Chismes of the First District Supervisor Race

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The pajarito, or “little bird” – source of all rumors, or “chismes.”

Hark! how the brisk January days are enlivened by exaltation of birdsong.  And what chismes are these pajaritos warbling this month?  They sing of the Tuesday January 27 race to take dirty Janet Nguyen’s place on the Board of Supervisors – only twelve days away now! – and they chatter, they chirp, and they ululate.

This district, redrawn in 2011 by three of the Supes including Janet to make it more Republican AND Vietnamese – an arguably legitimate use of the “communities of interest” criterion of redistricting – consists largely of Garden Grove, Westminster, north (Viet) Fountain Valley, and Santa Ana – high-propensity Republican-Viet and low-propensity Democrat-Latino areas.  Unless something has changed in the drinking water lately.

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There are three candidates with, arguably, half a chance:

Andrew Do, Lou Correa, Chris Phan

But you knew all this. What are the pajaritos saying?

Well, for one thing they’re telling me there’s mucho discord and resentment in the Grand Garden Grove Court of Bao, as the brand-spanking-new charismatic Mayor has decided to throw his weight behind fellow Democrat Correa instead of his erstwhile friend Phan who helped him win so many Republican votes to barely eke out a 15-vote victory against Bruce Broadwater.  This seems especially unfair given that, as far as I know, Correa lifted not a finger to help Bao, and reportedly preferred Republican Developer Steve Jones for GG Mayor.  In fact what Democrat loyalty there is to Correa has long been unreciprocated as the wily politico goes to bat for the likes of Kris Murray, Gail Eastman and Tony Rackauckas.

What could Bao be thinking, is he just being a partisan Democrat?  Or is he thinking what I’m thinking, that Phan doesn’t really have a chance and Lou is the only candidate capable of beating Janet Nguyen puppet Do, and putting an end to her era of misrule at the County, an end to that boundlessly corrupt and unpunished reign of Cronyism?

Because pajaritos also opine that Phan, while hands down the most likable, honest and trustworthy guy running, isn’t really qualified to be Supervisor, doesn’t really have enough experience in government after only two years as a GG councilman.  “Not his time yet,” as Republicans like to drone.

Furthermore, pajaritos indicate that Lou was an early, strong supporter of Phan and feels betrayed by the Navy officer’s challenge to him, and his calling Lou a quitter.

As far as THAT goes, I don’t know if someone’s pointed it out yet, but ALL THREE GENTLEMEN ARE QUITTERS.  To wit:

  • Lou famously quit in the middle of his last Supervisor term to jump into the state Senate, ironically paving the way for Janet’s inexorable rise to power; and he’s a good bet to quit again when a higher office opens up (e.g. AG).
  • Phan hasn’t been around long enough to quit yet, but he’s obviously HOPING to quit his Garden Grove Council seat (where Bao could really use him to help clean that cesspool up) for the 5th Floor.
  • And, lest you’ve forgotten, Andrew Do quit HIS Garden Grove council seat in 2010 for no better reason than boredom and frustration.  (Which I wrote about here:  “D’oh – There Goes Do!“)  It’s like Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Quittin’ Palins.

Then there’s the fun game of “Who’s taking votes from whom?” which can be expanded into conspiracy theories.  You know like in the old bon mot, “Republicans worried that Tait and Kring would split the Republican vote and give the Anaheim Mayorship to Galloway;  reformers worried that Tait and Galloway would split the reformer vote and give it to Kring;  but as it turned out Galloway and Kring split the Stupid People vote and Tait won hands down.”

Well, it’s pretty obvious by now that this was destined to be a Correa-Do race, and Correa should ignore Phan’s impertinence and criticism and just be glad he’s in there taking Viet and Republican votes from Do.

And Janet fucking knows it.  The Voice of OC reported today that two of her Jannie operatives were fired from the Westminster Social Service Agency service center for doing Do campaign work while on county-paid time – the first time there have been ANY consequences for this common Jannie behavior.  In response Janet RUSHED home from Sacramento, got herself on Viet radio, and caterwauled falsely that this Little Saigon service center was going to be closed next, and that it was the very end of the era of Viet-American representation if her people didn’t unite behind Do!  (These crooked Little Saigon pols always think that nobody will hear or challenge what they say on Viet radio – thank God we now have tough little Thy Vo at the Voice.)

Janet and her little clique of Jannies have been doing this sort of thing for so long, they really think there’s nothing wrong with it.  We’ve just kicked two of them upstairs to Sacramento (Senator Nguyen and Assemblyman Harper) but maybe now we can eradicate the disease at its roots, here in Orange County.  The biggest reason I’d like people to vote for Correa.

There’s been plenty of writing on this blog about how no good Democrat can really be enthusiastic about Lou Correa, and all of it is true.  But beyond lesser-evilism, there’s this:  Lou really is best qualified, as a Democrat with 8 years experience and connections in Sacramento, to bring back the taxpayer money this DONOR COUNTY shovels northward. We could literally DO worse than Lou.

Oh, and you Vietnamese Republicans:  Don’t forget the straight-shooting War Hero Chris Phan!  (Hat-tip commenter Donny C.)


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.