Orange Juice Blog’s 2014 Midterm Elections Live-Blog! SUMMARY WITH LESSONS.

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SUMMARY AND LESSONS

  • Democrats lost the Senate.  Good luck getting any decent Supreme Court justice in these next two years if one of these septuagenarians croaks.  Silver lining:  The Republicans will be so obnoxious that Democrats will keep the Presidency and take back the Senate handily in two years.  (Dr. D tells me we STILL can’t get back the lower House because GERRYMANDERING)
  • VERY HAPPY to see Prop 47 pass 58% to 42%… that is a BIG DEAL, a BIG drawback in the War on Drugs and the Prison-Industrial Complex.  It even passed here in the OC.  This is almost good enough news to drown out most of the bad news.
  • VERY DISAPPOINTED that the lies against Prop 45 worked.  I hope everyone who voted NO on that, who fell for the Insurance Companies’ lies, enjoy their RATE HIKES NEXT YEAR!
  • LIES THAT DIDN’T WORK:  $1 million worth of them against MAYOR TAIT and DISTRICT ELECTIONS IN ANAHEIM – both victorious!  The enigmatic if handsome James Vanderbilt takes Gail Eastman’s place on the dais – that should be interesting.  Tait will have ONE ALLY up there, as he did with Lorri two years ago.
  • Not happy to see Sharon Quirk-Silva’s “butt kicked” by the very unworthy Young Kim. I had assigned myself, if Sharon had won, to talk some steel into her spine on either marijuana issues or police reform issues. Well, I’m not even gonna try with the altogether malevolent Kim.
  • COSTA MESA WOW … It looked like Riggy was GONE but now… up by 21 votes over Humphrey?  That could change with mail-ins, and is likely to go to recount.  Katrina TROUNCED him, and his Mussoliniesque Measure O went down like a lead zeppelin, but he may just hang in there, with his loyal majority, by the skin of his teeth.
  • Santa Ana will now have a medical marijuana regulation regime; not the best of the two options but still incomparably better than the status-quo “ban.”  My friends preferred CC to BB, but this is great news for MMJ patients in and near Santa Ana, and folks who wanted to run law-abiding dispensaries and collectives.  And this is such a culturally conservative, anti-drug town, which elects the likes of Benavides and Reyna?  Let’s do this everywhere.
  • Most depressing of all was my town of HUNTINGTON BEACH.  My friends, the environmentalist/Democrat Team HB, came in near last, but their loudest foes, the conservative Republicans, didn’t come out on top – THAT was the developer/chamber/union/Poseidon-backed trio of DELGLEIZE, POSEY, and O’CONNELL.  The three I’ve been preaching against.  Think the Kris Murray majority taking over Surf City.  Conservative Peterson came in 4th, he’s an allright guy.  But it looks like 4 out of 7 pro-Poseidon now, so I hope that issue doesn’t come before this council.  We SHOULD have 4 out of 7 who will stand up against High-Density Development (the 4 who are not Delgleize, Posey or O’Connell.)  Bad news for mobile home owners, bad news for Bolsa Chica and other open spaces.
  • IRVINE has gone even MORE Republican and developer-slave, although Melissa came close.  (I hope to see Melissa and SQS come back on Hillary Year.)  Lalloway and Choi’s lies worked… they’re joined by far-right Lynn Schott who actually came in first.  Larry Agran has been retired, and Beth Krom is isolated.  Will they really keep their wink-and-nod promise to the Chinese Americans to stick the shiv in the Veterans Cemetery, or will those Chinese Americans end up feeling like fools?
  • BAO did surprisingly well against old entrenched corrupt Broadwater for GG Mayor.  He was ahead for a while there … ended up 43% to 41%.  When do we get the rematch, 2 or 4 years?
  • Lazy stupid STANTON voters reached for the names they recognize – the ones who try to raise their taxes every two years, usually successfully.  Too bad for tax-fighters Kevin Carr and Bryan Palomares.  Hey, let’s do THIS again in 2016, you two!
  • My water board candidates all failed.  I feel like Schindler at the end of the movie.  “I could have sold this, I could have sold that, I could have helped you more!”  Except I don’t have anything real good to sell, so never mind.
  • FOOLERTON Council remains exactly the same.  BOring.
  • Scum rose to the top in many places.  Too many to mention.

LESSONS (Old ones)

  • Big money still usually trumps all;  big lies backed by big money still mostly work.
  • Democrats still suck eggs during midterms
  • And yet, despite all this, as we see with Prop 47 and pot in Santa Ana, the slow march toward justice continues.

UPDATE 8:45 PM – things that really look irreversible even at the counting absentee ballot phase:

  • Proposition 47 winning – YAY!
  • Proposition 45 losing – BOO! Too many lies.
  • Proposition 1 winning – BOO.. Everyone was thirsty I guess.
  • MAYOR TAIT KICKING ASS in his re-election for Anaheim Mayor.
  • Measure L for district elections in Anaheim also way ahead!
  • Surprisingly, Bao ahead of Broadwater a little in Garden Grove!

What we’ll be keeping the closest eye on today, and letting you know as soon as we find things out:

NATIONAL – Will the Democrats keep the Senate?

STATE – Will Propositions 45 and 47 pass?  (We sure hope they do!)

ANAHEIM – Mayor, Council, and the historic Measure L?  (District elections)

SHARON QUIRK-SILVA vs YOUNG KIM?!?!?

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Will Team HB be able to continue their defense of Surf City’s beach and open spaces?  Or will developer-funded candidates take over?

COSTA MESA – Can the Riggy era be put behind us, by Katrina Foley, Jay Humphrey, and a defeat of Measure O?

IRVINE:  Will MELISSA FOX get on council, and what sort of council will she have to work with?

GARDEN GROVE – Can BAO Nguyen beat corrupt old commie-baiting nepotistic Broadwater?

FULLERTON – Will either reformist candidate, Paden or Rands, get on the council, or are we looking at 2 more years of mediocrity?  (Sorry guys I never got around to writing your story)

STANTON – Will Kevin Carr get on council?  Or will it keep being the same old thieves year after year?

OUR WATER CANDIDATES – will any of them make it onto the Boards – Wendy Leece, Robin Marcario, Leslie Daigle, Greg Diamond, Ron Varasteh?

WENDY GABRIELLA???

Will SANTA ANA have a new Marijuana Ordinance – BB or CC??

New entries to this post will be up at top – keep checking back for news!


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.