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It looks like Fullerton’s Chris Norby has lost his Assembly seat and along with it his State paycheck, trailing Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva. This means Norby is out and his top aide, and Fullerton Councilman, Bruce Whitaker will be unemployed. Watch for Supervisor Shawn Nelson and perhaps other members of the County Board of Supervisors to again manipulate the county hiring process to find these gentlemen a nice paying public sector job – with retirement benefits of course. Or, there is the Southern California Edison Company, also skilled in slotting ex-politicos into six figure jobs.
So Norby’s Assembly seat moves from Republican to Democrat, giving the Dems a 2/3 majority in the State Assembly. Who would have thought Orange County would be the source of a Democratic coup like that?
Much of the blog and editorial page rantings throughout Orange County are about tax increases, public sector pay and unions as well as big government. Perhaps that explains why Orange County voters again swam upstream when compared to the state-wide vote, rejecting Governor Brown’s tax-increasing Proposition 30 and voting for the Lincoln Club’s union-dues-limiting Proposition 32. Tens of millions of dollars flowing into California from PAC’s backed by the famous Koch Brothers and Karl Rove apparently helped Orange County’s voters see it their way, but those millions proved ineffective on a state-wide basis.
Proposition 30 was approved by the voters of California, while Proposition 32 was soundly rejected. Already some Orange County Republican leaders are saying they will try again – for the fourth time – with a union-busting initiative of some kind. As long as there is a percentage to be gleaned from millions in PAC money, at least.
In Costa Mesa the proposed city charter was rejected. But, two of the council members that proposed and backed it were re-elected. It may take a while to see what that all means, but one thing is likely – things will not settle down in Costa Mesa for a while.
Nationally and in California, the Republican Party took a beating. With Democrats in charge of most everything in Sacramento and Washington D.C., the relevance and very survival of the Republican Party may be at stake. They need to find some candidates and positions on issues that resonate with the majority of voters, but for now they have been unable to do so, even while spending tens of millions of dollars on various candidates and issues to try and convince voters to see it their way.
Democrats, while savoring victory on many fronts in this election, must realize that by winning they now are charged to act on some very difficult issues, most all of them having to do with government budgets and finance that are in the red. In a be careful what you ask for assessment, they have asked for the victories they won last Tuesday and will now be accountable for what happens next.
A local exception to the tide of Democrat victory is the election results in the City of Irvine. Here the Council majority has changed from Democrat to Republican, including a Republican Mayor. Can a full audit of the Great Park expenditures, and the airing of spending of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, be far behind?
The future probably also brings a continuation of bloggers, Register editorial writers and John Coupal and Steven Greenhut wanna-be’s who will continue to make a living by writing pieces railing about taxes, liberals, unions and big government in hopes that someday a significant number of voters might really take their messages to heart. As long as whine sells, we can expect this messaging to continue.
Over … but not Out!
Gosh, that was deep. Not!
“Govern like you expect to be audited someday” is a good precept. My suspicion is that Agran has done so — and that the whispers about corruption will come up empty.
And then there’s Santa Ana….
It’s the reason most of us….don’t have real jobs…..Always hire: “The devil you know….rather than the devil you don’t know!”
Could be the reason so many brothers in law and cousins of folks have County jobs!
Today’s Voice of OC (http://www.voiceofoc.org/countywide/county_government/article_1344acc8-3268-11e2-a0eb-0019bb2963f4.html) reports that Chris Norby is jockeying for an appointment by the Board of Supervisors to the vacant Clerk-Recorder position, an elected position that is vacant due to the election of Tom Daly to the State Assembly. That article also quotes Supervisor Nelson as saying he would support Norby for that position if Norby publicly seeks it.
Remember, you read about this likelihood of our elected officials slotting each other for high paying county jobs here first.
The article also reports other possible politically-driven job placements for termed-out or defeated-at-the-polls local politicians, not to mention several City Councilmen who work for members of the Board of Supervisors who are also reported to also covet some of the currently open high-level county positions.
If you like the games of musical chairs often played by electeds in order to stay elected in some kind of high paying job, you’ll love what’s being talked about in this article. If you are disgusted by that musical chairs process, fasten your seat belt before reading it.
Noteworthy is that the article does not mention Norby’s Chief of Staff, Fullerton Councilman Bruce Whitaker, among those seeking job security in a new public sector job, but I’m betting he is in the mix of musical chair players. Many of these gentlemen could not earn as much in the private sector as they can in a high level political appointment type job in county government, in spite of their claims about being skilled and marketable. It appears cronyism in county government may be on path to achieving new heights.