All things considered, my guess is that he's happy today.
No, he’s not smiling because of the election results. Losing by 242 votes is a wrenching experience. Losing to a Republican who didn’t actively campaign, and who surely got at least 243 votes due to voter confusion between him and beloved Santa Ana School Board member DR. Jose Moreno, that’s got to be especially galling. Losing because the vampire chipmunk incumbent in the district dragged not only the winner into the race to beat you, but also a second council candidate to split your vote — that’s upsetting, but it’s a score that will be settled in time. Of course, losing because some of the worst and most rapacious corporate interests put about a million dollars into building up your main opponent and tearing you down with lies, innuendos, and misrepresentations has to lead to a rueful smile, so great of a gesture of respect it is.
Julio has a good political career in front of him, whether this fall, in two years, or further down the line. But that’s not why I think that he’s smiling today.
I think that he’s smiling because of this — and if it’s not clear why every Latino activist and Asian immigrant activist and sympathizer to their causes is smiling, you need to click that link or get onto Google and type in “Obama” and “DREAM” — and read the stories for the past half day.
Yeah, that’s right — mentioning Julio was just a trick to get you to read the story and, I hope, join in on the celebration that some wonderful people who appear to be Americans and in many cases have no memory of living anywhere other than the U.S. will be allowed to stay here for a while, and hopefully indefinitely, because they have shown that they’re the sorts of people we should proudly embrace as citizens.
As a candidate, I’m happy to say that I welcome this announcement. I’m pretty confident that Loretta Sanchez, Linda Sanchez, Jay Chen, Alan Lowenthal, Sukhee Kang, Steve Young, Sharon Quirk-Silva, and a host of others will also welcome the President’s announcement. One would think that Lou Correa, Jose Solorio, and Tom Daly would do so as well — and I’ll be happy to see them take an uncharacteristically somewhat controversial stand if they endorse the President’s action today — as they and all Democratic (and Republican, though I won’t hold my breath on that) leaders should.
To my friends — I won’t name you, Chris Sanchez and others (oops!), but you know who you are — who have been so active in the movement, many of whom will be helped by it directly, I offer you congratulations. I didn’t know whether President Obama had it in him, and I’m happy to see that he did.
*Julio loses 20 lbs….and the next think you know…..he is running for Lou’s seat. Weight Watchers Julio…..and start on that static bike about 2 hours a day. You will get their fast… You can look like Dan Marino in no time!
Rotten insulting comments about a person’s physical appearance shows you have no class. If you knew Mr. Perez the way I do you would agree he’s a dedicated, smart, hard-working guy. I worked in San Diego (CA-52) for the Lori Saldana campaign, and we had the same awful result. We only came up a few hundred votes short out of over 60,000, yet our opponent was a conservadem with $3 million in TV ads out of his own pocket. All we had was devoted volunteers and we were within .5% with no ads at all. Now the choice in the general is a Dem who will cut social security, or a Rep who will do the same. Damn.
Not sure who those choices are but hopefully they can fix social security…sure would be nice.
Bilbray and Peters will “fix” Social Security by eliminating it. Both have said that on the record. Social Security can be guaranteed the rest of our lifetimes with just a few minor changes. It doesn’t mean there is a crisis to use as an excuse to punish retirees.
I don’t think any elected official in Orange County has been a better or more hard-working advocate for the DREAM act and comprehensive immigration reform than Jose Solorio AKA the “vampire chipmunk incumbent.” So I don’t understand why you would bash him in this article and then proudly tout progress on one of his signature issues.
Also, that same “vampire chipmunk incumbent” didn’t drag anyone into the race, most certainly not Tom Daly or Michele Martinez. Both of these individuals are very ambitious politicians who wanted to take their own shot at an open seat. Solorio had nothing to do with that.
Also, Julio didn’t lose because of anyone else in the race besides himself, and blame should not be deflected onto other candidates. Also, he did very well for having never run for anything before and for being a completely unknown commodity, in fact, he would make a great candidate for city council and could virtually walk onto the school board. I hope he does it since Santa Ana really needs some new blood.
True that about Jose and the Dream Act. In fact, I just posted MY Dream Act story onto the vampire chipmunk’s FB page as a (partial temporary) peace offering, and he’s already liked it.
NO Democrat is bad on EVERYTHING. But we do set higher standards for them.
You heard the same Flag Day speech I did, Vern. Dibs on the “radical Latino/Hispanic [which was it?] agenda” part.
He’s the most PR driven candidate that we have in OC; if it’s popular (now), of course he liked it.
You may well not think that, but you don’t seem especially discerning.
Here’s Solorio’s “webpage in waiting” with Sandino consulting, first Google hit when you type in “Solorio for Senate 2014”:
“Signature issue,” you say? I count about a dozen issues there, and none of them deal with immigration, and none of them mention the DREAM Act. I’ll have a piece out on Solorio soon so you can see how DREAMy he is.
Meanwhile, search on {“Jose Solorio” “Dream Act”} and you find a whole bunch of nada. Here’s the Register’s archive of all OC Latino stories tagged with Solorio’s name; try to find one that mentions the DREAM Act — related to him: http://oclatinolink.ocregister.com/tag/jose-solorio/
“Signature issue” — well, he’s a camp follower, so maybe it will be now — if it’s safe.
Sources tell me that the vampire chipmunk tried to recruit Sarmiento and Tinajero before both declined, at which point he offered a bouquet to Martinez. Daly is famously not known to be politically ambitious and I’m told he is taking a 50% pay cut to move into his new position. Do you think he just felt the fire in his belly all by himself? Don’t make me laugh.
The idea that Julio lost “just because of himself” when this modest race had the second highest amount of independent expenditures in the state, over 80% of them coming from pro-Daly camp and a fair amount of them directed specifically at tearing down Julio, is rank stupidity. Give Julio $1,000,000 in IEs and spend a tenth of that slandering Daly and do you think you get the same result? Only if you’re on crack. If you’re going to argue here, please up your game.
Wow, you’re so angry.
I think you’re one of the only people in Orange County that disagrees with what I wrote.
I believe that you do think that. It’s a small world, for those who stay cloistered.
Angry at Solorio’s voting record (in committees, not just on the floor.) Whatever for?
(That’s a test, by the way.)
YOU DONT KNOW DIAMOND IN HIS MIND WHEN YOU LOSE , YOU WIN . NO YOU CAMP CAMP HERE MEANS THATS NOT REALLY WHAT YOU MEANT . AKA NO CAMPING IN SANTA ANA OCUPU . MEANS WELL MAYBE YES ..
Nicely said.
If that’s your freestyle rapping, you need much more practice.
Gentle, misguided “Reader”: Your humble servant is always so amused when receiving letters in which the Reader’s views are obviously shaped by their own guileless ignorance. It is like two virgins in Victorian England discussing sex: no point of knowledge or experience to fuel the flames. Or, it is like reading a Dan Chimielski post at the Liberal OC: all fact free, knowledge free fantasy.
Solorio did, indeed, solicit Michele Martinez into the race, after unsuccessfully trying to talk Vince Sarmiento into the race (his wife rejected the notion, and the pressures of a new job in L.A. assisted) and Sal Tinajero (He wasn’t going to run against a labor candidate backed by the vast majority of all major labor in the county, because he knew he would fail).Claudia Alvarez is politically dead beyond the City, following two failed assembly runs and her Hitler comments – she is now eyeing Mayor or praying for a Judicial Appointment (fat chance, see her calling Jewish business leader “Hitler” comments). So, desperately needing his foil, he pursued his final choice – narcissistic, inarticulate, opportunistic, and ignorant young Michele Martinez.
This accomplished, Solorio was free to unleash Tom Daly, his first choice. Daly is the husband of Solorio’s senior advisor, staff member, and close confidant. do you REALLY think he did not know that Daly was going to run? Daly was leaving a job – County Recorder- with a much higher salary and no term limits, and a four year election cycle.
Why would Daly move into Assembly and have to be in Sacramento all week away from his kids and wife? Easy answer: He has secured his county pension, his wife is a state employee, and works in the Assembly. Now he can hire his wife (or do a swap with one of Solorio’s political cronies to hire her) and they can work together. With the new term limits, he thinks he can sit in the position for the next 12 years, and retire with a State pension ON TOP of his County pension, and he can secure his wife’s State Pension.
Then he lobbies casually to exploit his connections on his leisure time. SEE? A STATE AND COUNTY PENSION FOR TOM, duplicating benefits, AND A STATE PENSION FOR HIS WIFE. Both living together, working together, featherig the nest with tax payer dollars. Helps them afford private school for their kids (Yes, it is true: Tom does not trust his right hand boy Jordan Brandman’s leadership of the Anaheim schools to entrust his own children to the Anaheim Public Schools – pretty sad, no?)
If you doubt the above, ask Tom Daly next time you see him if he would sponsor or support legislation that would prohibit duplicative State and County pensions for elected officials.
Well, so much for that story I was writing on this topic…. (heh)
Pretty great comment, encyclopedic. But this story does deserve its own post. You gotta do it Diamond.
Even if we are gonna be stuck with this assemblyman for 12 years, and regularly begging him to vote the right way.
Senor Diamond, quick note – Jose Moreno is from Anaheim!
*Ed – Get off your high horse. We told the same thing to Chris Christie. When you are Fatso Fogerty….you don’t get no respect when you run for office. Jim Ferryman is a typical guy that tried to drink himself into another millenium. That didn’t work…so he had to settle for two boards seats. If he had lost some weight and quit drinking he could have been a State Senator. Everyone can be saved. Some care….some don’t care. That is their choice not ours. We are just the messengers that tell it as it is.
Kicking somebody when they are down is never funny or called for. Discuss the merits of the candidate’s positions if you wish, but “you’re fat too, so there” sounds too much like a schoolyard taunt.
Jim Ferryman had a drinking problem his whole life, and at least one of his sons does too. I knew him well-he did some good things, but his career had nothing to do with his weight
*By the Ed – we loved Lori Saldana….she was a peach! Out on term limit now?
Lori was termed out after six years. We are 4 TENTHs of a percent behind Peters. She will not concede the race.
Ed, I agree with you that voters should make decisions based on the candidate’s positions. Only one problem, Tom Daly doesn’t take position because he wants to appeal to everyone. Does he support Arizona’s SB 107? What about Affirmitive action progrms? His cosultant, former Republican assemblyman John Lewis was no friend to Latinos, Say Prop 187. John Does he support rights and stand with apartment residents even though he took so much money from the Apartment association. Does he support a Oil severance tax to support our schools and public safety even though he took close to 1/2 a million from Chevron. Would Tom support restrictions on these legal loan sharks, Check cashing stores, even though they gave him some big bucks.
Please tell me honestly how the residents of the 69th district would ever believe that Tom with his friends would ever accept Tom turning their back on their special intersts for the people.
No shame! You call yourself a Democrat…that’s not a democrat.