My friends at the Liberal OC put up a post today about a campaign training session being put on by Steve Young. I guess Young is running against U.S. Rep. John Campbell again. Nothing against Young, but I don’t see how he will pull that off. But more power to him.
HOWEVER – with the denouement of O.C. Chriss Street, it is in fact high time for the O.C. Democrats to pull it together and go after the O.C. GOP Machine. The problem is that they are inexplicably focused on taking out O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen.
Never mind the First District! Here is what the O.C. Democrats could do RIGHT NOW to make the county a lot less red:
1. Given that Assemblyman Jose Solorio has a safe seat – his campaign money ought to be available for other uses. He, along with the equally safe U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez and the safe for now State Senator Lou Correa each ought to pony up $50,000 and start a fund to take out the Reeps.
2. Next they need to put together a campaign that will feature a website and targeted direct mail and start taking advantage of the trouble facing Republicans including OC Treasurer Chriss Street; OC Sheriff Mike Carona; Assemblyman Van Tran (remember his indicted wife?); and U.S. Rep. Gary Miller. Am I forgetting anyone? Oh right, AUHSD Trustee Harald Martin is a bad Reep too. And so is the abominable Diane Harkey.
3. Give the campaign a theme – something biting – and then start an aggressive voter registration campaign. People are mad right now at the U.S. Congress – but they are mad at both parties. They are also very upset with President George W. Bush. The OC Democrats ought to focus on highlighting their ethical electeds, such as Lou Correa, Tom Daly, Katrina Foley, etc., and contrast them with the awful Carona, Street, Tran, etc.
4. Forget going after Campbell. Go after local offices that are winnable. And the Democrats need to unite and take out their embarrassing electeds in Santa Ana. They need to go after Miguel Pulido, Vince Sarmiento, Clownia Alvarez, and David Benavides and replace them with progressives who will fight for the people – not for corporate interests. If the Democrats do not run prog candidates for Santa Ana’s Ward 1 and 3 next year I will be terribly disappointed in them. Thank God Irene Ibarra has already announced for Ward 5!
5. I know the Democrats won’t like this – but I don’t think they ought to run Joe Dunn for the First District. They are going to have to spend a bundle to take out Supervisor Janet Nguyen, but she is proving to be a moderate Republican. Why take her out? Even if Dunn wins, he will be one Democrat on a GOP board. Ask Lou Correa how much fun that was! Instead, county Democrats could spend that money going after Van Tran, and going after local offices.
The local elections next year will feature great turnouts thanks to the presidential elections. Orange County Democrats should take advantage of this and really stick it to the Reeps. While they are at it, they need to stop supporting the OC GOP machine blog, Red County/OC Blog. Why feed the red beast? They already have a progressive blog over at Liberal OC. And they can read up on other local news here at the Orange Juice. Democrats should not reward the machine Reeps with their readership.
You don’t win in politics by doing business as usual. The OC Democrats have a chance to make big gains – but they need to get aggressive and stick it to the OC Reeps while the iron is hot, so to speak. Otherwise they will continue to be the lesser party in Orange County until local Latino voters finally come into their own and permanently change the area from red to purple.
So Democrats should go after EVERY Republican officeholder in OC EXCEPT your pal Janet?
Sounds fishy, Art!
Makes me question the rest of your advice.
Good try.
Poster 1,
Let’s try this again.
1. Janet is a moderate. I could see trying to take Trung out, but he lost.
2. Correa hated being the only Dem on the board that he moved on to something else
3. It will cost a lot to mount a campaign against Janet – why not use that money to take out Van Tran – or to run local candidates?
If the Dems want to blow a fortune taking out Janet, more power to them. But in the end Dunn will be on the end of a lot of 4-1 votes. What is the point of that?
Don’t you think that the latino-demo voter has peaked?
I expect that over the next few years the viet-repub voter will replace all latino office holders.
Unless the latinos US citizens start voting. Something they did not do in the 1st super election.
Even Congresswoman Sanchez has taken notice. Her office is in Garden Grove and she is listed as from Garden Grove and not Santa Ana or Anaheim.
Jose better watch out with that little bit of Garden Grove in the 69th and the lousy vote count of the latino voters in Santa Ana, we could have TAN NGUYEN moving right into that spot.
cook-
Simply put: NO! More and more Latinos are being registered to vote in OC, and especially in Central OC. Meanwhile, more and more Vietnamese-American voters are becoming Democrats. And especially with younger Viet voters, Democrats are making BIG inroads. All we need to do is to keep running candidates that can relate to working-class Latino and Viet voters, which means candidates like Loretta Sanchez and Lou Correa.
Tom Umberg lost the Supe race this year because he didn’t give Latino and Viet voters a good reason to vote for him. It was as if we Dems were taking Latino votes for granted, and hoping against hope that white voters turn out for the one prominent white guy. Yet of course, WE WERE WRONG.
But if we learn from this mistake, and run someone like Joe Dunn for Supe next year, we’ll have someone who has a proven track record of making connections with Latino and Viet working-class voters. These voters are already with us on most of the issues. We just need more candidates who can come forward and deliver our message well.
Art-
I’m sorry, but I must disagree with you on two small points. Now I agree with you on everything else you say, and I agree that we should support more local candidates in more localities. However, I wouldn’t exactly call Loretta and Lou “safe” right now, as the GOP Machine is looking to take them out. Oh yes, and I think we can run more local candidates AND take back the First Supe seat next year.
I’m sorry, but Janet Nguyen hasn’t made a good enough case to stay in office for me. When she first came into office, I was ready to be surprised by someone who seemed to care about our community. But over time, she has come to disappoint me time and time again. She was the ONLY Supe to vote against medical marijuana ID cards for truly ill patients. She had the other Supes vote to give her a “services office” in Westminster, but she hasn’t done much of anything to fight the draconian cuts to county services that our working poor depend upon. What’s so convincing here?
We vote to keep Janet, Keep Mike,
Keep Van Tran, Keep Mario! Heck,
we even want to keep John Campbell
too….but that’s only because we
hear his mom is real nice. He
never answers our e-mails but his
chief of staff in the OC…doesn’t
like “Independent Republicans!”
Andrew,
The fact that the OC GOP is looking to take out Correa and Sanchez is PRECISELY why you guys need to go after Van Tran. The best defense is a good offense.
Instead you guys appear to be set on getting distracted by the First District race.
Janet is not perfect – but she is a LOT better than Trung would have been. By now he would have already lead a half dozen immigration raids in Santa Ana…
We like Mayor Pulido too! He
answers our e-mails! We love
Lou too….he answers our e-mails.
Is there starting to be a pattern
here?
Art-
Yes, I understand that Trung would be worse that Janet. But so far, Janet hasn’t proven to me that four more years of her in office would be better than a good, pro-working families Democrat. If Janet can show me that she’s doing something for these working families in Central OC that struggle just to get by, then I’d be willing to pass her by. But since she hasn’t, why should I?
Also, I don’t see the Dems taking back the First District as “creating a 4-1 hopeless situation”. I see it as the FIRST STEP toward creating a pro-working families MAJORITY on the Board of Supes by 2011. We know that Norby is termed out in 2010, and we can win that seat. We know that Moorlach faces reelection in 2010, and we know he’s been in the hot seat over “Herman Miller-gate”, the deputy sheriffs’ pensions, and now Chriss Street. BOTH of these seats are winnable, and if we progressives work at it, we can add to the one seat we pick up next year and ACTUALLY HAVE A DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY ON THE BOARD.
It may not be easy to do, but I think it’s possible. And if we can do that, then watch as this county quickly turns “purple”… And then BLUE! : )
Andrew,
You don
I’ve tried to stay away from commenting, but this Pedroza mental flatulence is tooooo good!
Art wants OC Democrats to
A) Devote time, energy and resources to taking out Democratic elected officials he doesn’t like.
B)not go after a GOP supervisor in the one supervisor district where they enjoy a registration majority — because Art Art likes that particular Reep.
In other words, Art wants the OC Dems to organize their campaign strategy around his priorities. Because it’s Art’s planet, and we just live on it.
Why would the Democrats want a Democratic supervisor who could raise money for them? That wouldn’t be in their interest, would it?
Hate to burst your bubble Art, but no one’s calling Janet a moderate except you. And that includes Janet.
And I like the appeal to Dems not to read OC Blog. Worried about the competition?
“You don’t win in politics by doing business as usual.”
And you sure don’t win in politics by doing what Art Pedroza says!
pedrozabot,
Funny stuff! I like the part about this being my planet…I may have to start charging you rent!
BTW, I am not the only one who dislikes Pulido and his horde of puppets. Most of the Democratic base cannot stand him. The only reason he was endorsed by his party last year was because there was no other Democrat in the race. He won’t be as lucky next year.
As for raising money, Dunn will be spending it, and raising it only for himself. Sanchez and Solorio are the ones who excel at raising money. Correa too, but he will need it to defend his seat in a few years.
You are right that Janet has not embraced the term moderate. But she ought to. The First District is not a conservative district.
As for Red County, I think I was clear about them. The OC Democrats ought not be supporting a blog that’s stated purpose is to help the Republicans BEAT the Democrats. It was one thing when they were OC Blog, but once they became Red County it became obvious that they are nothing more than shills for GOP partisan hackery.
We support Art,
We like Joe Dunn too! He is a
Catholic..but he invites us to
his parties and he has a lovely
family and we like gentlemen
that have class! So far that
includes Art, Joe, Lou and Miguel
…right…because they all answer
our e-mails!