Has Mickadeit become a tool of the OC GOP machine?

OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit took Lynn Daucher to task in his column today for sending her campaign manager, Bryan Lanza, to last night’s OC GOP Central Committee meeting, where he asked the party to reconsider the proposed endorsement of Brea City Council candidate Steve Vargas. Mickadeit summarized the meeting well enough, but he missed a lot of the nuances of this story. Allow me to set the record straight.

Vargas is an old friend of mine. We worked together in the ill-fated OC chapter of the RNHA (Republican National Hispanic Assembly) back when I was the OC GOP Hispanic Outreach Director. Vargas took on the Brea establishment and eventually they ended up recruiting a police officer to run against him. Vargas was abandoned by most of the powerful Republicans in northern OC. He used to work for Todd Spitzer, but they parted in a bad way, and so Spitzer did not support the Vargas reelection effort.

Dick Ackerman and Lynn Daucher also did not support Vargas. In fact, Vargas alleged one night that Daucher’s husband took a swing at him at a Brea outdoor festival. There were no witnesses. After having met Mr. Daucher recently, I cannot imagine him taking a swing at anyone. He is very amiable and I enjoyed meeting him. Garcia actually introduced me to the Dauchers at his campaign kick-off.

Vargas lost. Now he is back, some years later, and now he has the conservative wing of the party behind him. However, he is now facing another Latino Republican, Ron Garcia, as they both vie for one of the three available seats on the Brea City Council.

Mickadeit faulted Daucher for trying to stop the Vargas endorsement – but the fact remains that Vargas doesn’t have anywhere near the local support in Brea that Garcia enjoys. Furthermore, the conservatives who are so enamored of Vargas now did not help him last time around. Will they contribute to his campaign this time?

Garcia has raised a lot of money, and he has a lot of community endorsements. I think he is going to win easily in November. I hope Vargas wins too. I would love to see more local elected Latino Republicans in office.

Lastly, I was shocked at how laudatory Mickadeit was towards Michael Schroeder, the Chairman of the OC GOP Endorsement Committee. Schroeder has cleaned up his act of late, and I was appreciative when he and the others on the committee endorsed the local Republican candidates in Santa Ana, however he made a mess of things during the Carona campaign.

Mickadeit wrote about Schroeder schooling the next generation of Republican politicians. I would rather that they learn how to better serve their constituents and their cities. If they support the party, that’s great, but that should not be their primary objective.

Also, Michadeit ripped Daucher for standing up for Garcia, even though ultimately Vargas won the GOP endorsement. Give me a break! The conservatives are not going to walk for Daucher. They never intended to. If she is going to win, she will have to do it on her own.

By the way, a blogger at Red County/OC Blog wondered why I am supporting Daucher now. Yes, I ripped her without mercy during the primary. I was managing the campaign of her conservative opponent, Lupe Moreno. However Moreno lost, and left the GOP thereafter. And I was elected to the OC GOP Central Committee. As such I have to play ball now. The primary is behind us and the general election is looming on the horizon. The GOP cannot aford to get mired in infighting. We have to focus on winning, going forward.

I heard tonight that Daucher’s Democratic opponent for the 34th Senate District has replaced his chief of staff. Can anyone verify that? I think that his internal polling is showing that Daucher is doing very well, and he is starting to panic. Now is the time for OC Republicans to back their candidate and do whatever it takes to defeat Correa.

About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.