Our own Greg Diamond takes on RINO Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff!

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Diamond and Huff. As Joan Baez and Judas Priest sang, "We both know what mem'ries can bring, they bring Diamond and Huff." That's how it sounded at least. Anyway, which one of these two would you trust?

You probably already know that the Orange Juice’s own fabled hell-raising liberal/Occupy blogger, Greg Diamond, is running for state Senate up in the north-OC District 29, which includes the hotbed of Fullerton, Brea, Yorba Linda, Placentia, and most of Anaheim! (more too, see here)

Well, being the very picture of probity, the voluble and prolific blogger will not write here about his own run, loath to resemble one of those candidates who abuses his fiefdom to tirelessly toot his own horn.   But, hey, I can write what I damn well please, and I say it’s Orange County news, when one of our sitting state Senators, the very Minority Leader, draws such a compelling challenger.

That would be Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff.  If you have heard of him, you are probably thinking “rectal valium,” in regards to his hallmark bill of last fall, allowing school workers to administer that drug to epileptic children, as part of a larger project of making school nurses unnecessary.

But more to the point, Diamond Bar’s Huff, after years of being a typical backslapping Sacramento insider, recently ascended to the level of Senate Minority Leader, and for years has been packing local city councils – particularly that of La Habra – with his aides and acolytes, in much the same way that the regrettable Congressman Ed Royce has been foisting useless politicians onto Fullerton for a decade or two.

And, the Sacramento Republican Senate’s faith in him notwithstanding, Huff can’t really be called a good conservative.  For many years the most conservative Republicans fought tooth and nail against the very corruptible and corrupted institution known as Redevelopment Agencies, until finally they were joined by our new fiscally conservative Governor Jerry Brown and the vast bulk of Sacramento Democrats following in his footsteps.  But one of the final holdouts, fighting hard to keep the RDA’s, was none other than state Senator Bob Huff, who was named “Legislator of the Year” by old-school liberal League of California Cities last year for being what THEY called (and he proudly echoed) the “Quarterback for Redevelopment.” And – gosh, I almost forgot about this – this is while Huff’s WIFE  was a well-paid consultant for one of the biggest redevelopers in the state! (Hat-tip to Steve Greenhut)

I’m going to make a point of regularly writing about Huff here, with the intention of convincing independents and Republicans of the district that my friend Greg Diamond will look out for your interests, and the public’s money, far better than Huff.

But, just look at those two guys up above. Roughly the same age, probably of comparable intelligence and competence.  But there’s Diamond, passionately in action, helping somebody out over the phone, as per damn near always.  And there’s the smirking, lazy-eyed Huff, making a face to his contributors that suggests, “You know I can line your pockets and mine.  Just let me keep doing it.”

An obvious elephant in the room is that Greg’s victory (as likely or unlikely as it may be) would usher in a 2/3 majority for Democrats in the Calfornia State Senate.  Is this a good or bad thing for Californians?  We can have that discussion here as well… but you know what I”M gonna say.

Here, let’s let Greg introduce himself for a bit here, from his new website:

I’m Greg Diamond. Welcome to my 29th State Senate District campaign website!

I’m with both the Democratic Party and the Occupy movement, My involvement with Occupy since October 2011 is what spurred me to run this year.  We have a rare chance to change our society for the better.  I’ve stepped up to do so — will you join me?

I’m running on a platform of:

  • Balancing the budget to pull California out of the muck of obstructionism
  • Health and Social Services reforms that leave more money in our pockets
  • Demanding transparency and fairness in government — not just serving the rich

I hope that you’ll enjoy poking around my website.  You’ll find a lot about me, about Occupy, about current political issues, about opportunities to help foster change.  I hope that I’ll give you reason to hope — and to organize, volunteer, call your neighbors, donate, and vote!  This is a chance to change how people think about their relationship to politics.  Help me amplify your voice in this campaign!

I continue my introduction at this link.


About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.