The Times O.C. is reporting that the O.C. GOP will help O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen to pay off her campaign debt. O.C. GOP Chairman Scott Baugh has been conciliatory to her from the start and he will be hosting a fundraiser for her at his law office in Irvine.
The Times article included an excellent quote from Baugh, “In a not-so-subtle jab at Trung Nguyen’s ongoing legal effort to overturn the election’s razor-thin result, Baugh said, “To me, there’s a winner, and it’s time to unite behind that winner.”
Bye-bye Trung! It looks like your party is moving on – and so should you.
The Times also reported that Nguyen has over $100,000 in campaign debt and O.C. fundraising limits allow her to collect, at most, $1,600 from each donor. Apparently supporting the event at Baugh’s office will include, “lobbyists and trade groups with regular business before the county, including representatives of builders, hospitals and doctors.”
Others surprising news from the Times: “The Orange County Lincoln Club, a top GOP group, is a co-chair of the event with Baugh. Honorary hosts include the four other supervisors, Sheriff Michael S. Carona, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and several of Orange County’s Republican legislators.”
It sounds like Carlos Bustamante’s backers have dumped him and signed on with Nguyen. I know that many of his Latino supporters are now helping her. A Latino advisory committee has been established to support her. I am disappointed however that the members of that committee will apparently be limited to Republicans only, according to a conversation I had with Nguyen a couple weeks ago.
I advised Nguyen from the day she was elected to not behave like a typical Republican. She won’t survive if she does. I hope she takes that to heart. She has only two years to make things happen before facing the voters again. Already the Democrats are talking about running former state legislator Joe Dunn for her seat – and others are talking about running Santa Ana Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez. In either case, both would have a great shot at unseating Nguyen.
Nguyen is now relying on a plethora of Bustamante supporters to tell her what is up with the Latinos in her district. Not good! These folks are pampered and wealthy, for the most part. They may be Latino but they have no clue about the people in the First District. Most of them don’t even live in the district.
Business as usual won’t cut it for Nguyen – and I have made sure that she knows that. If her out of touch supporters decide to take her down a red road, there is not much I can do about it. It would be a shame however to work so hard for victory only to have the seat snatched back by the Democrats in two years because folks couldn’t get out of the box, so to speak.
There is of course time. I hope to see Nguyen showing up at more community events, particularly in Santa Ana. Our school district is in disarray and just lost $2 million due to fraudulent class size reduction. Our city is in cahoots with developers and businessmen who are poisoning our environment – and our roads and parks are in disrepair. Libraries and and after school activities are in terribly short supply. Crime, particularly gang violence, is out of control. We need a Supervisor who will roll up her sleeves and use her bully pulpit to force changes that are otherwise too slow in coming.
I think Nguyen can be that Supervisor. I hope she works harder to reach out to independents and Democrats. The sand is already slipping through the hourglass…
So far, her votes on the Board appear to be down that red road. Recent example is the vote this past Tuesday (5-0)regarding the county parks system’s future. Given this rally around Janet news, one should not expect a moderate stance on key public policy issues, especially those that are important to the development industry. There is always hope, but at this point it is appearing slim. Remember old time Speaker of the Assembly Jess Unruh’s saying – “Money is the mothers’ milk of politics”.
Have Carlos Bustamonte or Kermit Marsh endorsed Janet? I don’t see their names on the invite to her fundraiser.
Janet sold out?
That is sad to hear.
So the “USUAL SUSPECTS” aka Orange County Business Special Interests have already bought Ms. Nguyen! Didn’t take them long, did it?:)
So Janet will only talk to Republican Latinos. So much for representing the district.
She will represent the business interests and lobbyists who will contribute to retire her campaign debt.
Why am I not suprised?
Uh Oh Art – whacha gonna do? Janet is not ‘listening’ to you! LMAO! I hate to break this to ya, but she is and was a RED already and I see her name on LOTS of red invitations circulating right now.
And based on your own philosophy in whom you are supporting for president, how can you support her now that she is also being helped by all the same candidates that are supporting/helping Guliani? Kinda hypocritical eh?
How has she sold out…. Its a fundriaser.
New O.C. supervisor wrongly got money
After her solicitation e-mail is revealed, Janet Nguyen says she misunderstood the procedure and is returning the money.
By Christian Berthelsen, Times Staff Writer
May 4, 2007
Newly elected Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen solicited secret donations above the campaign contribution limit in an effort to quickly pay down her legal debts, an apparent violation of campaign finance law, according to interviews and an e-mail obtained by The Times.
The solicitations came as Nguyen was seeking money to cover her legal costs defending a hair-thin victory in the Feb. 6 special supervisorial election. Among those approached were public employee unions and trade groups representing business interests that regularly come before the Board of Supervisors.
More at the link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-nguyen4may04,1,7387425.story?coll=la-editions-orange
No. 8. Sure sounds like the advisors she has chosen to put around her are at best inept. She needs a new team, and fast. A repeat of this kind of mistake could be fatal!
Rumor has it one of Janet’s Latino advisors sold her out and it’s a Carlos BuscaAmante supporter.
As to be expected…nothing but the sound of crickets from Art on the oops from the nguyen LAT article!
I’m starting a new blog.
valleytelegram.typepad.com
Give it some time.
http://www.valleytelegram.typepad.com
Flowerszzz,
I flew up to Oakland on Friday morning and just returned tonight. I have been managing safety at a jobsite involving medical biohazards. Needless to say, I have not kept up with O.C. news and have some catching up to do. Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt.
As for the Times article, it is disturbing. We all know the rules re fundraising. This is not rocket science. Clearly Janet has not been well-advised by her staff in this instance. I am sure that she will rectify this going forward.
You are so predictable. Re read the article, subsitute her name for someone you don’t like….lets just say Carona or even Trung for that matter and TRUTHFULLY tell us all that you would have the same rosey comments. Bad advice – BS she has been around long enough to know better.
Tin Cup says nothing about contribution limits for being sued as a person after the election. The law is very vague. Y don’t you guys download it off of OCBLOG there is a link there.
#16 – Tin cup is alot of things but it is not vague. It says nothing about a legal defense fund because there is no such thing as one for county positions. All of the other candidates/officeholders have been able to figure this out, and tincup has been around a very long time. Janet knows better, she worked for 2 board members, remember?
Oh and just as a point of clarification – #16 you say “contribution limits for being sued as a person after the election” …she was not sued – no one was
She was sued…. OCRegister even printed that. Ask her attorneys. She was served and sued as a person. Look at the briefs online on Total Buzz. There is also no seperate account. Checks were paid directly to Phil Greer how is that a seperate account.
She asked for a recount, then they all went to court…initiated by trung – to squabble over votes.
And the mere fact that she had the checks made directly to Greer proves she and they all knew the limit…and knew it was wrong.
LOL… People mailed checks to Greer to his trust account. Which is not a seperate account. Attorney client privelage. There is no account that is just for Janet. Assembly have limits and so does congress why can they have people pay their attorneys directly.
They can have the $ mailed to Greer BUT is still has to be reported and counted towards the limits….just as in the Assembly..not sure about congressional rules. Candidates report this as an in-kind contribution.
But firstly the asked the checks be mailed to her and secondly it was an obvious attempt to skirt the limits, probably under attorney client crap.
I’m sure they will be reported on the June Filing….