Orange Juice!, 4 years later, Part 1

During the month of July we will be celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Orange Juice! blog, which I started back on July 10, 2003. Prior to that I used to publish an email newsletter by the same name. When I discovered the joys of blogging, the email newsletter went the way of the dinosaurs…

Back then I was still a Republican – but I was not a complete Kool Aid drinker. My first blog article lit into then-Assemblyman Ken Maddox, who backed the ill-fated Orange County PLA (Project Labor Agreement), a measure which banned non-union contractors from bidding on Orange County public works projects.

Maddox is now an afterthought in Orange County – he works for State Board of Equalization member Michelle Steel. He is her Director of Legislative Affairs, as noted in Total Buzz. What can I say? The GOP machine takes care of its own. Maybe Steel couldn’t find any Australians or Canadians to hire?

The Orange Juice! has changed quite a bit since I let Maddox have it back in 2003. I took some time off from the blog after June of 2004. On December 1, 2005, I returned – with a twist. I announced in that post that Claudio Gallegos would be joining me as my co-blogger. And I saw a glimpse of the future as I wrote this about myself, “I am swaying more towards the Libertarian philosophy.” Little did I know that I would one day end up leaving the Republican Party altogether!

Claudio wrote his first post on December 7, 2005, regarding “More bad news for Mike Carona.” Here is an excerpt from that post, “The duel corrupt cabal of Carona and Rackauckas have allowed child molesters to run free from the law, aiders and abetters of child molesters to run free from the law, teen rapists to run free from the law, all because they or their families are well connected with the Republican Party of Orange County.” Amen!

On December 9, 2005, Claudio wrote about the race for the 69th Assembly District – and an anonymous poster called it with this prescient comment, “Claudia is DOA. This is Jose Solorio’s race to lose.”

On March 1, 2006, Claudio called the O.C. GOP to task after “600 people were fraudulently registered Republican.” Claudio did a great job shaming the dirty Reeps into a panicked retreat, in a number of subsequent posts. He revealed in one such post that his own sister had her registration changed illegally by a GOP contractor.

On April 5, 2006, our blog team expanded again as Luis Rodriguez and Thomas Gordon signed on. Gordon has since moved on – but we hope he will come back soon. Rodriguez ironically just came back. They must be in tag team mode!

We also added to female bloggers that month – Bernadette Medrano and Gila Jones. Medrano quickly moved on, but Gila was a great contributor. She in fact handled the redesign of our blog. I still miss her a ton! But she landed at the Liberal OC Blog and has become one of their stalwart bloggers.

Thomas wrote a now-classic post back on May 17, 2006, entitled “Why Clauda Alvarez is a bad choice for the 69th Assembly – Part 1.” Here is an excerpt, “People have asked why so many in Santa Ana have a grudge match with Claudia Alvarez. Her problem is her bad attitude towards anyone who disagrees with her.” That is still true today!

Thomas also had this to say about Alvarez, “Her behavior will only get her into trouble and nothing will get done in the 69th AD during the next six years. We need an Assemblymember who can work with their fellow Legislators, and Claudia Alvarez is the worst person to do it. We don’t need a Veruca Salt representing us in the Assembly.” Burn!

On that note, stay tuned for the next installment of this retrospective, where we will find out what happened when Al Mijares resigned from the Santa Ana Unified School District…and Tim Whitacre takes a turn as a special guest villain!

Thank you to all of our readers for your ongoing support, and to our team of bloggers for all their hard work. This blog has come a long way since 2003. I look forward to many more years of blogging in the O.C.!