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Maybe some people think that it’s funny to give poor old John Moorlach a fainting spell by printing an ad for a Dec. 16 holiday fundraiser for Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait’s campaign for the 45th Congressional District — but I think it’s cruel. Nevertheless, that’s what Matt Cunningham’s (or the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce’s, whichever) Anaheim Blog has just done. I print a cleverly cropped version here to make it even more stunning.
“Well,” said I, on first looking at this, “I certainly am out of THIS loop!”
Upon being revived by the smelling salts, Moorlach would have discovered that the fundraiser whom he shares with Tait simply made an error, repurposing Moorlach’s own fundraising flyer but forgetting to swap out the reference to the race for Congress for a reference to the race for Anaheim Mayor.
This is less embarrassing for Tait than it is for the people Tait hired. I’ll omit the name of the fundraiser in the Anaheimian spirit of kindness — but I’m told the guy who hired her is former State Sen. John Lewis, who clearly needs to devote some more attention to Quality Control issues, unless his contract with Tait specifies that the candidate is responsible for proofreading fliers put out by the consultants.
Still, this little error got me thinking. With all due respect to the City of Anaheim, this would be a great move for Tait. (Not economically — it would be bad news for the business he runs — but it would serve the dual purpose of putting him into the seat for perhaps two decades and keeping someone who might be the more typical kind of Orange County Congressional Republican out of it. When you’re in a group with Royce, Issa, and Rohrabacher — and Campbell is not exactly a tough act to follow — it’s not hard to be considered the pick of the litter.
I’ll learn more about this race tomorrow at a secret meeting — well, not “secret” so much as “private” — but my inquiries thus far have suggested that no Democrat yet seems to be running. If one does — and has any meaningful budget — that person will be able to make it into the runoff against what are currently four announced Republicans, who (to be generous) might be dividing up 70% of the primary vote, meaning that only one probably makes it out alive.
Scott Lay lists the following as “probable candidates” in the race:
- John Moorlach (Republican) – Supervisor, Orange County
- Tom Tait (Republican) – Mayor, Anaheim
- Greg Raths (Republican) – Retired Marine Corps Colonel
- Mimi Walters (Republican) – Member, State Senate
- Pat Maciarellio (Republican) – Investor
All but Tait are announced. Tait — this “trial balloon” notwithstanding — has denied any interest in running for Congress. But, gosh darn it, what if he did?
I think that he’d win.
The four announced candidates hail from different sides of the Republican Party. Walters, if she went to Congress, would probably be OC’s answer to the departing Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. Pat Maciarellio seems to be a Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan-style moony trickle-downer. Greg Raths, from what I can tell probably trailing the pack, is a Rohrabacher-like muscular foreign policy conservative — except neither a libertarian nor a chickenhawk. (I know least about him, but I have a hard time seeing him making the top two, so the following analysis discounts that prospect.)
Moorlach, a green-eyeshades type with a sly sense of humor, will probably be the Least Offensive Republican Alternative for many. That he’s sharp is evident from the fact that he’s holding his own fundraiser on Monday, December 9 — the evening following the OCTA vote on the 405 toll lanes! Moorlach has been strong on that issue — which, if memory serves, is something to which our own Vern Nelson personally introduced him! — on the OCTA Board; he’ll have popular opinion on his side as a result. While that is more of an issue in Al Lowenthal’s West County CA-47 than in South/East County CA-45, it will help him substantially in fundraising and give him credibility as a “good government” type. The problem is that, as an OC Supervisor, other things detract from his credibility in that respect, as the County is lacking in good governance. (Plus, who knows what the FBI may be up to and who will end up besmirched by it? That’s why I think you’ll see a Democrat running, “just in case.”)
The arrival of Tait on the scene would cut Moorlach’s legs out from under him. Newport Beach voters would just eat up Tom Tait (and his wife Julie) with a spoon.
That’s not likely to happen, because Tait says that he doesn’t want to be anything in politics but Anaheim’s Mayor. But if he did — well, he could hardly have a better mission in life then to spread the message of kindness and tolerance within the Republican Congressional delegation.
Oh well — if he makes it to Congress, Moorlach would at least be an improvement on his GOP peers, someone that could be approached for a reasonable vote on a reasonable plan some of the time. But, just to be safe, don’t be surprised if Moorlach attends Tait’s fundraiser with a bunch of paying friends, all encouraging him to run — for re-election as Anaheim’s Mayor.
(Won’t it be funny if two of the people most responsible for Moorlach making it to Congress were Tait and Vern?)
“…can someone please explain to me, where is the story?”
Of course there is no story. It’s just a opportunity for three or four members of the Pringle Ring to gratuitously attack Tait.
Cunningham claims to be pals with the fundraiser as he pushes her under the bus. Nice.
People say how smart you are, David “Can I Have $1 Million Tax Dollars Please?” Zenger, but comments like this make me wonder.
I didn’t attack Tom Tait, nor did I throw Phyllis under the bus (the invite was already mailed out and is out there. I didn’t do that). I don’t “claim” to be friends with Phyllis – I have been friends with her for a long time and think highly of her. If you got out of your little cocoon and into the wider political world, you might know things like that.
Mistakes happen, and this was a funny mistake. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but it’s the kind of thing that political blogs post about.
It’s not my fault you posted nonsense so your two or three commenters who aren’t you (or maybe who are you) can make snotty comments about the only real public servant on the Anaheim City Council – Tom Tait.
I don’t see why you bother trying to evade the issue: your political blog, if you want to call it that, is nothing more than a pathetic little cog in the Pringle PR machine. It was bad enough when you just regurgitated Pringle-approved propaganda. Though you don’t deserve it I will give you enough credit for being too ignorant to know that what makes your paymaster rich are public policy disasters. But attacking a decent, conservative guy Tait is just reprehensible.
Oh, yeah, and real friends don’t help publicly embarrass one another – so I guess you shouldn’t be too upset if that woman questions the value of your “friendship.”
P.S. Now that you’re here, when is the City going to release the audit on the way your “employeer” managed the Enterprise Zone program? You still haven’t answered that one. What the hell, it’s only ONE YEAR LATE.
You certainly don’t let ignorance get in the way when you thunder about “how things are.” At least that hasn’t changed. You and Vern and Greg and Cynthia must have some weird, hallucinatory, mutual Vulcan mind-meld going.
So when is the City going to release its audit of the Chamber of Commerce? Is it really that bad? A year late? I guess if you buy Brandman’s $25,000 copy paste that’s not so bad!
Sounds like something that should find the radar of a blog touting itself as “civic affairs in OC’s largest city.”
Oh. Yeah. Right.
Another day, another reminder that Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims.
People say that Matt Cunningham is a shameless, unmitigated douchebag. People are right.
Gee nipsey, I had forgotten all about that.
“The problem is that, as an OC Supervisor, other things detract from his credibility in that respect, as the County is lacking in good governance.”
Well, that’s got to be the understatement of the year. They are all going to tarred with the Bustamante brush as they should be.
When do you think that the consequences will come out? If there’s a Democrat running, right around Labor Day sounds good to me.
There is a damning 30 page report by outside counsel from October 2011 that documents the whole mess, as well as a report from the Internal Auditor that was finished in 2012. These are the docs that the County is desperately trying to keep hidden.
It’s already a documented issue. The details don’t matter much except that the County nurtured, protected, and rewarded this low life.
It’s very telling that Bustamante was permitted to resign and handed $45,000. The campaign mailers are already forming in some febrile brains. Bates, Nguyen, and Moorlach are all going to get hit.
But not Nelson? He may have an opponent, you know.
Oh, and when will it come out? After the Bustamante trial, I guess.
damn, and i thought that moorlach actually had a heart attack and died,,,,christmas almost came early
Not funny.
neither is the thought of john continuing in public office
Bloviator: Are you so dumb as to not realize that the proper demonym for an Anaheim resident is an Anaheimer, not an “Anaheimian”? Of course you are!
Oh, Gustavo, you funny guy — a “demonym” is (generally) an adjective used to identify a person as a resident of a geographic entity. The demonym for Anaheim would indeed by “Anaheimer.” However, my reference to “the Anaheimian spirit of kindness” does not refer to “a resident,” but to a quality of the city and its culture itself: “a characteristic of Anaheim” rather than of a resident thereof. In that form, one can (indeed should) use the general adjective for the geographic entity rather than the demonym, if they differ. (Sometimes a suffix like “-ish” is used for that purpose, as with Finland’s demonym being “Finn” but its culture being “Finnish.”)
For many cities, states, and countries — Fullerton, California, and America being good examples — the demonym form and the general adjective form are the same. For others, it isn’t: Great Britain and Spanish are the Philippines are good examples, where “Briton” and “Spaniard” and “Filipino” are different from “British” and “Spanish” and “Philippines.” (Pinoys don’t sweat it as much, though.) The demonym for Argentina is a matter of debate; I’m of the school that “Argentinian people should be referred to as ‘Argentines.'” The demonym for someone from China is supposed to be the same as the general adjective applying to the nation, but calling someone “a Chinese” seems to sound odd and somewhat insulting, so it’s usually followed by “man,” “woman,” “child,” etc.
In fact, substituting a demonym that differs from a general adjective applying to the geographic whole when referring to the latter is a common kind of slur: go ask for a “Spaniard restaurant” if you don’t believe me. Domestically, I strongly encourage you to write about “New Yorker” culture just to see how it plays to the New York aesthetic. And while “Jew” isn’t technically a geographic demonym, try substituting “Jew” for “Jewish” while in New York for a real wake-up call.
To me, the general adjective for “Anaheim” would probably best take an irregular form rather than the demonym form — although if you can find a real reference to something like “Anaheimer geography is flat in the west and hilly in the east,” that might convince me.
I think that formally it would probably be most proper to treat “Anaheim” the way one treats “New York” — where the general adjective is same as the noun — but I figured that the only sort of person who would get exercised about my playfully applying the standard American {“-n/”an”/”-ian”} suffix to the City of Anaheim would be a thin-skinned, pedantic bore.
And it looks like there I was right.
Thanks for at least trying to do the job of an editor somewhere, even if not at your own “infernal rag” — and better luck next time.