Cecilia Iglesias poses with State Senator Lou Correa
There is an incredible amount of hullabaloo being made about Ms. Cecilia Iglesias, an Independent candidate running in the 47th Congressional District, because an image of her was caught in a photograph squeezing Meg Whitman, the mega-billionaire who thinks she can use her vast fortune to buy her way into the Governor’s office.
Frank Barbaro, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, recently stated in an email posted on the DPOC website that “voting records show that Ceci walks like a Republican, talks like a Republican and votes as a Republican…. I think she needs to explain why she is so embarrassed about being a Republican.”
Although I’ve thought about casting my ballot for Ms. Iglesias as a protest vote against both Loretta Sanchez and Van Tran, the photograph of her hugging Whitmann almost made me throw up, to be quite frank with you. But honestly, I would have felt just as nauseous if I saw a photograph of her with Jerry Brown.
Despite my dislike for “Queen Meg,” I’m smart enough to realize the photograph doesn’t mean that Ms. Iglesias supports or even agrees with her on various issues. And so far I haven’t heard Mr. Barbaro complain about the fact she posed for the above photograph with Democratic State Senator Lou Correa.
There are some incredibly nasty rumors being spread about Ms. Iglesias being involved in some kind of secret Republican Party vote-splitting plot. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if this in fact were the case, I haven’t seen a shred of court-worthy evidence anywhere to suggest that any of these allegations have any truth to them.
And I don’t buy the argument that because Ms. Iglesias was registered to vote in the Republican Party a few years ago means there is something evil and sinister with her switching to “decline to state” and running as an Independent candidate in the 47th Congressional District. That’s her constitutional right to do so.
It is completely hypocritical for Mr. Barbaro to attack Ms. Iglesias on this issue given that another candidate who sought the same seat back in 1996, Loretta Sanchez, was formerly a Republican. She only switched her party affiliation to “Democratic” shortly before mounting her run against former Republican Congressman Bob Dornan.
In fact, if you want to talk about a real “conspiracy,” there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt to show that Congresswoman Sanchez at times during her 14 year political career has had a very cozy–if not incestuous relationship–with local Republican Party politicians and has helped them advance legislation that hurt her own community.
In 1997, Congresswoman Sanchez worked very closely with Bob Zemel and Tom Tait, two very right-wing Anaheim City Councilmen, to get the federal government to fund a “pilot program” to station then-Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in the Anaheim City jail to screen detainees for their immigration status.
Zemel and Tait originally approached former Republican Congressman Bob Dornan and asked him to secure additional funding. But Dornan refused to have anything to do with it. After Sanchez got elected, she took off with their ball and ran with it. She co-signed a letter with other top Republican Party politicians to get them the money.
Not only were Zemel and Tait then-members of the Central Committee of the Orange County Republican Party, but the latter owns an engineering consulting company called Tait and Associates, Inc. in Orange. One of his employees at that time was–and still is–Tom Fuentes, then-Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party.
One consequence of this “pilot program” was that undocumented workers who had no prior criminal records were being arrested by Anaheim Police for committing minor traffic offenses and then deported shortly after INS agents had screened them in jail. Costa Mesa Mayor Alan Mansoor used the same program as a model for his own city.
Until I see hard evidence to prove Ms. Iglesias was involved in a vote-splitting plot, I’m going to defend her right to run as an Independent candidate. Methinks the real problem here is that Democratic Party bigwigs are upset that the polls are showing that Sanchez is going to lose her seat; so they’re setting up Ms. Iglesias as a scapegoat.
The vicious attacks that Mr. Barbaro and his allies in the Democratic Party are making against Ms. Iglesias are also leading me to believe they don’t like the fact a woman they can’t control had the initiative to overcome enormous odds and acquire the required number of signatures she needed to get on the ballot to run as an Independent in this race.
If the Congresswoman gets booted out of office, she only has herself to blame; it will be because she lost her base of support–not because Ms. Iglesias was in the race. There is widespread discontent with Sanchez in the 47th Congressional District and many of her former supporters are not going to show up at the ballot box in November.
Given the great dissatisfaction there is with the Congresswoman, it doesn’t surprise me that a woman of El Salvadoran ancestory–part of a growing community in Santa Ana whose members may not feel they are being adequately served by Sanchez–decided to run as an Independent candidate. This not a new phenomena in American history.
The same thing occured in the late 19th century as Eastern European immigrants began to settle in the Northeastern United States. As their communities grew, they challenged the political dominance of the ethnic groups who had assimilated before them–primarily the Irish–by running candidates against them under different party labels.
Personally, I would prefer to have dozens of candidates running in the 47th Congressional District. Then I could chose the candidate I feel best reflects my own views on matters of politics. Neither Congresswoman Sanchez or her Republican Party opponents ever do. That’s why I’ve always left the boxes next to their names empty when I cast my absentee ballot.
So until Mr. Barbaro and his allies come up with court-worthy evidence to prove that a plot has occurred, I strongly urge everybody to dismiss the claims they are making about Ms. Iglesias as being nothing more than the ranting of whiners, cranks, and losers. And if they continue their attacks against her without offering any proof, that’s exactly what they are.
For purposes of disclosure, Duane Roberts is the Green Party Candidate for U.S. Senate in California.
They have no proof. I do watch Iglesias’ campaign closely though. She’s a straight up conservative. There is no doubt about it. And it’s more substantive than pictures of politicians she appears with. If there is discontent regarding the two-party duopoly from a left leaning perspective, Iglesias is not the independent candidate to express that frustration with.
Hi Gabriel:
> They have no proof. I do watch Iglesias’ campaign closely though. She’s
> a straight up conservative. There is no doubt about it. And it’s more
> substantive than pictures of politicians she appears with.
> If there is discontent regarding the two-party duopoly from a left leaning
> perspective, Iglesias is not the independent candidate to express
> that frustration with.
I will admit that only recently have I begun looking at Ms. Iglesias candidacy. And as I learn more about her views, the odds are good that I won’t be casting my ballot for her. But neither Loretta Sanchez nor Van Tran will get my vote; it looks like once again I’ll be leaving empty spaces on my absentee ballot next to the names of all candidates running in the 47th Congressional District.
What really concerns me here, however, is this accusation that Ms. Iglesias is somehow involved in a Republican Party vote-splitting plot by virtue of the fact she decided to run as an Independent candidate. If there is evidence to prove this, then she should go to jail. But there isn’t any proof other than just wild speculation and innuendo. So far all the claims being made about her in this respect appear to be baseless.
The vicious attacks that Barbaro and his allies in the Democratic Party are making toward Ms. Iglesias are are almost similar to the slander that has been hurled against Ralph Nader and Green Party candidates who run for public office in partisan races. It is completely arrogant for people like Barbaro to think the Democrats own my vote and that my choices in elections should be limited to their lousy candidates.
All I am doing here is defending Ms. Iglesias right to run as an Independent candidate, not her political views. If Barbaro and his allies don’t have court-worthy evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt she’s involved in some kind of plot, then they should shut up. She has a constitutional right to run for public office and doesn’t have to kiss their ass in advance to win their approval to do so.
There are four different things here, I’ll have to write a post soon:
1. Her presence in the race helps Van Tran, and folks who don’t want to risk the Republicans re-taking the majority in Washington should really think twice before voting for her over Loretta. And if that IS what you want, then why not just cut to the chase and vote Boss Tran?
2. There is anecdotal evidence that Van and the GOP have been helping her in various ways, at least indirectly, for what that’s worth. I’ll have that up this week.
3. Whether that means she’s complicit in all that is a whole other question and harder to prove. And I’m not all that interested in it, who wants to send a mother to jail for political games? It IS good to have more than two choices. But the danger of GOP takeover is too great right now, as much as we constantly expect more from the Dems than we get. Listen to the promises of Boehner and McConnell, and remember back two short years to Bush and Cheney. Nobody should be pretending there’s no difference. (Except Duane.)
4. Also, as Gabe and others have pointed out, even if we take Ceci on her own terms, she’s pretty right wing and has a Republican record. Again, there’s a real Republican in the race already.
Hi Vern:
> 1. Her presence in the race helps Van Tran, and folks who
> don’t want to risk the Republicans re-taking the majority ….
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Until you come up with court-worthy evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Iglesias is involved in a Republican Party vote-splitting scam, everything you’ve written in the above paragraph sounds exactly like the typical whining that Democratic Party hacks always use every election cycle to scare people into voting for their lousy candidates.
And by the way, anecdotal evidence–basically story telling–is an incredibly weak form of evidence. Because of the serious nature of the claims you and others are making against Ms. Iglesias, I want to see sworn testimony made under penalty of perjury. If you have that, then I want you to post it here on the Orange Juice blog so I can read it and decide for myself.
[Extra text deleted]
> It IS good to have more than two choices. But the danger of GOP takeover
> is too great right now …
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I hear the same old mantra every election cycle. You sound like a broken record player, to be quite frank with you.
> [Extra text]
>
> Nobody should be pretending there’s no difference. (Except Duane.)
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Of course there are some differences between TweedleDee and TweedleDum. But they aren’t as great as you make them out to be.
I’m sorry, but I will not be voting for Loretta Sanchez. In fact, I’ve only voted for her one time. That’s when that idiot Tam Nguyen plastered thousands of those ugly yellow signs all over the 47th Congressional District strict saying “STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.” I felt it was important to repudiate him symbolically by voting for Loretta because of really nasty things he was doing.
In respect to Van Tran, I will not be voting for him either. I’ve never cast my ballot for any Republican who has run in the 47th Congressional District. I think as a protest vote in the past I might have voted for one or two Libertarian candidates that were in the race at times. but I don’t really remember since it was many, many years ago that I did that.
As for Cecilia, I didn’t know much about her candidacy until recently. Her views do appear to be much more “conservative” than my own. I trust Gabriel’s judgment and most likely won’t be voting for her.
If you don’t like the fact that I’m going to leave empty spaces next to the names of those candidates when I fill out my absentee ballot, that’s just tough.
Rather than waste your time spreading rumors and wild speculation about Ms. Iglesias, it would be better for you to do some precinct walking in the 47th Congressional District and ask why many Democrats who used to support Loretta won’t be showing up to the polls and voting for her next month.
People are so pissed at Obama and the Democratic Party’s repeated betrayals on everything from the phony baloney healthcare reform bill to the war in Afghanistan that they are going to express their dissatisfaction by basically boycotting the election. It looks like turnout is going to be low.
You don’t seem to understand that Van Tran wouldn’t have a chance in the world at beating Loretta if it wasn’t for the fact that her base is collapsing and that people are sick and tired of her. I live in the 47th Congressional District and I’ve heard griping about her practically everywhere.
Vern, I personally like you. But quit behaving like a Democratic Party hack. If you have the court-worthy evidence to prove what you say, I’ll join with you in condemning these Republican Party shenanigans. Please put up or shut up. Otherwise you’re just a whiner like Mr. Barbaro.
You missed the point of my #1.
It had nothing to do with any unprovable conspiracies or anecdotes. It had to do with simple electoral physics. You DUANE are a reckless wild boar of progressivism!! The rest of us have to worry about the actual consequences of our votes.
I like you too sweetie. XOXOX
Vern Nelson wrote:
> You missed the point of my #1.
>
> It had nothing to do with any unprovable conspiracies or
> anecdotes. It had to do with simple electoral physics.
Oh, now you are now objecting to Ms. Iglesia’s candidacy upon the presumption that her presence in the race is going to “siphon” votes away from Congresswoman Sanchez and deny her the plurality of votes she needs to win the election, right?
You fully understand that is completely different argument than posting unsubstantiated rumors about her being involved in some kind of a “conspiracy” with Van Tran to split the vote, don’t you?
Firstly, now that you’ve hopped aboard the Democratic Party bandwagon to smear Ms. Iglesias for having the audacity to exercise her constitutional right to run for public office, I’m going to hold your feet to the fire.
If you get me the court-worthy evidence that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ms. Iglesias is involved in such a “conspiracy,” I will join along with you in condemning her for being involved in such a plot.
Otherwise I’m disappointed that you’re participating in spreading vicious rumors against an innocent person. The burden of proof is on you, not Ms. Iglesias.
Secondly, your “simple electoral physics” comment appears to be based on not only a number of flawed assumptions, but on principles that are fundamentally elitist and anti-democratic.
Who gave you the right to tell voters in the 47th Congressional District whom they should support in an election? I’m not saying you don’t have a right to express your opinion. But if people want to vote for candidate “C” over “A” or “B,” good for them.
So the votes Ms. Iglesias earns comes from Ms. Sanchez’s final tally? What’s your point? Understand that’s Ms. Sanchez’s problem, not Ms. Iglesias. If Ms. Sanchez is incapable of winning the election, that’s because she can’t get enough people to support her. Can’t you figure that out?
And you’re making the flawed assumption that every vote that goes to Ms. Iglesias would have gone to Ms, Sanchez. You realize that some of them might have gone to Van Tran? Maybe people wouldn’t have voted at all and left their boxes next to their names blank?
Who says that Ms. Iglesias presence in the race is going to bring out more people to vote and thus help other good candidates running in other races? Maybe the people who come to vote are casting their ballots for the first time and wouldn’t have shown up if it wasn’t for her.
Maybe if Ms. Sanchez loses the election, she would have lost it anyways even if Ms. Iglesias was not in the race? Who says that Van Tran might end up losing because of Ms. Iglesias?
Who says the smear campaign that Barbaro and his allies in the Democratic Party might help Ms. Iglesias and contribute to Loretta Sanchez losing the election? Barbaro and the bloggers at Liberal OC are giving her lots of free name recognition. That’s the best thing that could happen to her.
Voters are pissed off in the 47th Congressional District. Barbaro and his motley crew are now in a bind. If they can’t cough up any evidence that she’s Van Tran’s proxy, people who might have voted for Loretta might switch to Cecilia to protest their vicious attack. How dumb can they be?
Voting behavior is a bit more complex and problematic than you think, Vern.
> You DUANE are a reckless wild boar of progressivism!! The rest
> of us have to worry about the actual consequences of our votes.
I do worry about the consequences of my votes. That’s why I rarely vote Democrat or Republican.
> I like you too sweetie. XOXOX
I like you too, darling! XOXOXOXOX! 🙂
LOL
Oh, now you are now objecting to Ms. Iglesia’s candidacy upon the presumption that her presence in the race is going to “siphon” votes away from Congresswoman Sanchez and deny her the plurality of votes she needs to win the election, right?
OK, I know how I can make this a lot clearer:
I am not objecting to her candidacy. I am simply telling people not to vote for her. Okay???
Vern Nelson wrote:
> OK, I know how I can make this a lot clearer:
>
> I am not objecting to her candidacy. I am simply telling people
> not to vote for her. Okay???
Fine.
I’m going to close out the discussion by making the following comments:
1. Unless you have court-worthy evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ms. Iglesias is involved in a Republican Party vote-splitting plot, I would suggest you not make any further comments about it.
As of now, I haven’t seen any proof whatsoever that Ms. Iglesias is Van Tran’s proxy. In fact, it is slanderous and defamatory to spread these wild rumors because it strongly suggests she committed a felonious act.
Until you, Barbaro, and the Democratic Party coughs up evidence backing such claims, I will defend Ms. Iglesias right to run as an Independent candidate in the 47th Congressional District regardless of her politics.
Like I said, if the evidence is there, I will join along with you in condemning the Republican Party for engaging in such shenanigans. But as I look into this matter further, I’m growing increasingly skeptical that such a plot occurred.
2. The biggest problem you face in the 47th Congressional District is not Ms. Iglesias, but the fact that thousands of registered Democrats will cross over party lines and cast their ballots for Mr. Van Tran.
The Democratic Party loves to scapegoat Ralph Nader for costing them the election in Florida in 2000, but ignores polling data showing that about 250,000 registered Democrats voted for George W. Bush in that state.
A big chunk of Ms. Iglesias votes will come from people who usually don’t vote Democrat or Republican. If you want to save Ms. Sanchez, start precinct walking in the 47th Congressional District and target Democratic households.
3. The best thing that happened to Ms. Iglesias’ campaign lately is for the Chairman of the O.C. Democratic Party to attack her, send vicious emails about her over the internet, and have his army of losers smear her on blogs.
Not only have they given her lots of free publicity and name recognition that she didn’t have before, but I bet more people will vote for her now. These idiots don’t realize it, but they themselves might have just cost Ms. Sanchez the election.
If I were Ms. Iglesias, I would be getting down on my knees and praying for you, Barbaro, and the folks at Liberal OC to continue attacking her left and right because all it does is attract more attention to her campaign.
Do you want to know how I learned about Ms. Iglesias campaign? I didn’t know anything about her until I got an email message containing a link to an article posted on Liberal OC making all kinds of slanderous claims about her.
Until I learned a bit more about her political views, I seriously thought about voting for her partly because I felt that if the local Democrats are that upset with her being in the race, then I’ll vote for her out of spite to piss them off.
In fact, if Barbaro and his motley crew of losers can’t prove that she’s Van Tran’s proxy by election day, I bet even more people will cast ballots for Ms. Iglesias in retaliation against them for trying to smear her.
Like I said to you earlier, voter behavior is more complex and problematic than you think.
Meanwhile something real similar is happening in the Allan Mansoor – Phu Nguyen race: The Republican, Vietnamese candidate who lost to Allan in the primary – I will not mention his name but you could look it up – is launching a write-in campaign, to take Viet votes away from Phu. He’s got huge signs up now all over Little Saigon, bigger than he had when he was actually running last June. (Probably has bigger money behind him now.)
He told me that he hates Mansoor, mostly because of the Fairgrounds Swindle, and that his plan is to try to give Viet Republicans who would never vote for a Democrat someone to vote for. But this guy tells far different stories to different people. The fact is he’s been all over Little Saigon lately telling all Viets that Phu is a Commie! (The age-old Trannie insult.) He’s obviously just there to take Viet votes from Phu.
You seem to know a lot about election law. Is this illegal?
Vern Nelson wrote:
[Extra text deleted]
> He told me that he hates Mansoor, mostly because of
> the Fairgrounds Swindle, and that his plan is to try to
> give Viet Republicans who would never vote for a Democrat
> someone to vote for. But this guy tells far different stories
> to different people. The fact is he’s been all over Little
> Saigon lately telling all Viets that Phu is a Commie! (The
> age-old Trannie insult.) He’s obviously just there to take
> Viet votes from Phu.
>
>You seem to know a lot about election law. Is this illegal?
Not that I recall.
I believe it is illegal only if the candidate in question is being offered money or some other kind of financial incentive to enter a race with the intent of splitting the vote.
It has been quite awhile since I actually looked at the state and federal laws that touch upon issues like this. You might want to get second opinion just to be sure.
Vern, some additional things …
There are various state and federal statutes, both criminal and civil, which deal with persons who engage in a conspiracy to commit fraud with the intent of depriving voters of an “honest election.”
Because a candidate happens to tell you they entered the race with the purpose of splitting the vote doesn’t mean he/she committed wrongdoing. In fact, it isn’t a crime at all as I recall it.
I believe it is only a crime when persons conspire with each other to run a candidate and fraudulently misrepresent he/she with the intent of misleading voters and thus deprive them of an “honest election.”
And I believe it becomes more far more serious offense when money or financial incentives are exchanged with the purpose or intent of inducing candidates to enter or leave a race.
The truth is, of course, that all elections are fraudulent to some degree: Candidates lie and misrepresent themselves to voters; “horse trading” goes on to keep candidates out of races, etc.
Most don’t get caught because conspiracy isn’t easy to prove unless one of the participants gets disgruntled and spills the beans or someone was sloppy and left a paper trail.
“In 1997, Congresswoman Sanchez worked very closely with Bob Zemel ”
Do you mean the same Bob Zemel that used to pack heat when he attended city council and water board meetings? More people have have seen this nut jobs pistol than have gotten peek-a-boo views of what God gave Lorretta at Vietnamese New Year parades! If she was hanging with the Zemelmeister then her campaign cannot complain about a photo with Queen Meg. P.S. That’s quite a pose Can Do Lou is striking with Celia. Reminds me of the photo of Ed Royce with the White House party crasher gal.
All is fair.
Remember Sanchez changed her name and party to run against B-1 bob.
“Remember Sanchez changed her name”
I was sorry to see her marriage end. She and her husband seemed so in love. What has happened to him since? I do hope she has a back up plan to her job in Congress. She has given up her marriage, child bearing years, and more to serve the people of her district.
Give me a break Nacho Libre. Sanchez made a choice to not have children. She didn’t sacrifice her marriage; she didn’t care enough to make it work. Just ask Congressman Joe Baca. Serve the people of her district? Are you joking? She abandoned her district.
Vote for Cecilia Iglesisas!
“I was sorry to see her marriage end. She and her husband seemed so in love. What has happened to him since?”
Appearances can be deceiving, Nacho. Loretta left her husband for another man (before her divorce). Guess they weren’t so happy, after all. Her ex remarried years ago. Loretta is living with a long-time partner and is reportedly planning to marry him. Somebody should ask her about her plans–not as an attack, but just to dispel the rumors and gossip.
HEAR HEAR!
I really doubt that there is such a conspirancy to split the votes; in fact I am positive!! Cecilia has a great background and service to the community. It was her testimony that got her the signatures. I have done my own research and it appears that the last time an Independent Candidate got placed as a candidate was in 1892;
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/08/26/three-independent-u-s-house-candidates-qualify-in-california-this-year-the-most-ever/#comments
Once I found out about Cecilia, I have been following her posts. I believe it was amazing that she was able to collect over 11,000 signatures; in fact it is a phenomena from GOD!
I am glad we have a third candidate and I will be voting for Cecilia. Loretta simply took us voters for granted. Cecilia has been a public servant for 20 years; now that my friend is how it is done!! Give and you shall recieve double fold! We are trusting that the community will respond and chooce the right candidate and this will be Cecilia Iglesias.
In 2008, Cindy Sheehan collected 10,198 signatures to run as an Independent Candidate against Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
… and I sent Cindy money! 🙂 STILL pissed off about Nancy taking impeachment of Bush/Cheney “off the table.”
Quick correction:
In the above article, I mentioned that Bob Dornan “refused to have anything to do” with the Anaheim City Jail/INS “pilot program” that Councilmen Tait and Zemel were lobbying for.
i just remembered that Dornan did play a role in helping secure funding for this project, but it was minor due to the fact he was busy flying around the country running for president.
Other local Republican Congressman actually did more work on this issue than Dornan did even though the Anaheim City Jail was within the boundaries of his district.
I apologize for this error.