The Democratic Party of Orange County had a great chance to pick up a seat or two on the Garden Grove City Council. One seat was being vacated by termed out Democrat Mark Rosen. The other was filled by an incumbent in Steve Jones who was appointed to his seat. How did the DPOC blow it and end up with two Republicans winning these seats?
Well, for one thing the DPOC endorsed Paul Lucas. That one is really hard to understand. The guy can’t hold a job. He got in bed with Van Tran in order to get revenge on Supervisor Janet Nguyen for not appointing Lucas to a County Commission. And the DPOC endorsed him? What the Hell were they thinking?
Lucas then spent the entire campaign ripping the one Democrat who WAS viable – community activist Robin Marcario. Splendid. He should have been going after the Republican candidates Jones and Do! Or better yet, Lucas should not have been in this race!
The DPOC basically ignored Marcario in their rush to try to get T. Linh Ho elected to the Garden Grove City Council. But Marcario could have won with just a little more help. Now Jones has been re-elected and Do appears to have prevailed over Marcario. What a disaster for the DPOC!
I blame Pat Kelly over at the Teamsters for the DPOC’s endorsement of Lucas. For some damn reason he loves Lucas. Well, the Teamsters, at Kelly’s discretion, threw their support to Lucas and to Florice Hoffman, who ran unsucessfully for the Orange Unified School District’s Board of Education. Kelly got punked in both instances by voters who weren’t buying his candidates. Why exactly is this guy still in charge of the Teamsters? It certainly isn’t for his political acumen!
If Andrew Do goes on to win Van Tran’s Assembly Seat in two years, the DPOC will only have themselves and Kelly to blame.
Paul spent the whole year attacking Democrats that had helped him in the past and then lied to people about what was going on. Paul filed for Supervisor as a sop to Dina and Van and then when he chickened out he had to do a make up by writing that letter that attacked Janet.
Orignially the labor council voted not to give Paul their endorsement but Pat Kelly refused to accept that so he had the vote changed. Pat Kelly then pushed for Paul to get the endorsement of the DPOC despite several leaders in the party telling him that Paul was going nowhere.
Paul’s anti-social, insane behavior should have disqualified him from support and several union leaders were ready to not spend 60k on an IE for Paul but in the end the unions made Paul support a revote in the DPOC for Linh Ho.
Unfortunately Lihn was not a good candidate as well. Stubborn adherence to someone out of loyalty despite all the facts pointing in the other direction is a bad politics.
Art you are right that the Unions and the DPOC missed a golden opportunity as now we have lost a seat to Andrew Do. Robin M. really cares about Garden Grove and has the Bona Fides to prove it. Paul only moved there to run for City Council and Linh did not live up to her potential. Paul is great at kissing ass to get his way but there were several Democrats urging that that Labor and the Party not support him, but Pat Kelly’s stubborness cost Democrats and Labor much. Too bad because Robin is very pro labor.
GG? said it better than I could and with more inside info. Thanks for posting. It really seems strange that the DPOC, Teamsters, and Labor Fed missed Robin Marcario as a viable candidate.
These leaders of the Democratic Party need an injection of sophistication in the form of technology, consultants, or leaders that are in tune with the community so that they can develop good candidates and jettison bad ones. Can anyone explain why after all the Tranie and Jannie slapstick Paul was involved in he still managed to secure the DPOC endorsement? Also how much did the missteps in the earlier Supervisor Campaign and the GG CC race cost other more viable Dem candidates countywide?
‘These leaders of the Democratic Party need an injection of sophistication in the form of technology, consultants, or leaders that are in tune with the community so that they can develop good candidates and jettison bad ones.‘
… and the Dems still wonder why I left the party. They are SO short-sighted.
SMS
Ignorance is the answer. Too bad most of the 6000 who voted for Lucas could’nt have got to know him better. If they had one has to wonder why a) they would waste their vote on someone who ca’nt win b) why on earth would they want him to win? After all, once elected a candidate now represents us. What a comedy, you know the kind that’s not funny because its too sad.
In a year where Democrats are winning in Red States, Labor and the DPOC go with a joke like Mr. Lucas. Just cause you show up to meetings and pal around with Pat Kelly doesn’t mean good money should be squandered on someone who is too lazy to keep a job for more than a few weeks. All that money and he got what ? sixth place? Pat Kelly should have his head examined for this bone headed maneuver. I have heard that many insiders in Labor and the party begged Pat not to do this. Pat was like, “Lucas got almost 40% against Van Tran” Geez , Ken Arnold blew that rationale away. If throwing away good money after bad on Paul Lucas is Pat’s thing, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell him. And where were the party’s wiser heads in all of this? Why haven’t we had a Truman dinner this year? What is going on?