As the investigation into GOP operative Adam Aleman, who blogged for both the Flash Report and Red County San Bernardino, continues to unfold several familiar Republican faces are beginning to emerge. Now California Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel and his wife Michelle Steel, who is on the State Board of Equalization, have been caught up in the scandal.
Apparently Aleman was retained by Shawn Steel to collect proxies this past February in order to ensure that Steel would defeat the incumbent RNC Committeeman, Tim Morgan, who had angered the machine Republicans who run the CA GOP, according to the San Bernardino Sun. Steel won, but since that victory hundreds of proxy votes collected by Aleman and other Steel operatives have been invalidated. Steel now appears to have won by only 30 votes.
This is where Michelle Steel comes in. “The grand jury investigation also discovered that the state Board of Equalization had given Aleman another kind of waiver in 2007 – one that would allow him to work as assistant assessor, earning $119,000 a year, despite not having the experience and appraiser’s certificate required to be in that position. Steel’s wife, Michelle, holds a seat on the board,” according to the San Bernardino Sun.
“John Hrabe, Michelle Steel’s spokesman, said the temporary certificate was not issued by Steel and that employees of the board typically issue more than 230 such certificates each year.”
The San Bernardino Assessor, Bill Postmus, believed that Aleman did not collect any proxies while he was on county time, as an Assistant Assessor. Yet Aleman has indeed been charged with working on political campaigns while on county time.
What about the fellow who ran Shawn Steel’s campaign? Mike Richman has “been contracted for $49,200 to work for the Assessor’s Office.” So Michelle Steel rewarded the guy who got her husband elected by throwing work his way. I wonder if that work was even put out to bid?
You have to wonder if Aleman was also blogging on county time. So far the Editors of Flash Report and Red County 909, I mean San Bernardino, have not been subpoenaed, as far as I know. Perhaps they will be.
The fact is, this sort of corruption is typical for GOP players in California, sad to say. What is coming to light in San Bernardino is just the tip of the iceberg. We can only hope that this scandal will grow even more and take down dozens of these corrupt Republicans in the process. Their party will be better off for it.
Update: Our readers have pointed out the fact that Truong “Tomahawk” Diep works for State Assemblyman Van Tran – but he also worked on Dina Nguyen’s failed Supervisorial election this year. Did Diep conduct politics on state time? He also blogs for Red County/OC Blog – does he blog on state time? Is the picture above what Diep is headed for?
When will Tomahawk aka Truong Diep be charged with felonies…. Art you need to blog about him… he worked on Dina’s campaign and also worked for Tran at the same time…. how is this legal and possible
What a tangled web they’ve weaved…
SMS
Art, you have to photoshop an image of Truong Diep in handcuffs. Put it under your future post, “A sign of things to come…”
Gary D., a Garden Grove voter.
#3,
Done! Good point. Diep may be the next dirty Reep to get indicted…
hey art we know your a democrat.. do you any stories on democrats that are corrupt.. oh yeah they dont have any .
#5,
Are you kidding? I bash the Dems all the time! They even took our blog link off the DPOC web page. The fact is I go after all crooked and corrupt politicians – but in the OC and in the 909 they tend to be Reeps more often than not, with the exception of the Santa Ana City Clowncil which has only one Reep on it. The rest are the very worst elected Dems in Orange County…
Art –
FYI: OC Blog doesn’t link to us anymore either.
SMS
Sarah,
Oh that’s been the case for some time. Matt hates that we reveal all the corruption inherent to the OC GOP machine. After this article he will hate us even more! Oh well…folks seem to be finding us without all those links.
Art, you don’t reveal anything. You cannibalize reporting done by others, then mix that in a cauldron with a generous doses of your brand of half-truths, distortions, paranoia and falsities. Then you serve it up as truth.
And even when facts are presented to you, you can’t get those straight. Re-read your rant, and maybe even you can figure out your screw up. Keep being yourself, Art — you’re spitefulness and craziness are albatrosses weighing this blog down.
Matt/Jubal,
Oh really? We’re so weighed down Matt that our readership has doubled in the past few weeks – and we are now ranked at #2 on the BNN rankings. So who is ignoring the facts now Matt?
janet Pedroza,
your premise that Trung Diep worked for SDina and Van Tran at the same time is total BS simply by the fact that if that were the case, janet Bonokowski would have raised up a storm over that issue. You have absolutley no credibility at all.
Pedroza Watcher,
You should learn how to spell people’s last names. I think Ms. Nguyen has better things to worry about than stupid Trannies….
Matt,
Yeah the cutting edge reporting you do over at Red County never ceases to amaze me.
I especially like the detailed reports on the Corona indictment (and the salacious tapes), Garry Miller’s corruption,not to mention the hollow Chriss Street reporting.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. OJ never pretendedto be the LATimes, Art saw it for what is is. While your “rag” emulates the Washington Times.