O.C. Political Chismes


A pajarito at Santa Ana’s City Hall told me that Councilman Carlos Bustamante took fellow Pulido puppet David Benavides with him to Washington, D.C. to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with President George W. Bush (see if you can find our boys in the picture on the left).

I wonder if Bustamante had to give Benavides some pointers on how to sound like a Republican? For example:

“We have to stay in Iraq – no matter what it costs!”
“First partial birth abortion, next the whole enchilada!”

“Jesus is mad at the Democrats!”
“I love Dick Cheney and Karl Rove!”

Seriously, this is a weird move for Benavides, who recently attended a California Democratic Party convention in San Diego. I guess he likes to travel. But, what is he thinking? Bush is very unpopular in Santa Ana (but he likes our ladies – see the picture on the right). So is Bustamante for that matter. Why would Benavides want anything to do with either of these clowns?

My guess is that Benavides (see picture on left) has no friends on the council – and both he and Bustamante will likely be one term council members. Benavides is a useful puppet for Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, but no one takes him seriously. So, road trip for the B boys – but this will likely backfire for both of them. I cannot imagine the O.C. GOP machine will be thrilled to know that Bustamante took a Democrat with him instead of a Reep.

O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen is already in hot water. The Times revealed that she messed up by soliciting “secret donations above the campaign contribution limit in an effort to quickly pay down her legal debts.” Not good! Who the heck is advising her?

Here is what Nguyen had to say about the donations, “Nguyen admitted that she sought the contributions but said she did so on the advice of her lawyers, under the belief that it was legal because politicians at the local, state and federal level are allowed to maintain legal defense funds. She said she had selected the people to whom the requests were sent based on personal contacts.”

I suppose it is an honest screw-up, but she needs to get better lawyers – or at least find someone to advise her on our local fundraising limits. Here’s the weird part, “Nguyen’s chief of staff, campaign consultant, campaign treasurer and pollster all said they had no knowledge of a legal defense fund or denied it existed.”

Time for Nguyen to call Shirley Grindle (pictured on left)! If anyone knows how to navigate the maze that is O.C.’s Tin Cup law it has to be Grindle – she wrote it.

UPDATE:

A friend called tonight with an interesting question – how did Janet’s opponent, Trung Nguyen, pay off his campaign and legal fees? Good pregunta. Apparently he has yet to explain where he found the money to pay off the expensive lawyers who helped him lose his court case…

Santa Ana’s City administrators want a raise, according to the O.C. Register. “The group of 12 senior officials


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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.