Automatically Ada: Hurt by Lou’s support, Krom drops out of DPOC chair race!

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Victorious Ada on left, withdrawing Beth on right. Overlooking them, the unpopular Lou Correa, who hurts those he means to help.

Well… THIS is funny.  And good news, too!

Do you remember how we at the Orange Juice Blog were rooting for union firebrand Ada Briceño in the Jan 14 race to lead the DPOC (Democratic Party of OC?) And how we bit our tongue rather than say anything too harsh about her opponent Beth Krom?  The good news is Beth has dropped out of the race, leaving it automatically to Ada, and you read it here first!  (Unless you saw a couple of Facebook posts.)  The Party should now be assured of going in a strong progressive direction, and this is one less thing for progressive Democrats to worry about this month.

And WHY did Beth drop out?  Well, pretty simple, according to both her friends and critics, she realized she didn’t have the votes.

But WHY didn’t Beth have the votes?  I’d had the impression the race would be very close.  After all, I’d heard Beth was nailing down the votes of all the elected officials – Congress, assembly, state senate, including all our famous NEW Congresscritters – all at the urging of passionately anti-Ada Congressman Lou Correa!  (Leaving Ada with only the activist grass-roots of the Party.)

“People don’t always notice when I exit stage right!”

Well… turns out that was precisely the problem.  I actually heard from two former supporters of Beth that “Once I heard that Lou Correa was all in for Beth, I changed my mind and backed Ada.”

Bitter at being chastised by the DPOC and this blog for his (and Tom Daly’s) stubborn backing of the worst OC Republicans (Rackauckas, Barnes, Mitch Caldwell) – as well as many, many bad votes – Lou Correa rather than expressing contrition went on an anti-progressive lobbying rampage, telling all the new and impressionable electeds (Rouda, Cisneros, Porter, Levin) that “If Ada’s in charge the progressives will be up your ass all the time making you do what they want, but Beth will have your back.”  [As paraphrased to this writer.]

Did this backfire?  Well, apparently, yes.  One by one, these electeds decided to either abstain or back Ada.  After all, whatever “progressive” is supposed to mean, these politicians know that most of them were elected by folks who believed they were that, not the opposite.

Well, what about Loretta Sanchez, running for OC Supervisor in a couple months, and having agreed to endorse Beth when Beth got out of THAT race?  Well (and I didn’t hear this from Loretta whom I never bothered about the issue) it sure looks like Lo kept her end of the bargain with Beth by writing up a nice little endorsement (dutifully printed by both the Liberal OC and the Anaheim Blog) and then did nothing else that could conceivably hurt Ada’s chances.

Losers today:  Lou Correa, Larry Agran, and DPOC power broker Melahat Raifei.  Winner:  Democratic unity.  Now we have to unify for the Supervisorial race.  I speak perhaps prematurely as I have invited both Democrat Supervisor candidates, Loretta and Andy Thorburn, to our next Anaheim Democratic Club meeting Jan. 5.  But really Andy has to start thinking about that Assembly District 68 in which he lives, which is ripe for a good Democrat’s plucking in 2020!

UPDATE Saturday night – Andy has just dropped out.  Did you read this, Andy?  Thank you!  

Vern out.


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.