This came over the wire this morning from Orange Treasurer Eric Woolery‘s campaign for Auditor-Controller. Woolery managed to snag rare unity from Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait and Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Kris Murray:
Eric Woolery to Dominate Mail in Auditor-Controller Election
with 1.5 Million Pieces
Maintains Frontrunner Momentum with Additional Endorsements
ORANGE COUNTY, CA – Orange Treasurer Eric Woolery announced today that he has locked up the major county election mail slates in his campaign for Auditor-Controller, which will carry his message to voters on 1.5 million pieces of mail. Based on prior election results for Auditor-Controller and current voter turnout models, nearly 350,000 voters are expected to cast their ballots in this election for Auditor-Controller. Securing the slates will ensure that Woolery’s message will be heard by every high propensity voter several times before the June 3 election.
“Becoming Auditor-Controller is my goal, and I aim to win. I have been planning my campaign for many months when I strategically began securing slates and endorsements while implementing other key tactics,” Woolery said. “Using my technical skills honed over 20 years as a CPA in both the public and private sectors leaves me ready to competently lead our county. Currently, the Auditor-Controller’s office is missing opportunities to ensure proactive and efficient uses of taxpayer dollars.”
Several key endorsers have also jumped on board the campaign, giving him additional momentum as the filing deadline nears. Over the past several days, five major Orange County leaders have endorsed Woolery for the Auditor-Controller position:
Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff
Assemblywoman Diane Harkey
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait
Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Kris Murray
La Habra Councilman Tim Shaw
These distinguished local officials join a lengthy bipartisan list of elected officials providing their full support to Woolery, as he continues to hone his strategic plan for victory in this countywide race:
Supervisor Patricia C. Bates, Vice Chair of the Board of Supervisors
Supervisor William G. Steiner (Ret.)
Assemblyman Donald P. Wagner
Laguna Niguel Mayor Linda Lindholm
Tustin Mayor Al Murray
Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante (Ret.)
Orange Mayor Pro Tem Mark Murphy
Tustin Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Puckett
Aliso Viejo Councilman Mike Munzing
Fullerton Councilwoman Jennifer Fitzgerald
Lake Forest Councilman Scott Voigts
Mission Viejo Councilman Frank Ury
Orange Councilman Fred Whitaker
San Clemente City Councilwoman Lori Donchak
Tustin Councilman Allan Bernstein
Tustin Councilman John Nielsen
Orange County Board of Education Trustee Ken Williams
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Arianna Barrios
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee John Hanna
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Phil Yarbrough
Irvine Unified School District Trustee Paul Bokota
Irvine Unified School District Trustee Lauren Brooks
Orange Unified School District Vice President Alexia Deligianni
Orange Unified School District Trustee Tim Surridge
Orange Unified School District Trustee Mark Wayland
East Orange County Water District Director Doug Davert
Orange County Transportation Authority Director Michael Hennessey
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Paid for by Woolery for Auditor-Controller 2014. ID# 1362822.
This came over the wire this morning from Orange Treasurer Eric Woolery‘s campaign for Auditor-Controller. Of the three people who have pulled papers for Auditor-Controller so far, Woolery is the only one without a foreclosure, a short-sale, or a bankruptcy:
Orange Treasurer Eric Woolery Enters Auditor‑Controller’s Race
(ORANGE COUNTY, CA) – Orange Treasurer Eric Woolery has announced his candidacy for Orange County Auditor‑Controller. He enters the race as the clear frontrunner, with $50,000 cash on hand and a lengthy list of bipartisan endorsements from across Orange County.
“Serving as Auditor‑Controller would be an incredible opportunity to use my years of experience in both business and government finance to give back to the county I’ve called home since high school,” Woolery said. “I am honored and humbled by the number of people who are endorsing my candidacy for Orange County Auditor‑Controller.”
In addition to his current elected office of Orange Treasurer, Woolery’s public service began with his election to the Orange County Board of Education and continued on the Orange Audit Committee and as Deputy Director of Administration in the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. He spent the majority of his career in the private sector, having served as the owner of a multi-location private accounting firm, a corporate CFO, a corporate controller, and an accountant.
“With his experience in both the public and private sectors, Eric is one of Orange County’s foremost financial leaders,” said Patricia C. Bates, Vice Chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “I am proud to endorse Eric Woolery for Auditor‑Controller because we need his expertise leading the Orange County Auditor‑Controller’s office.”
Supervisor Bates leads a long list of Orange County leaders who have endorsed Woolery for Auditor‑Controller, including:
Supervisor Patricia C. Bates
Supervisor William G. Steiner (Ret.)
Assemblyman Donald P. Wagner
Laguna Niguel Mayor Linda Lindholm
Tustin Mayor Al Murray
Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante (Ret.)
Orange Mayor Pro Tem Mark Murphy
Tustin Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Puckett
Aliso Viejo Councilman Mike Munzing
Fullerton Councilwoman Jennifer Fitzgerald
Lake Forest Councilman Scott Voigts
Mission Viejo Councilman Frank Ury
Orange Councilman Fred Whitaker
San Clemente City Councilwoman Lori Donchak
Tustin Councilman Allan Bernstein
Tustin Councilman John Nielsen
Orange County Board of Education Trustee Ken Williams
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Arianna Barrios
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee John Hanna
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Phil Yarbrough
Irvine Unified School District Trustee Paul Bokota
Irvine Unified School District Trustee Lauren Brooks
Orange Unified School District Vice President Alexia Deligianni
Orange Unified School District Trustee Tim Surridge
Orange Unified School District Trustee Mark Wayland
East Orange County Water District Director Doug Davert
Orange County Transportation Authority Director Michael Hennessey
A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Woolery earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Accounting from Cal State Fullerton. He resides in Orange with his wife, Lisa, and their two young children.
###
Paid for by Woolery for Auditor-Controller 2014. ID# 1362822
The Orange County Board of Education has agendized a discussion of the controversial Common Core curriculum for its meeting this morning. Under the information items proposed by Board members, the Board has the following on its agenda:
Board Policy 100-2 – All
Common Core – Boyd/All
Brown Act – Boyd
Williams’ OC Register Editorial – Boyd
Oath of Office – Boyd/Parker
AB1266 Resolution – Hammond
(Boyd is Board President David Boyd, who represents the 2nd District. Hammond is Robert Hammond, who represents the 1st District. Williams is Ken Williams, who represents the 3rd District. Parker is Elizabeth Parker, who represents the 5th District. The only member not mentioned on the list is Jack Bedell, who represents the 4th District. The district lines roughly follow those of the Supervisorial districts with a few exceptions, including a gerrymander to split the City of Costa Mesa, where both Boyd and Parker reside. A map of the districts is available here.)
Related to the Common Core discussion, the County Board of Education has also agendized a discussion on this OC Register op-ed on Common Core by conservative Board Member Dr. Ken Williams. (The Williams op-ed is one of the rare articles that is not behind the OC Register paywall.) Here are excerpts of the Williams op-ed:
As Obamacare implementation is the subject of national headlines, also in 2014, an equivalent tsunami will occur in America with a controversial national education curriculum arriving in our schools and classrooms. For practical purposes, it transforms and adversely impacts classrooms and removes parents and locally elected school board members from governing schools in their community.
Common Core is a one-size-fits-all program. It was paid for by the federal government – against federal laws that prohibit Washington from establishing national educational standards, testing and curriculum.
It’s similar to the current national health care debate. Common Core’s stealthy implementation by the Obama administration, national and state educational organizations and state governments keep parents and taxpayers in the dark.
…
Originally, 46 states voluntarily adopted Common Core with federal funding “Race-to-the-Top” grants. Conservative states such as Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia and Texas declined to adopt the standards. As opposition increased across the country, Indiana and Michigan recently dropped out under public or legislative pressure.
Here in California, Common Core was adopted by the State Board of Education in August 2010. A main objection to Common Core is it circumvents the ideals and concept of “local control.” In reality, an unelected, governor appointed, 11-member state board of education, decides without substantive debate. Local boards have little input or ability to change curriculum.
Local control of education has been hijacked specifically by unelected officials holding the purse strings in Sacramento; and in general by the federal government and national education organizations. Common Core dismisses the idealism of local control of education by parents, teachers and school boards laid out in the Northwest Ordinance by our founding fathers; it “dumbs down” academic standards; and huge financial costs are born by taxpayers to implement a national curriculum that is unfunded, and has never been tested or proven.
[Lance Izumi, director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute] warned that state schools will shift in 2014 “from the rigorous state standards to less-rigorous Common Core standards. This is a sharp turn backward.” Common Core is a national program, sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, to standardize school curricula nationwide. In California, for example, that means pushing the algebra requirement from eighth grade to ninth grade.
The Board will also be discussing AB 1266, which is described by the Privacy for All Students campaign (the effort to overturn AB 1266) as “a bill recently enacted by the California Legislature and signed by Governor Jerry Brown. The legislation creates the right of elementary and secondary school students to use sensitive sex-segregated school facilities such as showers, restrooms and locker rooms based on the student’s perceived gender identity rather than their actual sex. It’s the only legislation of this kind to have ever been enacted in the country.”
The County Board of Education traditionally met on Thursdays, but moved their meetings to Wednesdays, effective with their previous meeting. They’re scheduled to meet at 8 AM today in their Board room at 200 Kalmus Drive in Costa Mesa.
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on March 22, 2013
I was working on a database of the part affiliation of all Orange County local elected officials. Finally, I have completed the project with all of the special districts and county seats being added. I also fixed some errors in the previous versions (here, here, and here) and have combined the database into one post.
We have added a button on the menu bar for our readers to always be able to access this database and use it for whatever research/political needs that they may have. Due to the length of th epost you are going to have to click the below link to read the rest of the post.
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on November 16, 2012
As promised, I have now put together a database for the School Board members and their party affiliation based on who will be serving post election. Based on results in a couple of races being close, this list may change before it goes up on the website permanently.
If anybody reading this finds an error (like the situation where I thought Wendy Leece ran unopposed for NMUSD) please let me know so I can fix it.
Prop 29 went down in defeat in June with 2,592,791 voting against the measure and 2,568,715 voting for the measure (a 50.2%-49.8% margin or 24,076 votes), according to the results certified by the Secretary of State on July 13.
Four days before certification, on July 9, Dr. John Maa (D-San Francisco) filed a request for a partial recount of the results. Maa is being represented in the recount by attorney Brad Hertz (R-Woodland Hills) of the Sutton Law Firm. Maa indicated he would spend up to $250,000 to pay for the recount (remember, under California law, anyone requesting a recount must pay for it; a refund will occur only if they succeed in overturning the election results).
On July 16, the partial recount commenced in Los Angeles County. The recounting continued until August 11, at which point Maa’s recount added 464 “Yes” votes and 246 “No” votes, a net gain of 218 votes for the “Yes” side.
On August 6, the recount commenced in Placer County, but with Steven L. Heilig (G-San Francisco) rather than Ma as the person requesting the recount. The recounting continued until August 13, at which point Heilig’s recount subtracted 10 “Yes” votes and 18 “No” votes, a net gain of 8 votes for the “Yes” side.
The recount is now rolling into Orange County, with the Registrar of Voters announcing the recount will commence on Wednesday, September 5.
Although the No on 29 side is gaining votes in the recount, it seems unlikely that they’ll achieve enough to overturn 24,076 considering they’ve only netted 226 votes so far.
If Maa sounds familiar, he was in a “Yes on 29” commercial:
Since we’re showing Prop 29 commercials, click here to see Orange County’s own Dr. Ken Williams (R-Villa Park) in a No on 29 commercial.
Lee M. Lowrey
ChairmanChandra Chell
Vice ChairmanDave BartelsJohn Draper
Mary DreyerKurt English
Kathryn FeatherJoe Ludlow
Jeff Mathews
Walter Myers III
Ben Pugh
Stephanie Olsen
Sarah Soss
Mike Tripp
Candidate Forum
Dear,
With the June Primary Election just around the corner, Atlas PAC has updated our list of endorsed candidates for local, state and national elected office. As always, we will continue to present to our membership candidates that practice our core values of limited government, free market, low taxation, and individual liberty.
Join us this month as we host a fundraising reception for the Stop the Special Interest Money Now Initiative featuring columnist Steve Greenhut and Chapman Law School Professor John Eastman. Please mark your calendar for our upcoming events and we hope to see you soon.
Atlas PAC Mission Statement
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65th AD – Baron Night, Shawn Nelson, Greg Sebourn, Steve Hwangbo, Henry Charoen, Pat Shuff
68th AD – Jon Dumitru, Ken Williams, Lynn Schott, Walter Myers III, Mark Bucher, Denis Bilodeau
69th AD – Thomas Gordon, Charles Hart, Robert Hammond, Lupe Moreno, Cuong Sinh Cao
72nd AD – Janet Nguyen, Dean Grose, Matthew Harper, Mark McCurdy, Dennis Catron, John Briscoe
73rd AD – Chandra Chell, Mike Munzing, Mary Young, Tony Beall, Linda Barnes, Greg Woodard, Jon Fleischman
74th AD – Pick among the following: John Draper, Jeff Mathews, Allan Bartlett, John Warner, Bill Dunlap, Scott Baugh, Scott Peotter, Rhonda Rohrabacher, Emily Sanford, Christina Shea, Don Hansen, T.J. Fuentes
Atlas PAC Director Featured on Rick Reiff’s SoCal Insider Show
Walter Myers III Participates in Occupy Vs. Tea Party Debate
Click to watch video
Atlas PAC Director Walter Myers III debates with an Occupy Los Angeles activist. Watch as they discuss what their protest movements represent as well as their respective sides’ take on taxes, government, and capitalism. Decide for yourself who the clear winner is for this debate.
About Atlas PAC
Atlas is a politically based membership organization made up of business, political, and community professionals who share a passion for free enterprise, limited government, reduced government regulatory burdens, low taxation, and individual liberty. Atlas furthers its ideals by funding candidates and causes who aggressively advocate the values of Atlas.
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on May 7, 2012
In the Orange County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 race Ken Williams has had the first mailer go out to voters today (Full Disclosure:Custom Campaigns is the lead consultant on this race).
It is always tough to do mail in a race for a seat that is the size of a County Supervisors but draws far less attention. Here is the mailer which is on a 8.5 x 5.5 size piece of cardstock:
While we are on the topic of the Williams campaign. This press release just came across the wire:
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas Endorses Dr. Ken Williams for Re-Election to OC Board of Education Read the rest of this entry »
I was reading the information about the application for Orange County Superintendent of Schools, and I found a rather odd requirement in the application process. I’ve excerpted three key paragraphs and bolded the odd requirement.
The first paragraph reads:
“William M. Habermehl has announced his retirement as Orange County Superintendent of Schools effective June 29, 2012. A successor will be appointed by the County Board of Education to complete the term which expires on January 5, 2015 at 12:00 noon. The successful applicant will be expected to run for the office at the end of the appointed term. The election will take place in June 2014.”
The final two paragraphs read:
“Candidates must submit a resume accompanied by no more than three letters of reference along with a written commitment to run for the office at the end of the appointed term, to Richard Nagle, Selection Consultant, Orange County Board of Education at 200 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, no later than 12:00 p.m., Thursday, May 24, 2012. All resumes, letters of reference, and a written commitment to run must be on file by the deadline date. Resumes, letters of reference, and a written commitment to run not received by May 24, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. will not be accepted regardless of postmark date. Resumes, letters of reference, and the written commitment to run will be public information and available for review during normal business hours at the County office located at 200 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Resumes, letters of reference, and the written commitment to run, will be reviewed by two Board members designated by the Orange County Board of Education. Those candidates who successfully complete the initial screening process and are recommended for interviews will be sent a candidate packet by May 30, 2012. The Board will interview the identified candidates in public on staring on June 6, 2012. If necessary, the process may continue on June 7, 2012. The Board may make its appointment and determine compensation on either date. The successful applicant will be expected to run for the office of the county superintendent at the end of the appointed term. The election will take place in June 2014. The candidate who prevails in the election will assume office on January 5, 2015 at 12:00 noon.”
Obviously, the Orange County Board of Education does not want to appoint a caretaker. What is truly odd is the demand that the applicant must commit in writing to seek election to a full four-year term to the post. Why not have candidates commit in writing to serve the full four-year term when they seek election to the post?
Like his yet-to-be-named successor, Habermehl gained the elected Superintendent post via appointment. In February 2001, Superintendent John F. Dean announced his resignation, effective April 2001, even though his term did not expire until January 2003. Then-Associate Superintendent Habermehl was appointed to replace his boss, Superintendent Dean, in a 4-0 vote. At the time, Elizabeth Parker called Dean’s resignation a “selfless act” to allow the board to name his replacement, instead of leaving it to the voters to name his replacement. Ken Williams abstained on the Habermehl appointment expressing his concern that the appointment would give Habermehl an unfair advantage with the power of incumbency without ever having run for the post. (Parker and Williams are still on the board, but the other three members of the board are no longer in office.)
This appointment by the board with a pledge to run is reminiscent of El Dedazo used by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or Institutional Revolutionary Party. (The PRI, which held the Mexican Presidency for seven decades, allowed the incumbent president to appoint his party’s nominee to be the next president, who would invariably win the presidency. The PRI stopped using El Dadazo in 1999, and promptly lost the 2000 presidential election, allowing another party to win the presidency for the first time in 72 years.)
If the Orange County Board of Education keeps appointing people to fill the post of Superintendent of Schools, instead of leaving it to the voters, perhaps, it is time for the post to be appointed, rather than elected, because the election is a farce. The boards of local school districts all appoint their superintendents. The Los Angeles County Board of Education and San Diego County Board of Education both appoint their departments’ superintendents.
Government Code Sections 24000(k) and 24009(b) together permit the Board of Supervisors to place a measure on the ballot to make the County Superintendent of Schools an appointed post. The Orange County Board of Supervisors has already placed Measure A on the ballot to make the Orange County Public Administrator an appointed post, so in the next election, they could just as easily place a measure on the ballot to make the County Superintendent of Schools an appointed post.
(In the interest of full disclosure, Custom Campaigns is doing the consulting work on the County Board of Education campaigns of Ken Williams and Robert Hammond. I have not discussed the Habermehl replacement process with either candidate since the news only broke yesterday.)
Prop 29 went down in defeat in June with 2,592,791 voting against the measure and 2,568,715 voting for the measure (a 50.2%-49.8% margin or 24,076 votes), according to the results certified by the Secretary of State on July 13.
I was reading the information about the application for Orange County Superintendent of Schools, and I found a rather odd requirement in the application process. I’ve excerpted three key paragraphs and bolded the odd requirement.
OC Political 