Sean Mill and I were talking today about Jordan Brandman, the young Democrat who is running for an open seat on the Anaheim Union High School District’s Board of Trustees. And Mill made an interesting observation…it looks like Brandman is being groomed to take over the 69th Assembly District when the incumbent, Jose Solorio, terms out in a few years.
There are of course numerous Latinos who may be hoping to run for Solorio’s seat. They include Santa Ana Council Members David Benavides, Vince Sarmiento, Claudia Alvarez and Sal Tinajero. But the Santa Ana City Council is dysfunctional, and the majority, which is led by Mayor Miguel Pulido, is pathetic.
Enter Brandman. He has been groomed for office by a plethora of high ranking politicians, including Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and former California Secretary of Education Richard Riordan, both Republicans. He is smart, measured and very cautious. But he is not a “minority,” in a district that is dominated by Latinos and a growing Vietnamese population. The Democratic Party of Orange County may hurt themselves by not even trying to recruit a Latino to follow Solorio in the 69th Assembly District.
But that’s not all. Imagine what will happen if former State Senator Joe Dunn runs for the First Supervisorial District, against incumbent Supervisor Janet Nguyen. Kiss the Vietnamese voters goodbye! They will be very angry at the Democrats for trying to take out Orange County’s first Vietnamese Supervisor. This one election may damage the Democrats for years as the Vietnamese voters in central Orange County will hold a grudge if Dunn or his fellow Democrat Claudia Alvarez somehow defeat Nguyen.
Other area Democrats also stand to lose in this equation. For example, if State Senator Lou Correa backs Alvarez for Supervisor, he will be telling the area’s Vietnamese voters that he does not support them, at least in their minds. He already came close to losing in his last campaign, for the 34th State Senate District, because the Vietnamese voters in his district sided with Republican Lynn Daucher, who was assisted by Assemblyman Van Tran. A Correa endorsement of Alvarez will cost him ANY chance to get votes from Vietnamese voters in the future. Remember that many Vietnamese do not like Latinos. They will be particularly incensed if Nguyen loses to Alvarez.
You just have to wonder if the Democratic Party of Orange County has a clue as to how to work with minorities in central Orange County. They point to their support of Pulido and his cabal, but that bunch is very anti-immigrant and anti-poor. They may as well be Republicans. And the Democrats keep recruiting white guys to run for seats in central Orange County. Remember what happened to Tom Umberg, the carpetbagger from Villa Park, when he ran for the First Supervisorial District? I do, but the Democrats appear to have forgotten in their rush to recruit Dunn to run against Supervisor Janet Nguyen. Dunn will be finished politically when he loses next year.
Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it, particularly the Democrats in Orange County.
UPDATE: Matt/Jubal Cunningham has written a post about Joe Dunn over at Red County/OC Blog. It is interesting reading. I agree with most of his conclusions. A Dunn supervisorial campaign is no slam dunk, by any means. Most likely it will spell the end of the Democrat’s latest “great white hope.” BTW, when are the guys at Liberal OC going to write about Dunn?
Art,
Think your waaaay ahead of reality on this one!
Jordan hasn’t even won his first school board race and you have him as an Assemblymember already.
Jordan has a background in education. His connections to Pringle and Daly stem from his days in school (Pringle was his instructor) and long family friendships. Jordans father has a long and successful business working with local governments and its leaders both Democrat and Republican.
Jordans experience working in the Office of Education is a significant asset to a school board. His experience with the Business Council is benificial to working on public/private solutions to occupational training in our schools.
He’s a good candiate to lead our schools in the Anaheim Union High School District. If he’s successful, and I think he will be, then we’ll see what is in his future.
I think the term limits issue has councilmembers/assemblymembers/senators always looking for their next paycheck even before they’ve done anything to earn the first one.
Jordan will work hard for the students of AUHSD. My daughter will benefit from his leadership together with Anna Percy (and hopefully Brian O’Neal). I trust her education to these leaders, we must hold them accountable to this job!
the DPOC is a good ol’ white boys club and even though they talk a good line about diversity look at who they back time and again: Dunn, Umberg, Hanna, Daly….and now apparently Brandman.
At the Truman Dinner the white boys talked ad nauseum, while Loretta got, what 5 minutes?
These guys are has-beens and if the DPOC was smart they’d leverage the trouble the Reeps are in and groom/mentor a new breed of leader, one that actually looks like Central Orange County (which is by the way, the only part of OC that the DPOC cares about).
“Remember that many Vietnamese do not like Latinos.”
Whatever Art, that’s a figure of your imagination.
I wonder how you would feel if you ACTUALLY incited some anger between the two communities. Throwing fuel in the fire of this imaginary “Viets vs. Latinos” war is comparable to the Democrats’ hope that we lose the War in Iraq: good for your(their) argument, bad for everyone else.
Keep creating a problem where there isn’t one Art. Maybe one day it’ll exist and you can feel happy about your “influence”.
Poster 3,
Are you kidding? Did you somehow miss Trung’s campaign last year? Have you forgotten the mailer of him standing at the Mexican border? Or Tan Nguyen’s ridiculous racist letter that tanked his congressional campaign?
The entire Trannie cabal hates Mexicans! If you cannot see that then you are blind.
The problem DOES exist whether or not you want to recognize that fact. I will give kudos to Supervisor Janet Nguyen because she has worked very hard to reach out to her Latino constituents. But the Trannies are hopeless racists.
Ummm anon #2 I think Hanna is Latino.
Flowerszzz,
What? John Hanna is a Latino? Wow. I think you are inhaling tonight. If he is a Latino it is a big surprise to me. Well, President Vicente Fox had an Irish grandfather, so you never know. But still…your statement is a real surprise.
I know Hanna reads this blog, so perhaps he will let us know if he is a paisano.
LMAO if I am wrong I apologize. I coulda sworn he was…that’s funny!
Flowerszzz,
That’ OK. You Republicans thought Carlos “Space Commander” Bustamante was a Latino too…
I can’t believe Art actually approved comment 9.
Poster 9,
Wasn’t me. It was pretty awful, so it is gone and now your comment is number 9.
Art,
Dude you must have bumped your head real hard this time.
“Have you forgotten the mailer of him standing at the Mexican border?”
Art, have you forgotten Janets Mailer touting how she “Came here the Right way”
I wonder how people would react to a Boatload of mexicans comg to our shores saying they are escaping persecution by corrupt politicians in Mexico?
“The entire Trannie cabal hates Mexicans! If you cannot see that then you are blind.”
Art Janet hates mexicans too. She also hates Brown People who arent large donors to her campaign. She also hates Vietnamese people. She only panders to them for their votes. Other than that you cant find a Vietnamese person anywhere near janet unless they are on her staff serving as a translator since she cant even speak vietnamese.
Thank you, Art.
Jordan does not represent the district because he is white. He does not represent the district because he is a Republican who has a (D) after his name.
Jordan, stop being a chicken s*&t Democrat. If you are going to be conservative, do us all a favor and re-register as a Republican.
Poster 11,
There is no hatred in Janet. You obviously do not know her. She is a warm, friendly and sincere person. And she is proving every day that she can run circles around the Trannies.
Janet has a terrific multi-cultural staff. She and her staff are doing a great job serving the people of the First District.
Mark my words…Supervisor Nguyen is going to easily win in February. Trung’s fifteen minutes are up. He will never win another election.He will go to his grave an angry, bitter and broken failed politician.
I expect that the supervisorial race will also mark the end of Joe Dunn’s and Clownia Alvarez’ political careers.
Art,
Janet will be re-elected in June — not February.
Well Flowerezz, sorry to disappoint but I am Irish and Scotch-Irish. Although Art, I suspect a distant relative fought with the San Patricio Brigade.
But the inhaler–as well as the exhaler–would be brave poster #2. They link me in with a great group of guys but Art, if you know this person, clue them in that the Dems did NOT back me in my last election.
And while I have your attention Art, did you ever call Jordan and ask him if this is something he is interested in? This is the first I’ve heard of it, maybe him too.
If Trung was the Supervisor instead of Janet, would you still be advising the Democrats that they would be kissing the Vietnamese voters goodbye by running Joe Dunn against Trung?
Finally, seems there are alot of Latino Democrats representing central Orange County-Loretta, Lou, Jose, Claudia, Vince, Sal, David, Miguel,Michelle, John Palacio, Larry labrado, Alfredo Amezcua and others. They may not be your cup of raza but they are Latino and this cuts against your headline and the premise of your post.
John,
Yes, the liberal base of your party turned on you because you had endorsed Ed Royce. I can’t blame you for that one. Florice Hoffman had a zero chance of winning.
I did not bother calling Jordan because it really doesn’t matter if he has thought about it. The white power brokers in your party will decide if he is their guy or not. Then they will come to him and put the squeeze on. Few people in your party say no to them.
If Trung was our Supervisor, I would be backing Janet against him. But that aside, yes I do think that the Vietnamese voters would be upset with your party if you tried to take him out and replace him with a white guy.
As for your list, let’s have a look at it:
1. Your party machinery did not support Loretta Sanchez the first time around. Her primary opponent, if I recall correctly, was the white chair of your party. She was however supported by Aitken and Daly, so there was a split in the ranks of the white power brokers.
2. Lou Correa lost the first time because your party let him down. He never forgot that.
3. Jose Solorio just held an education town hall meeting at 9 in the morning. Clearly he has no interest in what the people have to say.
4. Claudia Alvarez loves to play the race card, but when it counts, you can’t count on her. She has become a reliable vote for the Pulido cabal. Look at their record this year. You won’t find a more anti-immigrant/anti-poor bunch anywhere else in Orange County.
5. Vince Sarmiento has not won ANY elections yet. He was appointed to fill out Solorio’s term. Sarmiento, like Alvarez, has voted against Latino interests since he was appointed, just as his master Pulido has told him to.
6.Sal Tinajero was viciously attacked by the Pulido cabal in his Council campaign last year. I don’t recall your party stepping in to support him! It is ironic that he now votes with the Pulido machine. I have no faith in him at all. Sal is for Sal, and the people know it.
7. David Benavides. What a disappointment. The one time he differed with the Pulido cabal was at their last Council meeting, as they discussed term limits. But he has refused to sign the argument against the bogus term limit measure crafted by Pulido and company. And when he had a chance to vote for mayoral term limits he got tangles in his puppet strings. This man is compromised and he cannot do anything to help his people, for fear of retribution from his master, Pulido. BTW, he ran against a real progressive Latina last year. But of course your party did not back her. No surprise there.
8. Miguel Pulido. What can I say? Our Francophile tennis-playing Mayor is no friend to Latinos. He supported Prop. 187. Need I say more?
9. Michele Martinez. You guys endorsed her, but she did not get much help from your power brokers. Let’s see if you support her next year if she takes on Pulido for the Mayor’s office…
10. John Palacio. Are you serious? Your party machinery has never supported Palacio. He is as independent as they come. And he DOES support the city’s Latinos. So of course he will always be overlooked by your white power brokers.
11. Larry Labrado. I honestly know little about him, but we do know that the Rancho Santiago Community College District spent most of the bond money at the Orange campus, which sits in a wealthy white area, and on the Carona Sheriff Training Facility. Very little was spent at Santa Ana College. So the area Latinos were let down yet again.
12. Alfredo Amezcua. See my comments about Labrado. Amezcua is out to enrich himself. He was once a fighter for the people, but he is now just as compromised as Pulido and his bunch. It is sad.
13. Others? What did you guys do for LA Habra Councilwoman Rose Espinoza in her race against Chris Norby? You guys are now talking about running Daly for Norby’s seat. Why not Rose! This proves my point. Your party has NO CLUE as to how to work with minorities. And just about all of the few minorities that have won are now fully compromised.
The truth is that neither the OC Democrats nor the OC Republicans have a clue as to how to work with minorities in Central OC and the record reflects that.
Jordan is not being groomed for anything, Art. Why are you and Sean starting trouble when there is none? We Dems are lucky to have Jordan and he will represent every faction of the constituents if/when he becomes an office holder. Also, Jordan is not a part of the old white boy network that Barbaro can’t seem to let go of. Give Jordan a little credit. He is one of the few who “gets it.” Leave him alone already.
Well Sorry about that John – I pulled an Art whereby I posted first and thought later.
Didn’t Jordan work for old white boy network member Tom Umberg?
Poster 18,
I have no problem with Jordan. I am backing him for the AUHSD board. My problem is the “old white boy network” as you put it. If you don’t think they are looking at Jordan to take the 69th after Solorio terms out, then you need to put down your partisan Kool Aid.
One of these days the DPOC will figure out that they need to get behind minority legislative and supervisorial candidates in central OC – and the ones who are corporatists, like Pulido and company.
Pedroza
Since you’re such a genius, why don’t you run for public office?
Pedroza for Council – Ward 3
“Because He Gives A Damn.”