O.C. Political "Chismes"

For those of who do not speak Spanish, a “chisme” is essentially gossip. In this column, which I hope to make a regular OJ feature, we will have a look at what the pajaritos are saying about our local politicos.

Here’s a shocker – my sources are telling me that GOP Assemblyman Van Tran is trying to talk Democrat (and former state legislator) Joe Dunn into running against Supervisor Janet Nguyen in two years. Tran is apparently still quite bitter over Nguyen’s victory over his Trannie, Trung Nguyen. This sort of thing is not new for Tran – he has worked behind the scenes with other Democrats before, such as Bruce Broadwater and Mark Rosen.

Rosen by the way changed a prior vote and ended up backing Republican Steve Jones to replace Janet on the Garden Grove City Council. I wonder if Tran had anything to do with that? Jones is a developer – watch and see if he either has contributed to Tran and his cronies or will do so in the near future.

While we are on the subject of Trannies, Trung’s campaign manager, Saulo Londono, was apparently tabbed by the OC GOP to conduct voter registration in Central Orange County. They didn’t even bother to ask Janet how she felt about this. The sense was that Van Tran has been successful at this and so they went with the Trannies. I cannot see how this is going to work out. The Trannies will make this work for them and will not try to help the most prominent GOP elected official in the area, Janet Nguyen. (Yes, she is ostensibly in a non-partisan office, but you know that is true in name only).

Well, the Reeps could be in for a rude awakening. Voters in the First Supervisorial District are none too pleased with the GOP. President Bush has been just awful, and Democrat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has been running circles around his pathetic administration. Locally, there are only three elected Reeps in Santa Ana. Councilman Carlos Bustamante just got royally trounced in last year’s supervisorial election, and School Board members Rosie Avila and Rob Richardson might end up in jail once the corruption in the SAUSD is completely uncovered. What a joke! Good luck registering new Republicans…

Meanwhile, we all thought that community activist Lynette Verino was going to run for Claudia Alvarez’ Santa Ana City Council seat – but she has told me otherwise. That leaves businesswoman (and former City of Santa Ana employee) Irene Ibarra and possibly Housing & Redevelopment Commissioner Jennifer Villasenor in the race for Ward 5. My sources tell me that the local Republicans are looking for a candidate too. If they succeed in drafting one, he or she will figure to pull votes that Team Pulido will need. That could put Ibarra in the winner’s circle.

Ibarra will be someone to contend with. She has major political connections in the O.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento. She can raise money hand over fist and she will have dozens of precinct walkers. Best of all, she will not bend knee to Pulido, ever.

I am told that the O.C. Supervisors will be debating the use of medicinal marijuana today. My sources tell me that Supervisor Chris Norby is the only one who has been advancing this issue – and he has been at it for some time. The voters already spoke out about this.

Latinos tend to be more culturally sensitive to the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. My grandmother used to soak marijuana leaves in rubbing alcohol. The resulting bright blue solution was used to rub my grandfather’s arthritic knees and bad back. I have shared that story with many of my friends and found that their grandmothers did the same thing. The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes goes back centuries to the original denizens of the New World. Many of us who are of Mexican descent come from that tradition. I cannot prove it, but I bet a lot of Latino voters supported the ballot measure that established legal use of medicinal marijuana.

My guess is that Norby will go down flailing on this one. Apparently the other Supes are worried about the federal government, which under Bush has not been too kind to those who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. There is also a legal case in San Diego that has not concluded yet but could end up providing a legal precedent for O.C. to follow.

Lastly, last night at the OC GOP Central Committee, Kellee Lanza was sworn in as Tim Whitacre’s alternate, in the 69th Assembly District Caucus. Her husband Bryan has no love for Supervisor Janet Nguyen, and Whitacre worked for Bustamante last year. You would think that the 69th Assembly District Caucus would end up working WITH Nguyen, but it sure doesn’t look like it. Chalk this up to another win for the Trannies. Ultimately this will be another win for the local Democrats as Whitacre continues to lead his troops in what amounts to a circular firing squad. And yes, both Whitacre and his right hand man Oscar Garza, as well as James Vanderbilt and their fellow Pulido puppet Brett Franklin, were all missing in action at last night’s meeting. Figures. Pulido must have had them at his place, babysitting, washing his hybrid car, and perhaps mowing his lawn…

That’s all for this installment…keep those chismes coming!

UPDATE:

The Executive Director of the OC GOP, some guy named George, called Ryan and complained about this post. He asked Ryan to remove my reference to the OC GOP voter registration effort. No go! Ryan was NOT my source for that information. And no, it is not coming down. If the OC GOP wants to put a guy in charge of voter registration in central OC, who ran perhaps the most anti-Latino campaign I have ever seen (i.e. Trung Nguyen standing at the border to “stop” the Mexicans), that is his prerogative. But it is a dumb idea!