O.C. GOP to help Supervisor Janet Nguyen pay off her debt

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…

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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.