On Dec 8th, over at the OC Blog, Jubal posted a commentary regarding the question of OCGOP endorsement participation in the 1st BOS special election.
As the counting is now over, and the results will not change other than possibly the the city of Cypress, I thought it might be of interest and create discussion on the effectiveness of the OC GOP endorsements in city council races. You can find all of their endorsements on their web site.
Several years ago, prior to the OCGOP granting endorsements in these non-partisan city council races, I found that 90 percent of incumbents, running for reelection, were victorious.
In the just concluded election they issued endorsements to 63 candidates of which 42 were victorious. That’s a 2/3rds success rate, however I took it a step further.
The OCGOP endorsed 41 incumbents of which 32 won and 9 lost, or 22 percent.
Of the 22 non-incumbents to receive the endorsement 10 were victorious.
Although they may have been in races where incumbents left due to Term Limits or simply choosing not to run still represents a positive outcome.
I have expressed my concern with Central Committee members endorsing candidates in these non-partisan city elections when they simply do not know the local issues and challengers, some of whom may be better qualified than the incumbents (who are entitled to request early endorsements even before the challengers can file their candidacy papers).
And my two questions.
Do you feel that the OCGOP endorsement policy needs to be revised?
What grade would you give the OCGOP based on the results of their endorsements as provided above?
Frankly, the results are pretty bad. I’d be hard pressed to give them anything over a “D”. If the San Francisco Democratic Central COmmittee came thru with those results for Democrats there would be a recall of the members.
County Committees, of course, can do what they want but I’ve always felt that non-partisan elections are designed that way in California for a reason—because the issues that these seats concern themselves with normally don’t have partisan ideological overtones and the people of the State of California in their wisdom want to spare their councils, school boards and other districts from the partisan rancor that permeates Sacramento and D.C.
People usually see thru the phony hit pieces like the GOP did on Orange Councilwoman Tita Smith in 04 and the “damm the qualifications we’re supporting the Democrat(or Republican)no matter what.”
If I recall correctly, Republican Santa Ana Councilmember Carlos Bustamante chose to endorse Democrat’s Miguel Pulido and Fortino Rivera over the GOP endorsed folk.
To return the favor Democrat Mayor Pulido is Co-Chairing Councilmember Bustamante’s run at the 1st Supervisor seat.
Voters in the 1st should remind Councilmember Bustamante and Scott Baugh to do a better job supporting upcoming Real Republicans.Lest we end up with bunches like Carlos.
That “phony hit piece” almost cost Tita Smith the election.
Seems like the OCGOP endorsement is the kiss of death!
Larry,
How many incumbants were re-elected? What was that percentage? With a couple of upsets, I think overall, the incumbants won their races in spite of assorted pieces (partisan and non partisan) for/against them.
Capistrano Unified appears to be an exception – I think most of the incumbants chose not to run.
Santa Ana had 3 open council seats.
Pam Keller got on the Fullerton City Council in spite of three hit pieces (that I know of) against her.
Westminster School District – both incumbants lost in an upset. Score that one for the Schoolteachers.
I still do not have a problem with partisan endorsements in non partisan races. I think the voters DO have a problem with over the top partisan mailings.
Denmother.
32 of the 41 city council incumbents, ( or 78 percent), who received the OCGOP endorsement, were reelected.
The major OCGOP defeat was in the city of San Juan Capistrano where both of the incuments were defeated. The third member of that council chose not to run this term so they now have a majority of three new faces on that city council.
Although I have not done any analysis on water district and school board races I can report that the three candidates endorsed for the Capo Unified School District Board were all victorious knocking out three incumbents who were high profile with all of the debate on the new Taj Mahal administration building.
Those were three victories where I am happy with the outcome as I live in that district and cast my votes for each of the winners.
ASs
“Republican Santa Ana Councilmember Carlos Bustamante chose to endorse Democrat’s Miguel Pulido and Fortino Rivera over the GOP endorsed folk”
He also held fundraisers for Fortino, which was attended by Tim Whitacre, and now Carlos expects the GOP to endorse and support his run at the Sup seat?
I hope Chairman Baugh gives the same support to Carlos that Carlos gave to other candidates.
Mr Baugh, I urge you to avoid Carlos and the baggage he brings with him.
Someone needs to do a Public records request for the cell phone, e-mails, Blackberry records for would be BOS candidate Carlos Bustamonte for the County and his City of Santa Ana paid devices. I think the results would be eye opening for taxpapers and family members.
The following response to my two questions was received via email from a current city councilmember in a south Orange county city.
1. yes
2. Ok-but i’d bet the endorsement was not the reason most got elected or rejected…constituent outreach and positions on local issues matter much more.
I am in total agreement with both of these answers. Larry Gilbert
OCGOP had nothing to do with the CUSD victory. It was due to the hard work of the ABC slate and Kevin Murphy. OCGOP endorsment is only worth the money in “member communications” mail that can be laundred through it!
Anonymous 11:04 AM
Don’t be mistaken by my reference to the A,B,C team victory in the CUSD revolution. I only wish we could have removed all seven simultaneously. That’s the good news about Term Limits. We can control Term Limits at the ballot box when our Registrar does not keep the playing field level.