We obviously won’t be sure till June 3, but most likely those of you living in the heavily Republican 74th Assembly District, currently represented by Allan Mansoor (Costa Mesa, Newport, the southern half of Huntington, some Irvine, and Laguna Woods & Beach) will have the choice, in November, between two Republicans: Newport mayor Keith Curry, and Emanuel Patrascu, an aide to Asm. Travis Allen and formerly to Senator Tom Harman. So it’s not too early to see exactly what sort of people Curry and Patrascu are.
As Jon Fleischman reports, the Lincoln Club has just yanked their endorsement of Curry for soliciting and accepting a $2000 donation from the OC Firefighters union, in defiance of his pledge to do no such thing.
Now, you and I might think the Lincoln Club is pretty silly, and we might not care about their endorsement.
We might also think their policy against accepting public employee union money is silly as well. Keith Curry certainly does. (By the way he is a longtime member of the Lincoln Club himself, and has argued for years that that policy is silly.)
But here’s the thing: Keith promised not to do that, and then he did. And Jon makes the case that the timing of his broken promise was perfect – all the early Republican voters were influenced by the Lincoln Club endorsement; and now the Firefighter money will come in handy for late campaign expenses, and voters who like firemen! Jon writes:
As for Curry’s campaign — Curry had the benefit of the endorsement when it mattered the most (a disgruntled LC Board Member told me that, “Curry used the Club endorsement until getting union money mattered more, then threw us to the curb.”) And frankly Republican voters are unlikely to know that this prominent endorsement was yanked. Unless they do find out, the impact is really minimal. As I mentioned above, Curry’s opponents are not swimming in campaign cash, which limits their ability to tell this story to the electorate.
And the first thing I thought was, “Well, the Orange Juice can do OUR little part to “tell the story to the electorate.” Do we really need another wily calculating liar representing us in the assembly?
Well, what do we know about Emanuel Patrascu? I’ve told this story before, and it will probably piss off a few dozen wealthy Newporters, but that’s okay. If Emanuel makes it through June 3 I’ll find out a lot more about him for you-all.
We’d argued a couple of times about a couple of issues over the years when he was a Tom Harman aide, but it was always a delightful argument, with his Rumanian accent. Then we ran into each other at the Huntington Beach bonfire his new boss Travis Allen put on “to save the bonfires.” “It’s nice to be on the same side as you, Vern,” he said, and told me about how these wealthy Newporters had been trying to get fire pits off the beach for at least a decade, and how he’d been assigned to meet with them a few years earlier.
“They went on for about ten minutes with bogus health and environmental arguments; I’d done enough research not to fall for it. But after a very short time it became crystal clear that their real problem was with people they considered ‘riff-raff’ coming near their houses. One of them bitched, ‘People come down from Riverside to surf and park right in front of my house!’ And I’m smiling and nodding my head, but secretly thinking, ‘F**k you people, that was ME ten years ago!'”
The main reason I tell this story ONE MORE TIME is the contrast it provides with Keith Curry. Where does Keith Curry come down on fire pits? Keith Curry is the enemy. Keith Curry went to the mats for the benefit of the wealthy beachside homeowners who nearly took away fire pits from the entire coast (and also make planes departing John Wayne airport go through acrobatics to spare their poor ears the noise.)
So at this point it looks like the choice will probably be between a calculating, lying, servant of the wealthy; versus a plain-speaking populist conservative who worked hard to save our bonfires. File that away, beach city people.
[Norby story almost done…..]
I think that you’re wrong: it will be Curry (based on that early wave of absentee votes) Anila Ali. Maybe you’d be right without Harper in the race. I don’t think Onofre is going to take as much from Ali as I had thought.
So then we’ll find out if these Republicans are truly outraged or just posing. If they are outraged, send Ali to Sacramento for two years rather than accepting 12 years of Curry, then elect a Republican who won’t deceive them in 2016. If they are posing, vote for Curry and forget all of this unpleasantness by October.
We all know which they will do, don’t we? Posers.
Whether these Lincoln Clubbers outrage is real or not, I’m saying the rest of us should observe and remember, that Curry will say anything knowing that he doesn’t mean it. It is a good thing to remember IN CASE we have to choose between him and another Republican in November.
But sure if Anila has a chance, that’d be great; I’m sure I agree with her on more things than I do with Emanuel. I remember one thing we argued about was single payer health care. He’s got his share of bad Republican ideas.
similar thing concerning early voters happened in Costa Mesa 4 years ago. OCGOP endorsed Wendy Leece for council after she begged for the endorsement saying she would stand up to union contract demands. OCGOP sent out walkers and literature with their endorsement of Leece. a couple weeks later Leece blasted the OCGOP in the press, voted the union way on the contracts just before election and picked up union support- who then produced and placed signs all over town for her. She got the early GOP vote then the union vote and barely won over an obscure and unfunded candidate.
When she wasn’t made Mayor by the OCGOP majority she was shocked and remains bitter to this day.
Hmmmmmmmm…. too many differences in the two situations to bother listing right now…
I’m voting for Anila Ali for the 74th. I’m sick of living in a district run by Republican Trogloydites, whose only great accomplishment is to not get any money back in the district. They actually run on saying “NO” to Sacramento, when we are a donor district and sorely need that money coming back to build things. It’s patently stupid.
I hear you, and it would be nice if Anila won, but if you gotta choose in November between keith and Emanuel… this will be the article to look to.
It will be between Keith and Anila.
Didn’t Emanuel also take OCFA money?
Also what did I hear recently about Harper’s DUI?….and is that guy working yet?
Good luck to Anila, and if she makes it thru June, our work is cut out for us trying to help an unknown Democratic woman with an Arab-sounding name beat the Republican Newport Mayor.
Emanuel did, but he had never promised not to.
Yeah, Harper’s DUI … and no not really. Lotsa boards and commissions if you count that.
“By the way he is a longtime member of the Lincoln Club himself, and has argued for years that that policy is silly.” At least he is consistent… but when considered next to his recent stances on fire pits, (a touchy issue for the Curry’s) and docking fees/taxes, the councilman is consistently a step to the left… But he is probably going to win… so… long-live Assemblyman Curry!
Nothing “left” about taking away the people’s fire pits.
We were, after all, at the forefront of that one early. Do you want to review our glorious role in that fight for our young friend?
You! Really!?!? Shocked!
Don’t be amazed. We see it as, among other things, class warfare, and an elite assault on the commons, on a simple democratic form of recreation affordable to almost everybody. WE were glad so many rightwingers agreed with us.
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/04/can-we-save-huntington-beachs-fabled-bonfires-from-bureaucrat-pinheads-and-newport-nimbys/
Of course! Being a liberal and all….
My vote is with Karina Onofre the business owner who wants to cut corporate taxes and bring the Clippers to Orange County!
Let me get this straight
Curry a liar and greedy xxxx
Harper drunk, broke and unemployed depending on this public office job to survive.
If you can’t fix your own financial woohs, how are you going to fix others’?xxxx
Petrasco is a Nitwit, capitalizing on fire pits with misleading info. He has nothing else to offer… Acting like the fire pits is the most important issue in our district, so he can compensate for lack of intelligence and ideas. He lacks passion and he seems insincere
Just like Harper he is looking for politics as a Job to provide to his family instead of public servant
Ali is teacher, knows nothing about politics. She will only hurt us in Sacramento. She seems problematic and loves to argue. How many politicians in Sacramento are willing to work with a dot on her forehead?
Looking at all the above, my obvious choice unfortunately, will be Ms Onofre, beautiful educated feisty Latina, not to mention business woman with new ideas that politicians from both parties don’t mind working with. I think she would be the best representative for our district in Sacramento.
How many politicians in Sacramento are willing to work with a dot on her forehead?
I’m not sure the multicultural, Democratic majority in Sacramento would have a problem with a dot on the forehead, Bob. And, Karina is “educated?” I have read her Facebook musings and ravings…