Vern’s West County Picks

If Larry and Art get to do this, then here’s this Huntington Beach Progressive Democrat’s picks for the June 3 Primary Election. In order of importance:

1. NO on 98, YES on 99. Will have a whole post up on this later this week. Thank you to Larry for inviting me to a forum on this at Chapman University, but the 98 spokesman was just not convincing, and the anti-98ers were. And 99 is of value in its own right beyond just being an anti-98 measure. 99 = real (albeit modest) eminent domain reform; 98 = a trojan horse with anti-rent-control and anti-environment effects.

2. Democrat candidate for US Reprentative 46th District, Debbie Cook. Well, duh. Except Dan Kalmick is a brilliant young man with lots of great ideas and I hope he runs for state Assembly in 2010 – why can’t some people start out smaller? Don’t get tempted to vote for Dan though because, in order to attract the big donations she needs, Debbie should win the primary OVERWHELMINGLY.

3. If you’re a Republican in the 46th, vote for Ron St. John in the primary! I’m not just saying that as a Democrat “concern troll” – of course Ron won’t beat the name recognition and big money of Crazy Dana, but he represents a direction the OC GOP should want to start going in – toward more inclusiveness (to immigrants etc.) and back to core GOP values of small government. At least I’d vote for St. John if I were Republican; I understand a lot of Republicans consider Dana an embarrassment, between his eccentric behavior and his complete ineffectiveness.

4. COUNTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE – MOST IMPORTANTLY, do NOT fall prey to alphabetical order and vote for TEDDI ALVES! E-mail me if you need more details why, but she is nothing but a troublemaker and nightmare no matter what she gets involved in. (Many districts have their own Teddis, I know…) ANYBODY BUT TEDDI ALVES.

Anybody else listed is good (though I don’t know Al Jabbar or Faith Vogel.) Moreno and the Giacoppes are old stalwarts of the party, Louise Giacoppe has recently found her anti-war voice as a member of Military Families Speak Out; Taylor Honrath was recently chosen as part of the H2-for-O slate to go to Denver as an Obama delegate (his big Orange Juice endorsement put him over the top); Scott McKown has been doing excellent internet work for the 67th AD. But there are THREE GREAT CANDIDATES who especially deserve your votes:

JOE SHAW, former Orange Juice blogger and Huntington Beach City Council candidate, proprietor of the “Greetings From Downtown Huntington Beach” blog, communications director for Debbie Cook, Democracy for America member and (hopefully) running for HB City Council again this year.

LOUISE STEWARDSON, queen of Huntington Beach precinct walkers, DFA member, and treasurer of my own Orange County chapter of Healthcare For All California.

And ROSALIND “ROZ” FREEMAN, tireless activist and DFA member, my predecessor as “volunteer of the year” for the Orange County Democratic Party, and special volunteer in charge of constructing cardboard Dana Rohrabacher cutouts.

So, Vote for Joe Shaw, Roz Freeman, Louise Stewardson, and any other three you like, just NOT Teddi!

(Sure is nice to be an Orange Juice blogger…)


About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.