Maddox in bed with the Democrats yet again

Just when I thought that State Assemblyman Ken Maddox was going to go quietly into the night, he has emerged again with a massive chip on his shoulder. His opponent for the 35th State Senate District, State Assesmblyman John Campbell, recently distributed a campaign piece that accused Maddox of paying for his top staff advisor with money provided by the Assembly Democrats. I am not surprised by this. Maddox is very tight with Curt Pringle, the former state legislator and current Mayor of Anaheim. Pringle’s modus operandi is to hire or appoint Democrats to staff positions. In the past he has brought Mark Leyes in from L.A., where he was part of Democrat L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley’s staff, and Pringle also assigned former Democrat Brenda Quintana to former State Assemblyman Jim Morrissey’s staff. Of course Pringle recruited Morrissey too, but in that case he was at least working with a Republican.

Apparently Maddox has followed in Pringle’s footsteps by playing footsie with the Democrats. While the staff advisor in question is not a Democrat, she was paid by the Democrats, and that is just plain disgusting. In my opinion, the Democrats were effectively paying Maddox back for his voting record in the past couple of years. Maddox, a social conservative, has repeatedly supported horrible Democrat backed bills and he has been very much in bed with labor unions. Maddox is also notorious for backing the Orange County Project Labor Agreement, which barred non-union contractors from bidding on county public works through 2005. Maddox now says that Pringle told him to do it. Again, no surprise there.

In related news, the Orange County CRA units lost their minds last week and endorsed Maddox. What could they have been thinking? Maddox of course has trumped his anti-immigration stance throughout his campaign, which probably attracted some of that CRA support. Nevertheless, his voting record alone is good enough reason to support Campbell, not Maddox.

Schwarzenegger endorses Jones

I wondered back during the Davis recall campaign if Rosario Marin’s decision to not endorse Arnold Schwarzenegger would have any ramifications, and now it finally has. Governor Schwarzenegger has repaid former California Secretary of State and past gubernatorial candidate Bill Jones for his support during the recall campaign by endorsing Jones for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by ultra-liberal Barbara Boxer. Marin, who previously served on a tiny city council in the L.A. area, and who most recently signed currency for the Bush administraion as U.S. Treasurer, immediately ripped Schwarzenegger and accused him of not sharing her desire for an “all-inclusive party.” I don’t think so Rosario – in politics you very often reap what you sow. By not endorsing Schwarzenegger during his campaign, Marin lost any claim to his support in her own contest.

In related news, both Howard Kaloogian, a former state legislator, and Toni Casey, a former Mayor of Los Altos Hills (where the heck is that?), ripped immigrants this week and added their voices to those opposing the plan proposed by President George W. Bush to legalize the status of immigrant workers in the U.S. Kaloogian and Casey are both dark horse candiates for the Boxer Senate seat. Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of Jones most likely relegates both of these candidates to the sidelines as the media will now focus on Jones and to a lesser extent Marin.

Also, Orange County Republican activist Lois Godfrey announced her support for Jones this week and she also revealed that she will serve as the Jones campaign’s state volunteer chairperson. Godfrey lost a bitter contest for the California Republican Party Vice Chair position last year to Mario Rodriguez, a Latino businessman who cut his political teeth on the Bush campaign in 2000. Interestingly, the same political consultants who ran the Rodriguez campaign are now running the Marin campaign. You have to wonder if Godfrey is turning the tables on the Rodriguez camp by backing Jones.