CA-45: To Hell With Min AND Porter

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A pox…

I wrote yesterday that I would not sign the petition to overturn the endorsement votes in CA-45 for Dave Min or in CA-48 for Hans Keirstead, but that I would consider voting to overturn the endorsement in either if the petition effort was successful. I don’t think that the anti-Keirstead petition was successful, based on the lack of lobbying activity outside of the General session. The anti-Min petition was successful, and I will support it.

I heard last night that, as the petition was circulating, Dave Min and his supporters spotted and surrounded the wife of candidate Brian Forde to keep her from asking delegates to sign petitions. (Ironic punchline — she wasn’t doing so.). I told this story to Kia Hamadanchy who was handing out the attached flyer outside the conference hall. (Irony: NOTHING in this flyer, although much of it doesn’t appeal to me, would have been enough to make me sign the petition on Saturday night, nor would it — on its own — have been enough to make me vote to reverse the vote of the CA-45 delegates.)

However, when I heard the story about Forde’s wife, Kia said “no, it wasn’t her — that happened to MY SISTER!” (He gestured towards Camilia, who was standing next to him.). She WAS petitioning — and was surrounded by Min supporters who DID block her access to delegates, one of whom, a Min campaign staffer, she says shoved her.

Well, I’ve always found Kia completely credible — he’s only wrong in saying that that Forde’s wife wasn’t attacked, as of course it could have been both — and that moment lost Min my vote.  These stories have plenty of company with other reports about Min that — absent a firsthand report — I have been reluctant to credit.

UCI Law Professors Dave Min and Katie Porter have both shown themselves to be TEMPERAMENTALLY unfit to represent the party in Congress. Dave Min’s actions — about which the endorsers could not have known, but which are in keeping with stories I’ve been hearing about him for months — are completely unacceptable and he does not deserve the advantages of a CDP endorsement, nor should party committee members who favor other candidates have their hands tied.

This is not a brief for Katie Porter, whom I will oppose on grounds other than this. She lost any chance of my support and that of many others when she viciously attacked DPOC Vice Chair Farrah Khan after the earlier pre-endorsement vote. She showed herself to be the temperamental OPPOSITE of her mentor, Senator Elizabeth Warren​​. That act was foolish, unjustified, disgusting, disgraceful, and frankly stupid.

I am fine with nominating Kia Hamadanchy or Brian Forde. They may have less money to spend than the Poisonous Professors, but they probably have a better chance to win because neither will have the campaign of vengeance wreaked against them.

This is not about ideology — contrary to some political attacks on me by local meatheads, I’m fine with supporting moderates in moderate districts if they’re a much better bet to win AND IF THEY ARE HONEST. The problem with CA-45 is that it has had a deeply conservative electorate — and to some extent we just have to accommodate to that.

But Min and Porter’s vicious feuding appears to have driven one another pretty much nuts. I understand the desire to clear the field, but it’s not going to happen here BECAUSE other candidates will are able to see that Min and Porter are destroying each other — and that’s a GOOD REASON for one or two of them to stay in the race. The likelihood of an R-on-R runoff was quite high if Greg Raths were to enter the race, but for whatever reason it doesn’t look like he will. So far as I’m concerned, if Min OR Porter are nominated, I will oppose the party putting even a cent of its own money into the race — I don’t even want us to put our limited number of door hangers there, with such pressing needs elsewhere — and Min and Porter need to sit out for a couple of years and take a long look at themselves and whether they can get along with each other.

For now, they should BOTH drop out of the race and let more suitable candidates compete. My vote to pull the endorsement to win is simply a step towards making such a happy — although obviously unlikely — outcome possible.

Katie Porter fans, don’t thank me for my vote. I will balance it out by shedding light on her, and I PROMISE that you won’t like it.

To hell with Min and Porter both. We’ll have to beat Mimi, if we can, another way.


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.)