Joe the Quack Doctor Chases Dr. Moreno, Waddles into Anaheim Council Race

Anaheim has posted its Mayoral and City Council roster — and sure enough, Joe “The Quack Doctor” Moreno has shifted races to follow Anaheim City School Board President and actual Ph.D. Dr. Jose F. Moreno from the School Board race into the City Council race, the better to sow confusion.  (If you can’t win straight, I guess, win crooked!)

Anaheim Mayor & Council Candidate List 2014 with Duck

Artist’s conception of the Quack Doctor, mildly staining the list of Anaheim municipal candidates.

Some of you informed readers have spoken to me on numerous occasions about Quack Doctor Joe’s chortling, in unguarded moments, about how he could use his sharing a name with his better known and far more qualified antagonist to ride into public office — which, for some reason, hasn’t happened yet — or at least impede the civic-minded Dr. Jose F. Moreno’s success.  I will be contacting you for interviews.

Fortune has smiled on the Actual Doctor, in that he has been designated with the number 1 next to his name for ballot purposes.  The Quack Doctor posing as Jose Moreno — note that he even dropped the nickname “Joe” that he has used in previous races and originally planned to use in the School Board race! — has been designated as #2.  No further comment on that.

Let’s look at the ballot statements while we’re here.  For Mayor, I know that there are special rules for using the word “Retired,” which I have not memorized, but I think that Dennis Fitzgerald complies with them here.  Lorri Galloway’s “Abused Children Executive” is iffy, as I’m not sure that this is an actual job title.  I’d have advised her to go with something more clearly legit, like “Children’s Nonprofit Executive.”  Lucille Kring will, if I recall the rules correctly, probably end up in court, because mixing your title as an elected official with other jobs is forbidden.  To see how it’s done correctly, see Tom Tait’s descrption, which cites his Mayoral position without mentioning his heading a corporation maybe 1000 times larger than whatever Kring claims to run.  (Maybe Council candidate Doug Pettibone can get some good press by working up the challenge.)

For Council, let’s start with the Republican frontrunners.  Gail Eastman falls into the same trap as Kring, while Kris Murray — the candidate that the Kleptocracy actually cares about — got the right advice.  Doug Pettibone goes with the perfectly solid “Anaheim Businessman/Attorney” — possibly especially attractive given the lawless Council majority — while James Vanderbilt takes home the gold with “Educator/Army Captain.”

For the reason mentioned above, Dr. Moreno might hit a bump and lose “Professor” off of his ballot statement –but even if that happens his current elected position is good enough as it is.  Quack Moreno is a “County Eligibility Technician” — which reminds me, does his employer think that he’s clear this time so far as the Hatch Act goes?  I seem to remember others at COSSA getting some flack over this — and of course Joe the Quacker was himself required to withdraw from the 2012 Assembly race against Tom Daly once his prime mission of knocking Julio Perez out of the runoff had been accomplished. Someone ought to ask them.

Of the remaining pair, Donna Acevedo is a “Property Manager.”  And Jerry O’Keefe goes minimalist with “Business Owner” — which can be one word under the rules, which would have allowed him to add a slash and two extra words, like “/Long Shot.”  (He should have gone with “Retired Anaheim Policeman” if the rules allowed it — which I will look up perhaps tomorrow, or at least sometime before voting begins.)

It actually looks like a pretty interesting field.  Let the games begin!


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)