“Attorney and Laguna Beach resident Frank Barbaro was reelected Monday to his post of chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County,” according to the Total Buzz blog.
Barbaro “has been county party boss since 1991, and also served as the DPOC’s top dog from 1976 to 1978.”
I am told that Barbaro is Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido’s personal lawyer. He is also said to own a ticket agency and supposedly he is doing consulting work for federal candidates in his party.
His forte is fundraising – but other than that he has not enjoyed much success, with the exception of new voter registration. The problem is that the Democrats really don’t have many folks who can run their party. I do think however that attorney Steve Young would have been a viable candidate.
Last year’s fiasco in Garden Grove was particularly disturbing. The Democrats had a great chance to pick up a council seat. Instead, they lost again to two Republicans – Steve Jones and Andrew Do. The Democrats got behind Paul Lucas and Tram Linh Ho – but their best candidate turned out to be Robin Marcario, and she didn’t get much help from her party. She barely lost to Do.
Do is now the leading contender to follow Van Tran in the 68th Assembly District. And the Democrats? They didn’t do much to help this year’s Assembly candidate against Tran, Ken Arnold. So Tran won again. But Arnold could have beat him with some help from his party.
One thing for sure – Barbaro and company deserve zero credit for the success of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and State Senator Lou Correa. Can they ever compete against the OC GOP? Not with Barbaro at the helm…even in a year when the Dems dominated all over the nation, Barbaro couldn’t gain much ground in Orange County.
Agreed. The country voted for “change” and the county Dems voted for “same.” Don’t expect any spirited challenges of the Republican Party establishment or any serious recruitment or decent candidates. I don’t often agree with Democrats, but this party could certainly use some political competition. Too bad.
What I think was noteworthy about this last election was the ability of the internet organizations like move-on.org and barackobama.com to give voice to the county’s progressives and harness their energy. While there will always be overlap with the DPOC I no longer think they are the only voice of orange county progressives.
Actually, Barbaro can’t really claim voter registration as part of his success unless he is taking credit for work being done by others. Unless I am missing something, has he or the Dems led a professional voter reg program? The gains in registration probably have a lot more to do with the voter registration program being done (still I think!) by the unions as well as the momentum this past election fueled by a nationwide disgust with Bush.
In all fairness, Mr. Greenhut, the vote for “Change” that rang through the national election was to oust the crooked Republican Party. How you conflate that with the local Democratic Party re-electing Mr. Barbaro is a feat of contorted logic worthy of an OC Register columnist who rarely criticizes the Republican dominated Orange County political landscape, but fails to explain how the local party chairman could possibly evolve the politics of a Red County beyond their own ideological ignorance. Seems like a gratuitously petty comment aimed at a guy you just never liked.
In defense of Barbaro… the 68th AD was more the responsibility of the Assembly District Democratic Committee. The local party needs to be responsible for municipal seats.
Garden Grove was not the fault of Barbaro. The DPOC Central Committee has ELECTED
In defense of Barbaro… the 68th AD was more the responsibility of the Assembly District Democratic Committee. The local party needs to be responsible for municipal seats.
Garden Grove was not the fault of Barbaro. The DPOC Central Committee has ELECTED reps who vote on endorsements. It is not the fault of Barbaro that a Democratic vote did not go to Robin… further, Robin over performed. For years she ran with no organization, this year she was smart to hire Misha and run a very effective grassroots campaign, but 3 years of no organization hurt her.
Frank has been a good chair, and he has managed to hire 2 full time staff members, steer money to national candidates (like that guy OBAMA!!!), bring new donors to the party, and most importantly be a respectable intelligent representative of the DPOC in the community.
17 years running this crazy house, and people have no love?
Melahat, and Steve Young would be outstanding party chairs.
The best thing that Barbaro can do for the DPOC is to get rid of the blob, Melahat.
I was shocked and disappointed this morning as I watched Frank Barbaro on Inside OC. Mr Barbero
defended and supported “code of silence” in the OC
Sheriff’s dept. He even compared it to that of a husband and wife. Even the host Rick Reiff let out a “woa…” . In another issue Mr Barbaro seemed supportive of convicted felon Mike Corona.
Please take the time to see this Inside OC for May 10, 2009 on the internet. The issue came up because of a deputy abusing a prisoner handcuffed in back seat of patrol car.
His whole attitude seems so wrong to me. I am a democrat.