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It’s not even close. We’ve already established – although it bears repeating – that 65th Assembly District challenger Young Kim is a classic carpetbagger, popping up in Fullerton last year like a toadstool: The longtime La Habra resident and 20-year Ed Royce staffer had been considering moving to Diamond Bar to run for assembly there, but was instead convinced by Royce to come run against Sharon Quirk-Silva instead. Well, now we learn that her lease in Fullerton is only till the end of this November, when presumably if she doesn’t win (or maybe even if she does?) she’ll split back to her familiar turf. The PTA at Troy High School where she claims to be a “community leader” has yet to see her face. How’s all that for putting down roots in a community?
We’ve also noticed, a while back, that she is obsessed with race and certain that the ticket to her success is the fact that she’s Asian, Sharon is (sort of) hispanic, and Asians vote in a lot bigger numbers than hispanics. Now she’s been going around saying that the first bill she passes when she gets into the assembly will be regarding The Sea of Japan, which South Koreans thinks should be called “The East Sea.” No doubt this will be some saber-rattling resolution with no teeth – will this really excite the Korean-Americans of the district, and is it really the sort of thing our state legislators should be spending their time on? Please contrast with all the bills (some listed below) that the very productive Quirk-Silva has passed, which actually help the people and businesses of the district.
We’ve got a little problem with her ballot designation of “small business owner” as well (although Sharon’s folks couldn’t convince the court.) For twenty years she’s worked for Royce, as his “Director of Community Relations and Asian Affairs,” and that’s certainly how she makes her living – but apparently last year she re-started some consulting “business” she’d had back in the 90’s, “YK Connections,” and as she HAD received at least one check from that, she got to keep the designation.
Perhaps it’s unfair – Sacramento and Washington Republicans notoriously don’t believe that government can do anything right (beyond jailing and killing us) and when they get into office they work hard to prove that belief. And Young Kim fits that profile comfortably. She doesn’t believe in a minimum wage. She doesn’t think we should have legislation addressing the pay disparity between women and men, but instead tells MSNBC that if more women just owned “small businesses” like her, the problem would take care of itself.
Conversely, Sharon totally believes in the power of government to help the people and businesses in the area she serves. As of early this month she had eight worthy bills on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature. Readers of this blog are well aware of her fight – signed and so far successful – to get an Orange County Veterans’ Cemetery in Irvine’s “Great Park.” Some negative wags have suggested that Sharon “should try helping out LIVING veterans.” Well, maybe those wags should be quiet and learn something: Since becoming chair of the Veterans Committee, she has managed to get $3 million a year to help veterans with their continuing education.
Some of what she’s accomplished in the legislature is not in the form of legislation, but in her various advocacy up in Sacramento. For example, she prevailed against Governor Brown when he wanted to dole out Prop 30 funds unequally to different school districts, based on the ones he determined were more in need. Sharon insisted that since everyone was paying the temporary higher taxes, EVERY school district should benefit from them … and her argument carried the day!
Having gotten into the assembly soon after Redevelopment funds were yanked away from cities, she has proven adept at reprocessing funds so that the cities in her district got their investments back. Early on, the city of Buena Park approached her on behalf of their Wax Museum – it’s thanks to her work retrieving the city’s redevelopment investment that the Museum was able to bring us two spectacular shows recently – the Titanic exhibition and “Bodies in Motion.” (Ribbon cutting to the right.) Her help was similarly invaluable to Buena Park’s “Premiere Chevrolet” (ribbon cutting below.)
As Young Kim rings the tired alarm about an (exaggerated) exodus of businesses from California to Texas due to our supposedly onerous taxes and regulations, Sharon actually does something about it – with her just-signed-by-the-governor California Competes Tax Credit.
I had asked her a few months ago what she’d do in her second term that she didn’t feel able to do in her first; and she told me she’d think about that, but I forgot to follow up. She does know I’ve been critical and impatient with her cautiousness on the Drug War and police reform, and she’s now promised to meet with me and others on those issues soon after she wins re-election. (Paul Lucas? Jonathan Taylor? Up for it?) But she did want me to know about one bill she’s passed that was specifically inspired by her involvement in the Kelly Thomas murder – AB 1733 would establish a fee waiver for people experiencing homelessness that need to obtain a certified copy of their birth record from the Department of Public Health or a state identification card from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
I say, another term for Sharon Quirk-Silva! – and then we are going to expect and demand even bigger and braver things from her. Public opinion is progressing in the direction of loosening up the Drug War, legalizing pot, requiring police body cameras, civilian review boards … and votes along those lines shouldn’t be considered “dangerous” next year!
The governor signed the veterans cemetary bill today.
Getting to know Ken Jackson a bit this year through OCVMP has been a treat. He’s a real good guy.
“Having gotten into the assembly soon after Redevelopment funds were yanked away from cities, she has proven adept at reprocessing funds so that the cities in her district got their investments back. Early on, the city of Buena Park approached her on behalf of their Wax Museum – it’s thanks to her work retrieving the city’s redevelopment investment that the Museum was able to bring us two spectacular shows recently – the Titanic exhibition and “Bodies in Motion.” (Ribbon cutting to the right.)”
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
As a former member of the Buena Park Redevelopment Successor Agency Oversight Committee I can tell you that Quirk had virtually NO influence over what was recognized by the State Controller’s office as a Redevelopment obligation. The Legislature sissied out and permitted abusive agencies like Buena Park to pursue their existing Redevelopment Projects (without tax increment, Vern, and that means subsidized leases and free land – just like Anaheim’s Kleptocrats giveaway fer crissakes).
This means that Buena Park was permitted (dubiously) to embark on NEW obligations despite the original provisions in AB26 – like a lease for the old wax museum.
Sorry, this is actually another black mark for Quirk who is utterly clueless.
And please no more “Kim is worse” (possibly true). Another option is to vote for no one and support yet another Constitutional amendment letting candidates of ALL parties be on the ballot.
*So, which one is for banning plastic bags?
*OK…which one is overturning the Governor’s signature on the banning of Plastic bags?
THAT is the issue you care most about this year? Come on.
Anyway, as you may know, there’s a compromise path: allow plastic bags made from organic, biodegradable hemp rather than from petroleum products. Agreed?
*No Dr. D., we care dramatically about GMO Labeling for starters. We care about seeing that Doctors are now going to be outed on a Fed Data Base about what they get from Big Pharma on every prescription they want filled by their patients…..even the generics.
“But she did want me to know about one bill she’s passed that was specifically inspired by her involvement in the Kelly Thomas murder – AB 1733 would establish a fee waiver for people experiencing homelessness that need to obtain a certified copy of their birth record from the Department of Public Health or a state identification card from the Department of Motor Vehicles.”
I don’t get the connection with the Kelly Thomas murder. The cops knew damn well who he was; and since when does not having a government issued ID card put a citizen at risk of a lethal beat down? But, whatever. If that card bill is somehow connected to Kelly Thomas it represents the sum and substance of her “involvement” – other than to shut up council chamber protesters like a peevish school marm.
And speaking of FPD-related matters there was the scandal of Albert “Alby Al” Rincon, the FPDs back seat groper who was returned to duty after pat down training. She said she was outraged, and then she said was going to…well, we’re still waiting on that one.
I agree.
Identification and reduced fees would not have stopped Kelly Thomas from being beat to death in a public street.
Who will tackle POBAR reform to restore balance? That person has my vote. It’s that important.
Who are the police unions/associations donating to in this election? I haven’t looked it up, but it seems pretty relevant to this discussion.
She will be worth a damn when she votes to quit stalling on medical mj and when she says no to more prisons and yes to rolling back POBR.
In other words: “courage, conviction, compassion.”
Actually just replace my “ands” with “ors.”
The article mentions Silva as in Quirk-Silva as somewhat hispanic. She was married to Silva for a short period of time then kept the name to troll for votes. I have never seen more mailers, door hangers and other crap from any one candidate (all full color expensive poster board) as I have seen from Sharon Quirk-Silva. Who is funding her? Its a huge amount of money being spent. At night on certain stations her tv ads are prolific. I always say follow the money as the large donors want something in return.
It’s all coming from the State Demo Party, Tuco.
Just remember there are two kinds of politicians. Those who come through the door and those who come in through the window.
Not only do you know that it’s not nearly “all,” Anaheim David, but you know how to check out how much of it is coming from the CDP.
We should do a comparison of funding sources sometime between now and Election Day. Vern, where is our herd of interns? Locked in whose basement?
Alright. Let me rephrase that. Every piece of pro Quirk or anti Kim campaign literature I have received at my house was paid for by the State Democratic Party. Of course I check. Every. Single. Piece.
And every piece I have received about Kim and/or hitting Quirk has been paid for by the State GOP.
I don’t know where either one of them is spending their own money, but it ain’t in my mailbox.
She’s of half-Latino ancestry, Tuco.
Your understanding of her personal history is completely wrong. She’s currently married to teacher Jesus Silva; she was previously married to Shawn Quirk, a strong supporter of her campaign, long enough for them to have four kids.
She and Young Kim have about the same amount of money, last I checked, so that won’t help you decide between them. You can go to Cal-Access (the Secretary of State’s sute) for the latest info on who’s funding whom. Both sides are focusing on this race because of the likelihood that it will determine whether Democrats have 2/3 control of the State Assembly.
Shron may do more with direct voter contact than Young Kim will because she has to depend on higher turnout in order to win.
Tuco, I’m told by folks in your neck of the woods that they’re getting drowned in a record number of glossy mailers by both candidates – the SQS ones are from the Democrats and Democrat-allied groups, and the YK ones are from the Republicans and Republican-allied groups. And the existential urgency of this particular campaign stems from the Dems wanting to keep their legendary 2/3 supermajority and the Reeps wanting to cut it down by one … and them both seeming to think that all hinges on SQS v Kim. Two things: I understand that we’ll still have our supermajority in any case because of other races looking good. And I kind of agreed with Califoria’s head Democrat John Burton, speaking out of school as usual, who said Who cares if we Dems keep the 2/3 supermajority, we’re not really doing anything with it anyway.
I still want Sharon to beat Young Kim, and happily solicited and accepted a paid ad for her on this blog. But Zenger’s partial exegesis above on the aftermath of redevelopment made me realize that I don’t half understand what happened there, and I want to learn more soon. And I also had a real hard time disagreeing with what Zenger and Ryan wrote above about the “Kelly Thomas-inspired” homeless ID bill.
When SQS gets re-elected, I’m calling for a full-court press on her to become a LEADER in medical marijuana liberalization. If not, then … I’ll give up on her.
Have I mentioned how useless, dumb and mean Young Kim is?
Sometimes you have to take a look at the cons instead of the pros. That being said, Young Kim is a pathetic choice for Assembly on almost every level. I read all of the comments here and it really shows how misinformed many people are, specifically about SQS’s heritage. Calling her out that she’s “keeping the name to troll for Hispanic votes” is typical GOP baseless BS, much like the attempt for YK to make Fullerton her “base”.
If this same person making baseless claims looks at YK, that person would see who the real troll is. It wouldn’t surprise me to find YK at Fisler School every day, pushing her quasi-agenda. SQS has more integrity in her left pinky finger than YK has in her entire being.
This article if very opinionated. While some of the information is true, some are false and bent. Just to let all of you know, negative bashing without knowing the entire truth is very hurtful.
Sharon Quirk-Silva is using low blow tactics to sway Young Kim’s votes. If we want to change the government and make our nation better, we need to use positive and truthful statements.
Politicians should be tactful and respectful.
I voted for Young Kim because she doesn’t fight dirty.
LOL