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Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Tag Archives: red county

The Voice of OC’s Community Editorial Board is loaded with power elites

Posted on by Posted in Anaheim, Blogs, Media Links, Orange County, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 31 Comments

Paid Republican power couple Matt and Laura Cunningham

Did you know that paid Republican consultant Matt Cunningham is now writing so-called “community Editorials” on the Voice of OC?  That’s right.  Apparently he is part of the Voice of OC’s new Community Editorial Board.    I discovered this when I saw his byline on a post defending Anaheim Councilwoman Kris Murray, who got caught, by the Voice of OC, casting a City Council vote earlier this year to approve a report by a subsidiary of Willdan Group, a consulting firm that employs her as its senior vice president, city records show.

According to the Voice of OC’s “About Us” page, “First and foremost, Voice of OC focuses on accountability in government, not the process of government.”  And their stated mission is “To hold government agencies, elected officials and other power brokers in Orange County accountable through investigative news coverage. And to be a catalyst in the community for a robust and sophisticated discourse on local politics and government.”

It is hard to imagine who Cunningham fits into that equation.  This is the guy who outed victims of molestation by Catholic priests, while he was being paid to shill for Monsignor John Urell – a man of the cloth who ran interference for molester priests.  Cunningham posted an unredacted legal document – that he should not have had access to, on the failed “Friends of Urell” website, and in the process he outed the molestation victims, whose names appeared in the court document. Continue reading→

Are O.C.’s political blogs still a force to be reckoned with?

Posted on by Posted in Blogs, Media Links, Politics, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Are Orange County’s political blogs still a potent force in local politics?  Some of them have apparently already peaked and are now headed downhill, while others are continuing to develop new readership.

The Orange Juice blog, which was Orange County’s first political blog, has changed substantially since Vern Nelson took over as their Editor/Publisher late last year.  But they remain Orange County’s only multi-partisan blog, with a bullpen of Republican and Democratic bloggers.  Their traffic has remained fairly consistent since Nelson took over.  They are averaging over 40,000 visits a month, along with over 70,000 page views. Continue reading→

It is highly unlikely that Lou Correa will run against Janet Nguyen in 2012

Posted on by Posted in Elections, Janet Nguyen, Jose Solorio, Lou Correa, Politics, Santa Ana, Vietnamese Leave a comment

Matt Cunningham, a Republican blogger at the Red County blog, thinks that State Senator Lou Correa, who just won reelection, is going to run against Supervisor Janet Nguyen in 2012.  Here are a few excerpts from Cunningham’s post:

In 2012, Correa will be in the middle of his final term not only in the state Senate, but in the state legislature. If he has aspiration to remain in public office rather than seek his fortune in the private sector, his options are limited once he is termed out in 2014.

Challenging Sup. Janet Nguyen has several advantages, which I am sure have already occurred to Sen. Correa and his advisors as they ponder his future options:

  • It’s a free ride: if he fails to unseat Nguyen, he still has two years left in the state Senate.
  • Since Correa served less than two full years of his original term on the Board of Supervisors before becoming a Senator, he is eligible for two full, consecutive terms on the Board. Two more years as a state Senator versus eight as a county supervisor: in an age when county offices have become landing pads for termed-out legislators, that’s a pretty good trade.

I think Cunningham is very wrong, for a number of reasons:

  • When Correa first quit the O.C. Board of Supervisors, he angered organized labor.  They were particularly tweaked to see his seat end up in Republican hands.
  • However – the OCEA (Orange County Employees Association) ended up befriending Janet Nguyen, who took Correa’s seat.  Does Cunningham really think they will turn on her now?  No they won’t.
  • Plus Correa really did not like being the only Democrat on the Republican dominated OC Board of Supervisors.  Why would he go back to that arrangement?
  • Correa has a few years to figure out what to do before he terms out of the State Senate.  Even Cunningham acknowledged that U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein could retire and Sanchez could run for her seat, opening up the 47th Congressional District for Correa.
  • Correa lives in Santa Ana, as far as I know.  I believe he lives in Carlos Bustamante’s ward, which is opening up in 2012 and in 2016.  Correa could finish his term on the State Senate and run for the Santa Ana City Council, or for Mayor of Santa Ana, if Mayor Miguel Pulido has moved on by then.
  • Correa could also, at the end of his term, run for a statewide office.  As a moderate Democrat he would do well in the open primary.
  • Correa could also opt to leave politics and work in the private sector.  He could make some real money as a lobbyist or government consultant.

I think that Assemblyman Jose Solorio is the one who is going to challenge Nguyen in 2012.  Even if she redistricts her seat, I think he has a great shot at beating her.  She has lost a lot of support even in her own community, in the wake of her disastrous attempt to take over the Little Saigon Black April event this year.

Does it really matter that Lucille Kring got more votes than Lou Correa on Tuesday?

Posted on by Posted in Anaheim, Democratic Party, Elections, Loretta Sanchez, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 5 Comments

Will Lucille Kring’s GOP pals put her over the top in the 34th State Senate District in November?

Does it really matter that Republican Lucille Kring got more votes than Democratic State Senator Lou Correa, in the primary election this week?

Kring, who is an Anaheim Councilwoman, got about 700 more votes than Correa.

As one might expect, Red County editor Matt Cunningham is crowing about this as if it matters.

But does it?

Democrats hold an advantage overall in the district, with 44% of the vote.  The GOP has 32.73% of the vote and 19.27% of the voters are Decline to State.

Latinos hold a huge advantage in the district, with 58% of the vote.  White voters come in at only 21.6% of the vote and Asian voters have just over 10% of the vote.

There are over 315,000 registered voters in this district.  Kring and Correa, combined, got just over 32,000 votes.  Clearly many voters tayed home – presumably most were Democrats.

In November things will be quite different.  Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez will be working hard in the same area to get out the vote.  So will Assemblyman Jose Solorio.  Correa will be able to count on both of them for significant help.

Kring is already working closely with Mexican-hater Van Tran, who is challenging Sanchez.  Solorio faces only token opposition.

The key will be the Latino vote.  Correa will need to get Latinos to the polls in order to prevail.

It should be noted that Correa has made vast inroads into the Vietnamese community.  And this time he will be helped by Democratic candidate Phu Nguyen, who will be challenging the worst Mexican-hater, Allan Mansoor, over in the 68th Assembly District, which is part of the 34th State Senate District.

No legislator works harder than Correa.  Kring should relish her primary votes as the general election promises to have a very different ending.

Councilman Sarmiento calls allegations ridiculous

Posted on by Posted in Democratic Party, Elections, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment

 

Santa Ana City Councilman Vincent Sarmiento called allegations that he is somehow involved in an attempt by a community group to discredit mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua “ridiculous”.  The allegations were made by a disgruntled ex- city commissioner in a blog

post

 on the factually deficient Liberal OC.

A former blogger reported that a principle in an independent expenditure committee called the “Good Government of Orange County Committee”, Alex Vega, told him that, “Councilman Sarmiento is very involved in their project and is trying hard to get a powerful law firm involved”. Continue reading→

Should State Senator Lou Correa be at all worried about Lucille Kring?

Posted on by Posted in Anaheim, Elections, Latinos, Lou Correa, Politics, Santa Ana, Vietnamese 5 Comments

In 2006, Lucille Kring couldn’t beat Jon Aiken – how will she beat State Senator Lou Correa?

Republican Lucille Kring, who is a member of the Anaheim City Council, has decided to run against State Senator Lou Correa, over in the 34th State Senate District, which includes Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Kring won a seat on the Anaheim City Council in 2006, defeating incumbent Councilman Richard Chavez.  Bob Hernandez also won a seat on that council in 2006, getting a few more votes than Kring did, according to Smart Voter.  Chavez was damaged by numerous scandals but he still came in just .02% of the vote behind Kring.

Kring ran for Mayor of Anaheim in 2002, losing to Curt Pringle by over 4,000 votes, according to Smart Voter.  And she also won a seat on the Anaheim City Council way back in 1998, when she was the top vote-getter, with 24.8% of the vote, according to Smart Voter.  Back then there were no Latinos in that council race, which tells you that Anaheim has changed a lot over the past decade. Continue reading→