Lou Correa finally had a good showing today as he made up half the difference with his Republican opponent, Lynn Daucher. Correa now has 50,072 votes while Daucher is still ahead with 50,433 votes. There are 6,200 ballots outstanding, and according to Red County/OC Blog, Daucher needs 47% of the remaining vote to tie, whereas Correa needs 53%. Ironically, those are the very margins they achieved today. There is no telling what will happen in this race.
Meanwhile, in Santa Ana, Sal Tinajero is now 542 votes over his competitor for Ward 6, Pulido puppet Jennifer Villasenor. Pulido himself remains under 70% of the vote, which I am told is driving him crazy. Michele Martinez remains in the lead for Ward 2. Also, all fo the Santa Ana charter reform amendments passed. Up next are ward-specific elections and mayoral term limits!
In the SAUSD school board race, John Palacio and Audrey Noji are the winners. Cecilia Aguinaga remains behind them – but she says she is going to run for Sal Tinajero’s seat.
In the Capo Unified school board race, all the conservative Republicans won. No surprise there.
In Orange a scandal has erupted as council winner Denis Bilodeau is in trouble for having stolen a competitor’s sign. One letter writer in today’s Register called on him to resign. Apparently charges have been drawn up by OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. If Bilodeau resigns, Carol Rudat will prevail, which is sure to drive a lot of GOP partisans to distraction.
One story that has not made any headlines is the fine job done by Westminster Councilman Kermit Marsh, a member of the OC GOP Central Committee. He was able to help a lot of local GOP candidates in his area to prevail in the election. But his friend on the Westminster School Board, Judy Ahrens, appears to have lost. Incidentally, only one of the Vietnamese school board candidates won, Andrew Nguyen.
Meanwhile in Garden Grove, Dina Nguyen widened her lead over Harry Krebs. She looks like a lock to prevail and gain a seat on their city council. Her consultant, Ken Maddox, will be intolerable now.
One of the overlooked shockers was OC GOP slate mail expert Jim Lacy losing in his council reelection bid – he is now off the Dana Point City Council despite raising and spending some six figures. Maybe his endorsement of OC Sheriff Mike Carona backfired?
In Costa Mesa the “Return to Reason” slate can now return to obscurity. It looks like Mansoor and Leece won easily.
Art, you just said a few days ago that Daucher was a lock for the 34th. What happened? Having doubts?
Poster 1,
It is getting close – but she is still ahead and Correa has a lot of ground to make up. This is a real nail-biter. I still think she will win, but let’s see what happens…
Because the city races did not go Miguel Pulido’s way, with his hand picked candidates likely losing two of the three seats, Miguel has called for an emergency meeting of the City Council tomorrow night to approve a new contract for the city’s fire fighters.
Jose Solorio is in Sacramento, but he will cast his vote in favor of the new contract via telephone.
Obviously Miguel is desperate to payback the fire fighters for supporting his puppets before the new council is seated.
This is underhanded and despicable.
Art,
Regarding Jim Lacy and his loss in Dana Point. You said, “Maybe his endorsement of OC Sheriff Mike Carona backfired”?
I’ll say that Lacy endorsed Bill Hunt from the beginning of his campaign and only switched to Carona when it was obvious that Hunt’s campaign was in trouble.
Lacy jumped ship when he knew he was on a sinking one.
Lacy switched also because it was obvious that Hunt had no money for political mailers – Lacy’s livelihood is on political mailers and he (Lacy) was in it for the money.
Lacy was heavily paid for political mail by the Firefighters in the Measure D race, which he was on the losing side of too.
Again, it was much more about money with Lacy that principle- though Lacy talks a good game.
Lacy will now have more time to drum up political business – his one and only motivation for issuing endorsements.
Nice try to stir the sh*t, Art
Art:
Dude, you need to get your facts straight:
1) Denis isn’t going to resign, and there is no need for him to do so.
1) Furthermore, until he is sworn in, there would be nothing for Denis to resign from.
2) And furthermore, even if Denis resigned, Carol Rudat doesn’t get elected. This isn’t the Miss America pageant. The City Council would either appoint someone to fill the seat, or hold a special election — which Rudat would again lose even if she ran again.
4)And Rudat “prevailing” wouldn’t “drive a lot of GOP partisans nuts” — can’t you just come out and say it instead of being coy? — it would drive a lot of people nuts who want their council members to be residents of the city.
One must wonder who is the loser? Rudat who can move back to Newport Beach or Bilodeau who is up on criminal charges?
Jubal-
Your reference to the Miss America pageant CRACKS ME UP!
With your permission, I hope to use that next time there’s an opening on a board/council and people insist upon appointing the next highest vote-getter.
Thanks for making me laugh in an otherwise stressful time.
While Denis Bilodeau may have committed a misdemeanor by rashly removing one of Rudat
Calling Frank Finn, Frank Finn…pick up your name tag at the bitter ex-cop table.