidates for OC Clerk-Recorder from almost 1,000 names down to 25. Kudos to all of the 25 folks that made it this far. If I remember hearing correctly yesterday the next discussion of these applicants will be in two weeks on March 19th.

I do believe that this list will be reduced to under 10 names at that point. The concept of researching every candidate to get a job title is rather daunting considering that some of these names are rather common. If more information on each applicant is released I will post the info for our readers.

Here is the list of 25:

Dick Ackerman
Dale Anderson
Larry Bales
Andrew Calderon
Alicia Campbell
William Copulos
Ron Davidson
Stewart Davis
Linda Dixon
Elizabeth Fleming
Michael Fox
Ellis Ghasemi-Fazeli
Lydia Lake
Nora Lesnet
Francis Licata
Steve Madoff
Tanya Mayweather
Hieu Nguyen
Chris Norby
Bruce Peotter
Renee Ramirez
Roy Reynolds
Steve Rosansky
Harry Sidhu
Steve Waechter

Posted in Orange County | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Dominus Way Off On AD 65

Posted by Mr. Friendly on January 22, 2013

The newest blogger on this site had a post go up early this morning that gave an analysis of the 65th Assembly District that had everything but reality included in it. As someone that lives in the 65th Assembly District I can think of at least 3 candidates that would finish ahead of Young Kim and Henry Charoen. 2 of these candidates are already rumored to be running.

  • Steve Hwangbo- La Palma Councilman
  • Bruce Whitaker- Fullerton Councilman
  • Lucille Kring- Anaheim Councilwoman

Miller Oh likely would have been the favorite to be the nominee in 2014 had he not been charged with lying to avoid paying child support. This story makes it unlikely that he will even consider entering into the race to even test the waters.

Chris Norby was also rumored to be running to take back his old seat but my reaction to hearing this was that it would be a disaster. Norby was a train wreck that carried enough baggage to cost him a Republican seat. Republicans need to find candidates that do not carry a lot of personal baggage if they want to gain back any revevancy in California.

Young Kim comes across as a political opportunist by moving to Fullerton seemingly for the sole purpose of running for AD 65. I remember a couple of other people from the ritzy part of Anaheim making a move to run for an office similar to AD 65 in 2010. Ask Harry Sidhu and Lorri Galloway how that move worked out for them.

Henry Charoen and Steve Hwangbo both have a tough battle coming from the smallest portion of AD 65 (La Palma), and they will both need to spend somewhere near $250,000 (at least) to advance into the November election agains Shron Quirk-Silva.

This leads me to believe that contrary to what Dominus might think Young Kim is far from being the front-runner.

On a side note what the heck is Long Pham thinking running for SD 34? I hope that he realizes that this will end no better than his bid for AD 68 (Mansoor), AD 72 (Allen), and all of the other races that he has thrown his name on the ballot for. Even Steve Rocco must think he is nuts for running in this race.

 

Posted in 65th Assembly District | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Could Vietnamese Groups Use the California Voting Rights Act to Sue Santa Ana?

Posted by Chris Nguyen on December 20, 2012

There’s been much discussion about the ACLU lawsuit against the City of Anaheim to force Councilmembers to be elected by district rather than at large, as voters in the entire city vote for every Councilmember.  The lawsuit cites the California Voting Rights Act of 2002’s requirements for racial representation on City Councils.  Anaheim is 53% Latino.

As Gustavo Arellano at the OC Weekly noted, Anaheim had an 80% nonwhite Council as recently as 2006, with Latino Councilmembers Richard Chavez and Bob Hernandez (both elected in 2002), Asian Councilmembers Lorri Galloway and Harry Sidhu (both elected in 2004), and white Mayor Curt Pringle (elected in 2002).  I might also note Lou Lopez served on the Council from 1994-1998 when he gave up his Council seat to run unsuccessfully for Supervisor.

With the election of white Councilmembers Jordan Brandman and Lucille Kring replacing termed out Asian Councilmembers Lorri Galloway and Harry Sidhu, Anaheim has its first all-white City Council in a decade.  What impact this will have on the lawsuit against Orange County’s largest city is to be seen.  Brandman has asked to agendize a possible lawsuit settlement for the next Council meeting .

Meanwhile in the County’s second-largest city, Santa Ana has had an all-Latino Council since 2006.  With six council wards, each Councilmember (other than the directly-elected Mayor) represents 16% of the city.  However, Santa Ana elects its Councilmembers at-large from these wards.  In other words, voters in the entire city still pick the Councilmember representing each ward.

Santa Ana’s Asian (mostly Vietnamese) population is highly concentrated in the western portion of the City.

In the redistricting plan adopted at the beginning of 2012, Ward 6’s border with Ward 3 moved south, and increased the Ward 3 Asian population by 16%.  The relatively square Ward 4 became much more rectangular by yielding most of its western territory to Ward 6 and picking up the southeastern portion of Ward 6.  This increased the Ward 4 Asian population by a whopping 209%.  However, these changes decreased the Ward 6 Asian population by 27%.

Prior to the 2012 redistricting, 46% of all Santa Ana Asians resided in Ward 6, 24% lived in Ward 3, and just 5% in Ward 4.  With the new districts, just 33% live in Ward 6,  27% live in Ward 3, and 17% live in Ward 4.

Can anyone say cracking?

The California Voting Rights Act of 2002 states that a violation “is established if it is shown that racially polarized voting occurs in elections for members of the governing body of the political subdivision or in elections incorporating other electoral choices by the voters of the political subdivision.”  It goes on to say, “The fact that members of a protected class are not geographically compact or concentrated may not preclude a finding of racially polarized voting…but may be a factor in determining an appropriate remedy.”

In practice, the most common remedy under the California Voting Rights Act of 2002 has been to have ward elections in which voters only vote one Councilmember to represent their ward and do not vote for any other Councilmembers (basically, ward elections make city council elections a lot more like supervisorial elections, legislative elections, and U.S. House elections).

Anaheim is being sued for violating the California Voting Rights Act of 2002 because citywide voters have not elected a Latino to the current City Council.  Could Santa Ana be sued for violating the California Voting Rights Act of 2002 because citywide voters have never not elected an Asian to the City Council in 31 years and the Council’s redistricting plan presents a major “cracking” of the Asian population?

Posted in Anaheim, Santa Ana | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

CD-39: Royce, Chen, and Chen SuperPAC Spend $2.7 Million or How My Father Received Over 41 Feet of Mail

Posted by Chris Nguyen on November 2, 2012

Jay Chen & Ed Royce

Democrat Jay Chen is challenging Republican Representative Ed Royce

151,311 voters live in the City of Anaheim: 10,196 voters live in Ed Royce’s 39th Congressional District, 27,431 live in John Campbell’s 45th Congressional District, and 113,684 live in Loretta Sanchez’s 46th Congressional District.  You’ve seen Emami’s endless mail count on the Anaheim City Council race, but he has the good fortune to be one of the 27,431 Anaheim voters in CD-45.  This is a tale of the mailboxes for the 10,196 Anaheim voters in CD-39.

(For those of you wondering, Gail Eastman lives in Sanchez’s CD-46, Harry Sidhu lives in Royce’s CD-39, and Lorri Galloway, Kris Murray, and Tom Tait live in Campbell’s CD-45.  For those of you wondering for even more info, Steve Chavez Lodge lives in Campbell’s CD-45 while Lucille Kring, John Leos, and Jordan Brandman all live in Sanchez’s CD-46.)

Before I get into the mail, I should note there are precinct walkers and phone bankers from both camps scurrying and calling across CD-39.

An OC Political friend passed on a transcript he made of a phone call he received from the Jay Chen campaign in October.  The content of this script is clearly geared toward Republicans, and the OC Political friend who transcribed this call is a high-propensity Republican in a pure Republican household.

Here’s the transcript…

Hi.  Good afternoon.  My name is Andrew and I am a volunteer with the Jay Chen for Congress Campaign.

I’m calling you today to tell you a little bit about Jay and about his campaign for congress in your district.

Jay is a small businessman, a school board member and US Naval Reserves intelligence officer who is running to represent you in Congress.

Unlike his opponent, Ed Royce, Jay volunteered to serve our country and he will protect our veterans when they come home.

Jay was recruited right out of Harvard University to work for Bain and Company, a section of the successful Bain Capital, and he has valuable experience balancing the books and improving results without raising taxes.

Jay is clearly the right person to serve this district in Washington.  For more information about Jay or our campaign, please visit our website at chenforcongress.com.  And since you are registered to vote by mail your ballots will be arriving around October 8th.  Please remember to vote and sent them back in.

Thank you for very much your time and I hope you vote for Jay in the upcoming November election.

Here’s an excerpt from Chen’s 2011 school board re-election campaign biography:

In 2002 Jay joined Bain & Company, a global business consulting firm. While at Bain he worked closely with top executives of Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement crucial business strategies. He managed the roll-out and evaluation of new products for a global logistics company and analyzed the cost-savings for a mergers and acquisition in the technology space with a combined value of over $1 billion. Jay believes his financial and business experience will be of great value to the school board, which manages an operating budget of over $360 million dollars and nearly 3000 employees.

Anyone else find it fun that Democrat Jay Chen is touting his Bain experience while Republican Mitt Romney is getting trashed for his Bain experienced by national Democrats?

Now, on to the money: From July 1 to October 17, Royce spent $1,232,479 while Chen spent $406,351.  However, Super PAC America Shining (run by Chen’s brother) has spent $762,316, with $65,894 supporting Chen and $696,162 against Royce.

In other words, between America Shining and Jay Chen, the pro-Chen/anti-Royce spending since July 1 has reached $1,458,478 while Ed Royce has spent $1,232,479.

For both candidates, over 60% of their direct contributions came from individual citizens.  However, if you account for America Shining, the pro-Chen/anti-Royce money received has been 52% from PACs, and 33% from individual citizens, while pro-Royce/anti-Chen money that’s been received is 62% from individual citizens and 36% from PACs.

While Emami religiously scans each piece of mail that falls into his hand, I’m just going to take a picture of all the mail.  For my father, who is likely in the most coveted demographic group in all of CD-39 (high-propensity Asian independent), this is what $2.7 million of campaign spending looks like:

35 Pieces of CD-39 Mail

My poor father was inundated with CD-39 mail

He’s received 36 mailers, and there’s still three more mailing days before Election Day (today, tomorrow, and Monday).  I “only” received 15 mailers, and my Republican mother “only” received 8 mailers.  Inexplicably, my independent sister only got 1 mailer (it was pro-Royce).

I should note my 52-year-old father was not pleased to receive the America Shining piece entitled, “Senior News.”

Here are other ways to look at the 36 mailers sent to Dad:

  • Stacked on top of each other, they are 1/2 inch thick.
  • They weigh a combined 1 lb. 7 oz.
  • Laid end to end, they are 41 feet, 3 inches long.

They have achieved near-perfect parity in Dad’s collection:

  • 18 from Royce’s side, 18 from Chen’s side
  • 6 pro-Royce, 4 pro-Chen
  • 12 anti-Chen, 14 anti-Royce

From my father’s mail: For every pro-Royce, there were exactly two anti-Chen pieces.  For every pro-Chen piece, there were more than three anti-Royce pieces.  While both sides have sent virtually the same amount of mail and both have been pretty negative, Chen’s side has sent out more negative mail and less positive mail than Royce’s side.

Apparently, as registered Republicans, my mother and I were each ignored by Chen.  All 15 of my mailers and all 8 of hers were from Royce.  I received 6 pro-Royce and 9 anti-Chen.  Mom received 2 pro-Royce and 6 anti-Chen.

The anti-Chen pieces are making an impact on regular voters: one of my mother’s co-workers dislikes Chen because he seems so creepy because he’s always behind sunglasses in his pictures.  None of Chen’s photos have him behind sunglasses, except the one being used on Royce’s anti-Chen pieces.

In CD-39, postal workers and mailhouses are getting together to throw a big party about the post offices saved from closure and the mailhouses’ unexpected 2012 profits, but somewhere, there’s an environmentalist crying about the forests that Chen and Royce destroyed.

On a final note, my father’s siding with the family Republicans: Dad’s voting for Royce.

Posted in 39th Congressional District, Fundraising, Mail | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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