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Loretta Sanchez, Age 4, speaking on behalf of Barry Goldwater as a delegate to the 1964 Republican Presidential Election: "Tweemism in defensa libty is no ice!" (Artist's conception.)
I don’t know whether or not this will be a regular feature, but you’ll notice — especially if you read Scott Moxley’s tongue-bathing in his “Navel Gazing” blog at OC Weekly — that Art Pedroza has created a new blog called “OC Politics,” where he will comment on politics in cities where he does not even live, and he would like everyone to click on it. That’s why he created a post with a poll for people to choose “Orange County’s Most Ridiculous Liberals” — hell, yes, I’ll link to him when I think that doing so is funny! — where I am currently in third place behind Prevatt and Dan C., so I’m asking people to go there and vote for me and only me. I want the honor that is the equivalent of being called a vicious liar by Newt Gingrich.
What prompts this post, though, is his reply to a comment from Publisher Vern, who noted the curious presence of Jose Solorio in the poll and the absence of Loretta Sanchez. Vern said: “Solorio ain’t a liberal. And Loretta is.” Art — now “Editor” rather than “Admin” — offered a response that contained this interesting observation:
“Sanchez really isn’t all that liberal. She was a Republican for over thirty years.”
According to Wikipedia, Loretta was born on January 7, 1960 — happy belated birthday, Congresswoman! — and switched to the Democratic Party to run for Congress in 1996.
Let’s do a little math: 1996-30=1966. 1966-1960=6.
Yes, in making this statement, Art is dating Loretta’s affiliation with the Republican Party as having begun no later than age 6, possibly at age 5 or even younger.
Moxley asserted that OC Politics would be “entertaining”; I agree, but I think that it would be better if it came with a laugh track.
As a bonus, if you go to Art’s new joint you will find a polls for who is the top woman in OC Politics. In that poll, Laguna Hills City Council Member Barbara Kogerman currently leads Loretta with 12 votes to 6, with two dozen other OC women trailing behind. Entertaining indeed! Look for more hard hitting stuff later, no doubt.
Art is also trying to “help” Michele Martinez win the 69th Assembly District seat. (“Help” is in quotes for a reason, but I guess that he is counting on the prospect that Michele, a reasonably sensible person, can’t really afford to disavow him no matter what he says.) It is in that spirit that he said this:
Perez could affect this race by handing the primary election to Tom Daly, a truly terrible Democrat who is as bad as most Republicans when it comes to immigrants and the working poor. If Perez takes enough Latino votes from leading candidate Michele Martinez, who is a Santa Ana Council Member, the vote split could put Daly on top.
[Note: the campaign fundraising totals are not yet in, but I for one will be surprised in Martinez is the “leading” candidate by any measure beyond Art’s wish-fulfillment.]
But then Art finishes with this:
Are you ready for a full on socialist to represent an Orange County Assembly District in Sacramento? That is what will happen if Perez prevails in the open primary.
On the one hand, this sort of red-baiting of standard liberals is no longer done in polite society. On the other hand, it’s nice to see that apparently Art believes that Perez will beat Daly if they win the top two slots. (I presume that Daly is not the supposed “socialist” he had in mind.) But my real problem with Art is, again, math. He does not seem to understand how the top-two primary works: to “put Daly on top” is not a problem so long as one of the Democrats one prefers finishes second and makes the runoff in November.
My own ranking of candidates is this: Perez, Martinez, Daly, Hammond (the sole Republican now running.) The reasonable concern would be that Hammond, simply on the basis of his party registration, might get enough of the vote (maybe 20-30%) so that he could edge the two Dems who don’t win. I agree that that’s a problem — and there is a solution — the very one that Van Tran tried against Loretta Sanchez in 2010 (and that people have been doing in other races for a long, long time): recruit someone to split the vote.
Tran wanted another Latina, Ceci Iglesias, to split the Latina vote. (She was widely understood to be a Republican, but she ran for Congress as an Independent.) So: someone should recruit another Republican to run in the 69th so that they split the 20-30% of the Republican vote and make it likely that neither would get more than 15%. Barring one candidate running away with the race, the second-place Democrat should get over 15%, making the seat pretty safe.
Art is the one with Republican contacts, so if he is really that worried about Perez spoiling the race for Daly, he should get on the phone and recruit a Republican candidate whose presence would almost assure that Art can vote for either Martinez or Perez against Daly in November, if Daly makes the runoff. I also wonder whether he will call on Michele to drop out of the race if Perez skunks her in fundraising when the figures come out. Should we take a poll?
Sorry Greg, can’t vote for you, I don’t want to encourage him. I just read that post and comments, it’s bitter and humorless. It seems Art has nothing to offer now, but bile.
I hope Arse Caught Moxley is finding it “entertaining.” I wonder how long that will last?
At least they both hate workers.
Please? I want to put this on my résumé! And I’m finally in the lead!
I voted for you, comrade. But I couldn’t resist also voting for myself, and my other Greg pal.
Allright, I did it, but don’t ask me to feel good about it.
Since I have fostered most of the votes for me, it will sort of take the piss out of Art’s little prank.
I would like to note, though, that according the the vintage Webster’s Dictionary of 1913 — http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=ridiculous&use1913=on — “ridiculous” has a secondary meaning as follows:
He thinks I’m ridiculous now? I’m only getting the ridicule warmed up!
What have we learned from the comments thread on Art’s story? It appears Art is ready to complete his circuitous journey, back into the arms of the Orange County Republican Party! R – L – D – L – R. It has a beautiful symmetry, and I’m sure they will be so glad to have him back!
We’ve learned he’s an enthusiastic backer of Righeimer’s autocratic and corrupt decimation of the city’s workforce and related power grabs, which of course takes the form of ridiculing all who criticize it. Republican.
He mocks any group that doesn’t automatically have an easy electoral majority. That’s Riggy critics in Costa Mesa, Brea police backers, Dems in OC, Amezcuites in his own town…. He makes fun of them for being a minority. Hence, he can’t possibly be serious about being in such a tiny group as the Libertarian party. He has got to be playing a cruel prank on them. Republican. Go back home.
His overall concern of late is bashing unions and liberals, and lowering the living standards of working stiffs. To Art, Solorio’s mortal sin was a bill he wrote to help working people. It doesn’t matter to Art that Solorio wrote a bill to build a dozen more prisons, wasting billions of California money and enabling the government to throw thousands more of us in jail. He is still too liberal. Art must want even more of that. Libertarian? No, Republican.
It doesn’t matter to Art that Solorio killed a good liberal bill making it harder for the big health insurance companies to arbitrarily raise people’s premiums exorbitantly – Solorio is still too liberal. Art must want even MORE power for the insurance companies. Republican? HARDCORE.
Also, remember that Art supported selling off our Fairgrounds to developers. Very much a Republican idea, or should I say, Republican scam. To throw away our birthright that our grandparents’ tax dollars paid for, for insider Republicans to profit off of. Yeah buddy!
Art’s only two gripes with the GOP has been that they trash gays and latinos. But he seems to be making peace with the trashing of gays lately, with his prudish bitching about the gay club in Santa Ana, and his gay-baiting of any politician he doesn’t like whom he suspects of being secretly gay. Well, there’s one little quibble with the OCGOP gone!
At this point, his only remaining problem with the GOP would be their disrespect for Latinos, and we know how all-important race is for Art. But that’s something you can’t do anything about from outside the system, you have to get INSIDE to fix it! The OC GOP needs you, Art, for Latino outreach! Maybe you can join forces with Laura Cunningham. REPUBLICAN. Maybe I should link to Red County instead.
Be honest — its about the lawsuit he lost. He’s angry, bitter and unemployed. About to lose his house because he can’t stop blogging on the job. He hates anyone he thinks makes more than he does that won’t pay him to blog like Jubal or Fleshman. Pedroza is a pathetic joke. Is it any wonder so many former OJ bloggers hate his guts.
She is married now, with not much campaign money to party with. Perfect time to walk into the sunset and enjoy life with her man.
We in the 46th enjoyed the best years of her life, now its time to let go, let her keep the balance for herself.
That would get in the way of her becoming Governor and then Vice-President. Take the long odds on the latter.
Loretta – “Governor or VP” you are hilarious Diamond.
The Peter Principle has played out for Ms. Sanchez.
Give me odds — and back them up. I’m not lining up to support her for Governor at any point, though I would against some challengers, but that’s not saying that she couldn’t win.
She would first (I hope she’s not reading this) have to find her big girl voice.
I am saying she couldn’t win. She is a lightweight – she has done nothing in congress. She is a couple of notches above a mental midget.
@skally — I would have expected that being the ranking member on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, issues before which I have heard her discuss intelligently, would put her at least five or six notches above a “mental midget” and probably more but maybe Republicans work by different rules.
Here’s the real response: what you say is too easily said to be given much weight, so accordingly I won’t.
@Vern — as if, had Jennifer Tilly ran for Governor back in the day, we would not have both voted for her!
There are enough ironies, contradictions and outright hypocrisies in Art’s writings to fill a sizable volume. But Greg’s observation that Art is now going to blog about politics in cities he doesn’t live in, after spending the last couple years bitching about bloggers who write about Santa Ana but don’t live there, is really priceless. Self-awareness has never been Art’s strong suit.
Look, if you were Art, how much would you cultivate self-awareness? I can’t blame him for that.
“The OC GOP needs you Art ..”
Are you that cruel to wish this on the GOP Mr. Webmaster Vern?
Art is right about one thing. He has one Democratic friend in Sean Mill. The same Sean Mill who backed Republican Hugh Nguyen, the same Sean Mill who attended Norby’s Assembly Victory Party, and the same Sean Mill who worships gay-hating Ted Moreno (a convicted felon). There’s a lot of Sean Mill to go around.
The one who, when an old Republican basketball-playing friend of his in Nevada, was running against Harry Reid, went out there to campaign for him? I remember that.
Sean has lots of baggage in Las Vegas.
Good for him it “stays there” then.