OC GOP Central Committee Member Thomas Gordon has pulled papers to run for Area Three of the Rancho Santiago Community College District. He is thus far the only candidate for that office.
The RSCCD elections have changed this year – they will be area-specific. This should make it easier for candidates to win.
Gordon has previously run for: Continue reading
Twin devils of deception
Everyone in Santa Ana is talking about the arrest of Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante, on multiple felony counts of various sex crimes, but most folks have forgotten that former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger once appointed Bustamante to the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, back in January of 2008.
When I found out about the appointment I could not believe it. Even then we knew Bustamante had some issues with women, but when I first wrote about the appointment, over at my old Orange Juice blog, I tackled the issue from a different standpoint – pointing out the fact that Santa Ana was a leader in home foreclosures – and Bustamante had done nothing at all about that. Continue reading
U.S. Representative Linda Sanchez doesn’t have much to worry about in November, over in the 38th Congressional District. She easily outpaced her two Republican opponents, Jorge Robles and Ben Campos, in this week’s Open Primary Election. Campos is currently leading Robles by 532 votes, according to the California Secretary of State, for the right to face off against Sanchez in the fall.
Can Campos beat Sanchez? Well, she has over 28,000 votes right now – and Campos and Robles together have under 23,000 votes. Those are long odds for Campos.
Meanwhile, in Orange County, the other Congressional Sanchez, Loretta, has over 24,000 votes, in the 46th Congressional District, and she did not campaign at all – no signs, no mailers, and no robo calls. Continue reading
Orange County First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen easily beat her unfunded opponent, Steve Rocco, in this week’s Primary Election, but she refused to endorse any of the other Vietnamese American candidates – and right now they are all losing.
In the 72nd Assembly District, Nguyen’s fellow Republican, Long Pham, is in fourth place, behind fellow Vietnamese American candidate Joe Dovinh, an independent turned Democrat. Continue reading
Activists, for the second year, asked Orange County supervisors Tuesday to recognize Harvey Milk’s birthday with a proclamation, but the board declined the opportunity, as it did last year, according to the L.A. Times.
This happened last year too, but Supervisor Janet Nguyen fled the dais that time, before the activists and residents who came to the Board of Supervisors’s meeting had a chance to speak. This time, according to the L.A. Times, she stuck around but fled the room before her colleagues and County staff could speak.
Nguyen likes to pretend that she is a moderate but in the end she is just as much a knuckle-dragging Republican as are her colleagues. They are all anti-gay and that is pretty much how their party rolls – although they have just as many closted homosexuals in politics as their local Democratic counterparts do. Continue reading
The best candidate that Orange County’s Vietnamese community had going into the June 5 Open Primary, Westminster Mayor Pro Tem Tyler Diep, dropped out of the race for the 72nd Assembly District. That left two Vietnamese candidates vying for that seat – O.C. Board of Education Trustee Long Pham, a Republican, and Garden Grove Planning Commissioner Joe Dovinh, a former Decline to State voter who is now a Democrat.
Dovinh has “spent $6,699 during the March 18-May 19 reporting period, brining his total spending in the AD-72 race to $16,352. He has $5,493 left in his warchest,” according to the OC Political blog. They also reported that Pham “spent $62,675 during the March 18-May 19 reporting period, bringing his total spending in the AD-72 race to $106,072. He has only $1,412 left in his warchest.” Continue reading
An OC GOP insider gave me the scoop tonight on what really led to Republican Robert Hammond quitting the primary race for the 69th Assembly District – at the very last minute, last Friday, which was the filing deadline for that race. Hammond ended up pulling papers for the Orange County Board of Education’s Area One.
What my source told me was pretty much what I expected. Hammond did not come up with this scheme himself. Apparently Supervisor Janet Nguyen and OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh were the ones that advised him to leave the Republican Party of Orange County hanging, with no candidate in the 69th A.D. Continue reading
“The Orange County Board of Supervisors will meet Monday in an emergency closed session to discuss whether they should refer allegations of sexual misconduct against Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas for a criminal investigation,” according to the Voice of OC.
My sources report that Orange County CEO Tom Mauk may be hung out to dry as a result of this scandal. A report by Peter Hughes, director of internal audit, made its way to the supervisors, according to the Voice of OC – and his allegations were stunning. Continue reading
UPDATE: Supervisor Janet Nguyen may be up to her old tricks again. In the past she has used anonymous surrogates to do her dirty work, including buying URLs similar to those used by her political opponents, and redirecting them to nasty sites. Now an anonymous letter has been sent to the CalOptima board of directors Thursday accuses two board members — Chairman Ed Kacic and Mary Anne Foo — of improprieties, allegations both strongly denied, according to the Voice of OC. And it turns out that Kacis is only trying to help the community:
Kacic, president of the Irvine Health Foundation, said his organization belongs to the Managed System of Care, a group that includes the CEOs of all Orange County hospitals, the county Health Care Agency, the Veterans Administration, CalOptima, clinics, major medical groups and business interests.
U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez lost her campaign money in the Kinde Durkee scandal – but it may not matter. Her new 46th congressional district “encompasses most of Santa Ana, parts of Garden Grove, Anaheim, Westminster and Fullerton. Previous drafts of the maps gave the area, which is home to Disneyland and a heavy population of immigrants, a slight Republican edge,” according to the L.A. Times. The district is 45 percent Democrat and 32 percent Republican, according to the O.C. Register.
And the “latest maps, keep the Latino voting population nearly the same as in her current district, but edge out some of the Asian American voters by splitting Little Saigon.” Not to worry if you are a Vietnamese American voter in the O.C. I hear that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is going to retire in a couple of years. His new district includes a big chunk of Little Saigon. It is quite possible that the seat will end up being represented by a Vietnamese American some years down the road. Continue reading
Our readers enjoyed voting yesterday for Santa Ana’s Man of the Year in 2011 – now it’s the ladies turn as we consider who was Santa Ana’s Woman of the Year in 2011? We had a very strong field last year, and many of those nominees are back in this year’s poll, but I also expanded the poll to include many of the leaders of our top non-profit organizations. If I missed someone you think should be in the poll, please be sure to let me know in the comments.
This will be a tough decision as there are many great candidates! One of my favorite choices is Santa Ana Council Member Michele Martinez, who had a tough year in 2011, with the passing of her mom and her great grandmother, but Martinez persevered and she is now the leading candidate to replace Jose Solorio in the 69th Assembly District.
Here is the poll – you can vote for up to three choices:
My favorite O.C. Supervisor, Shawn Nelson, took action at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting, making a motion that a series of raises – which were doled out to just about every top executive in the CEO’s office – be rescinded, according to the Voice of OC. The action means a demotion and rescinding of a 33 percent pay hike for Assistant CEO Rob Richardson.
Richardson is also a Trustee on the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education. He is up for reelection next year. He will have a heck of a time explaining to the voters in Santa Ana why he deserved a 33 percent pay hike in the first place. He is also thought to be the one who brought disgraced Santa Ana Council Member Carlos Bustamante to the County of Orange. Bustamante resigned a few months ago when he was charged with sexual harassment. Bustamante was also in line to lose raises but he lost his job instead, after resigning. Continue reading
“In a 3-2 vote, with supervisors Shawn Nelson and John Moorlach dissenting, the board not only approved changes that increase health care industry representation on the board but also extended a supervisor’s term on the board from one to two years. Nguyen is the supervisors’ current representative,” according to the Voice of OC.
Nelson and Moorlach ripped Nguyen and her dumb proposal to take over the CalOptima board – be sure to read the Voice of OC article for details, but Supervisors Pat Bates and Bill Campbell went along with Nguyen.
Here is what Moorlach had to say about his lame colleagues in his latest email newsletter: Continue reading
GOP 72nd A.D. candidates Joe Carchio and Matt Harper, Picture Courtesy of the Surf City Voice
Huntington Beach Mayor Joe Carchio and Council Member Matt Harper, who are both Republican candidates for the 72nd Assembly District, which includes part of West Santa Ana, are trying to eliminate a city commission – the Mobile Home Advisory Board (MHAB), according to the Surf City Voice.
If Carchio and Harper cannot get rid of the MHAB Commission, then they will try to eliminate “the at-large members whose current purpose is to provide a buffer between park owners and park residents and an independent look at the issues.”
Harper must have learned this from his former boss, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who has been trying to eliminate community positions from the O.C. Caloptima board. Continue reading
“Matt Harper, former deputy chief of staff to Supervisor Janet Nguyen who quietly transferred to the Orange County trash agency last month while preparing a run for the Assembly, has been officially warned to avoid any political activities while working as public affairs manager at OC Waste & Recycling for the next year,” according to the Voice of OC.
This is based on an opinion written by Senior Deputy County Counsel Christopher J. Miller, which states that: