O.C. Political "Chismes"

The City of Santa Ana held its annual “Celebrate Santa Ana” event last night – and the turnout was not bad. I got there a bit late, about 7 p.m. I ran into several of the local politicos, including Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez, Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Alfredo Amezcua, former Santa Ana Councilman John Acosta, former Assembly candidate Armando De La Libertad and last but not least State Senator Lou Correa. I also saw Councilman Vince Sarmiento and his fellow Council Member David Benavides.

Chisme has it that a 13 year old was recently shot in front of Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides’ house. I am guessing he won’t be celebrating that. Any bets on when he moves to Irvine and rents a place in Ward 4?

Correa walked in late, with his cell phone pressed to his ear. A small crowd immediately surrounded him – just in time for me to say that I thought State Senate Leader Don Perata had locked him out of the event. He was not amused. I tried to make up for that by saying that I could now vote for him in the next election – alluding to the fact that I am no longer a Republican. His reply? “You didn’t vote for me last time?” Classic.

I also met three of Assemblyman Jose Solorio’s staffers. Very nice young ladies. One of them said she spoke to Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido in French earlier in the evening. Oh that Pulido – he is such a Francophile. I wonder how he feels about a conservative winning the French presidency? Sacrebleu!

One of the guys at Liberally Drinking told me later that night that he and his friends are thinking of dressing up like Solorio for Halloween. The mustache lives! Should be a scary sight indeed. But oh so friendly! Like Casper the Ghost…

I also met one of Correa’s staffers. I think his name was Jose Lucero, but he ran out of business cards, so I am not quite sure about that. He said he used to be a P.R. guy for Honda and he took a pay cut to work for Correa. Hey Lou – pay the guy a living wage! LOL It was refreshing to meet a guy who is working for a legislator but is not a political flak.

Santa Ana Fire Chief Phillip Garcia turned in his resignation, according to the O.C. Register. Here is the backstory you won’t read anywhere. He now will draw pensions from his former employer, Culver City, and from Santa Ana. He is retiring but will now head up a fire department in Sonoma, according to my sources. Once he retired from that department he will be ready to triple dip. Nice. Watch Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream spin this into “we need to pay our people more so they won’t leave.” Sure Dave.

Que Milagro! The Santa Ana teachers union settled with the Santa Ana Unified School District on a new contract, according to the O.C. Register. But my sources tell me that SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo recently told Dave Barton, the head of the teacher’s union, that she wants to cut the teacher’s pay to make up for the $2 million she bungled when the district engaged in fraudulent class size reduction. No se puede Russo! What a joke. Why doesn’t she try firing a few overpaid administrators and cutting her own pay instead?

I can’t read Vietnamese, but a source told me to check out this link. Allegedly it depicts a gaggle of folks who will be involved in the OC GOP voter registration effort. The picture that accompanies the article includes a bunch of Democrat local elected officials from the City of Rosemead. And is that Trung Nguyen in the back row? Weird.

A pajarito tells me that the City of Santa Ana’s public works flak, Jim Ross, wants to float a bond worth some $50 to $60 million to pay for the badly needed fixes to our streets. Nothing like moving the debt to a future generation Jimmy! If he had properly maintained our streets in the first place we would not be in this fix. It sounds like he needs to pull a Garcia and retire, pronto.

Last but not least – this story is too much fun to pass up. A bunch of surly Reeps in Utah recently held a convention where they ended up “debating Satan’s influence on illegal immigrants.” Now that is a new spin on the usual GOP hatred of Latinos. Here are some more excerpts from an article in the Daily Herald:

Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.

In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won’t do.”

Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said.

Well, there you go. Bad news for the Utah Reeps – we’re not leaving anytime soon! Maybe we ought to send a few of those Jose Solorio Halloween masks to Utah…


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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.