O.C. Libertarian Party fails to endorse a candidate

I’m sure that Carlos Bustamante and his “mano derecha” Tim Whitacre thought they had the O.C. Libertarian Party endorsement in the bag. However, questions were raised by those in attendance after they left – and the Libertarians quickly realized they were being played. Bustamante did not get their endorsement.

Of more interest are some of the words of wisdom that came out of Whitacre’s mouth during today’s meeting. He said that Bustamante is only two points behind Democrat candidate Tom Umberg. Bustamante then said that if he wins, the rest of the Santa Ana City Council is set to appoint Republican Rob Richardson to replace him. Really? I wonder about that. Pulido is already on the outs with the Democratic Party of O.C. for supporting Bustamante over Umberg. Appointing another Republican to replace him on the council will no doubt inflame the DPOC leaders even more.

Bustamante and Whitacre also took turns ripping Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is not the first time that Whitacre has ripped Schwarzenegger, but I was surprised to hear that Bustamante was doing so as well. I thought he had sent out mailers recently depicting him with Schwarzenegger. It figures that Whitacre would push Bustamante to the right – but exactly how does that help him in an overwhelmingly Democrat area like Santa Ana? An area that voted for Schwarzenegger in the recall election.

Inexplicably, none of the other supervisorial candidates were at the meeting today. Guess they had better things to do than stop Bustamante from getting an endorsement that could have put him over the top, if Whitacre’s boast about being just behind Umberg is in fact true. Given what we know about the votes cast thus far, I find it hard to believe. It makes more sense that Janet Nguyen would be the leader and Bustamante would be trailing far behind her and Umberg.

UPDATE: According to comments made on Red County/OC Blog, OC Libertarian Party chairman Bruce Cohen has announced his endorsement of Carlos Bustamante. My question, which still remains unanswered mind you, is how is Carlos even remotely Libertarian? Based on his less-than-stellar voting record on the Santa Ana City Council, how has he best represented Libertarian values to warrant — not only the Libertarian Party’s endorsement, which he failed to acquire, but also — the endorsement of any member of the Libertarian Party who sticks to their party’s respectable ideals? The $1,000,000 question is still left unanswered.

UPDATE 2: The first video is available online. We are trying to load the rest. The video quality is not great but you can clearly hear Bustamante impressing Bruce Cohen. Keep your eye on the breadstick on the table. Thomas had his video camera embedded in the salad.

UPDATE 3: The second video is now available online. The big clip is being edited now and should be available soon.


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