Thanks to the hardworking and usually trustworthy Chris Nguyen of OC Political, we have our first take on OCGOP endorsements for Fullerton City Council — and it looks like good news for incumbent Democrat Doug Chaffee (and perhaps for Green Party candidate Jane Rands.)
Incumbent Greg Sebourn got the party’s tentative nod for one of the two seats. For the second, sentiment was split between Sean Paden and Larry Bennett. On a 3-3 vote, a motion for Paden failed — meaning that as things stand the OCGOP will endorse only Sebourn. While Sebourn himself will endorse Paden, his fellow Councilmember Jennifer Fitzgerald will support Larry Bennett — probably along with much of the corrupt local Republican establishment. That makes either less likely to prevail, leave the door open for Chaffee or for Rands, the only woman in the race. (While the two are close to on the opposite ends of what can be described as “the Left,” as the two non-Republicans both may get support on the same ballots.) A sixth candidate, Richard Alvarez, is considered by some to be a Chaffee ally; he did not seek the OCGOP endorsement, despite being a Republican.
While the Recommendation Committee endorsements can be undone on a 2/3 vote by the OCGOP Central Committee, the prospect of a fight between two Republicans in good standing on the Fullerton Council over their endorsees — even though I would expect Bruce Whitaker to endorse Paden as well — makes attaining that threshold likely. Seeing Jan Flory, the only Democrat on the Council, support Alvarez as well as Chaffee would not be surprising.
Incumbent Fullerton City Councilman Greg Sebourn got the OC GOP Endorsements Committee recommendation; Sean Paden (right) failed to knock out Larry Bennett (left) on a tie vote for the other seat. Winners: Mayor Doug Chaffee and perhaps Jane Rands.
So don’t be surprised to see both “Sebourn/Paden” and “Chafee/Alvarez” signs in Fullerton — along, perhaps with “Bennett/Royce/Kim” signs for those who want a return to the Council’s really bad old days. And the more things get divided up, the more the only woman on the ballot could have a legitimate shot.
Meanwhile, here in Beautiful Bounteous Brea, the OCGOP endorsed perennial candidate Steve Vargas and Cecilia Hupp for the three open seats. For those who really don’t want to see incumbent Republican Marty Simonoff take control of the Council, that narrows the choice to Mayor Brett Murdock, incumbent (elected) City Treasurer Glenn Parker, and Planning Commissioner Michael Kim or (if one doesn’t like ballot statements) Marc Harris. So the OCGOP has done us all a service. (And a goodbye to incumbents Ron Garcia and Roy Moore.)
The only other thing I’ll note is that Huntington Beach City Council Candidate Barbara Delgleize was the only one to seek the 4th slot of the OCGOP nomination — Erik Peterson, Lynn Semeta, and Mike Posey got the first three nods — but she didn’t get supported by the committee, as the result of a 3-3 vote. (It seems like something to do with her being pro-choice. Good going, OCGOP! What place could libertarians possible have in Huntington Beach?)
That’s a weak field and it just failed to get any stronger. The shadowy Atlas Group might as well give up on opposing Connie Boardman and Joe Shaw at this point; even their third wheel on the barrow Mark Bixby is starting to look like he might pull ahead. You can’t beat something with nothing, Atlasians. If they want, they can divert all their money to oppose me in my race for Water District against Brett Barbre; it’s OK, I can take it!
Alvarez is a creature of Dick Ackerman, putting him on a team with Fitzgerald and Bennett.
Not that there would be a whole lotta things they’d disagree with Chaffee on.
Greg
A quick correction: the Endorsement Committee did not split between endorsing me and endorsing Bennett. The split was between endorsing me and offering no endorsement at all.
Technically, based on my reading of Chris Nguyen’s liveblog, the 3-3 split came on a motion to support you. The three who opposed you could have favored “no endorsement” or they could have favored endorsing Bennett; their ultimate position is not clear from the vote itself. (From what I can tell, one can’t rule out that a motion to endorse Bennett would not have failed by the exact same 3-3 margin going the other way.)
As those of us embroiled in party politics know, a vote for “no endorsement” often comes from supporters of the candidate who more clearly can’t get a majority from the voters in the room. (If Bennett supporters didn’t know that before the vote on you, they certainly knew it afterwards.) In retrospect, I’d clarify that to say that they supported Bennett’s position on endorsing you while leaving their ultimate loyalties (if any) on the vote unstated. I do continue to believe that, having endorsed Sebourn moments earlier, any committee member voting not to endorse Sebourn’s declared choice of candidate was not being friendly towards your candidacy.
If it matters, I’d personally prefer you to Bennett; all the more so would I prefer a three-Padens majority to a three-Bennetts majority, as I don’t want Fullerton to return to the days of the three Aged Wheels of Cheese or whatever they were called.. (I’d prefer a three Florys — Flories? — majority to either.) The only problem is whether a three-libertarian majority on the City Council (if both you and Sebourn were elected) would take Fullerton down the same road as that traveled by Costa Mesa — and that’s a very, very big concern, which you’re welcome to address here sometime. (Maybe Jane Rands can come comment on that prospect as well.)
Fullerton is a tough call for voters who want substantially greater police accountability without the prospect of dramatic and relentless (and judging from Costa Mesa’s experience, costly) anti-union fiscal experimentation. I don’t think that anyone currently running other than Rands represents that position — do they?
What a perfect council it would be with Jane as a “swing vote.”
Yeah I don’t think so, and not through any fault of her own but because there are no blocs in the sense that GD imagines or pretends, and of the remaining candidates there’s not one among them that won’t fold, Sebourn style, at the first sign of anything consequential. This is Fullerton, there are only varying shades of establishment.
We are definitely not putting you in charge of the GOTV drive.
*We will take the Seahawks over the Packers…..by 3 tonight. Is Fullerton still a city? What ever happened to their Homeless Civic Center…..the one proposed by FJC?