
Green checks for the winners, a red x for the loser, and gold lightning bolts for the people who lost but will still be wielding some significant power.
Anaheim will now go back to Team Pringle having a 3-2 majority on City Council over Team Tait. But don’t let that headline mislead you: it’s a very different 3-2 majority than the one that ended its run two years ago.
Many illusions about who and what matters to the powerful interests in the City have been dispelled. Their priorities have been laid bare. And, when the dust settles, it’s the losing candidate for Mayor who, it turns out, will to be the one to call the shots.
Lots of interesting things happened in OC’s election yesterday, but it seems only fitting to start here. I’ll be making lots of reference today to
1. The Betrayal of Gail Eastman
The most important number in the Anaheim election is this one: 893. That’s the number of votes that Kris Murray received in this election that Gail Eastman did not. And the second most important number is 1005. That’s the number of absentee ballots mailed in soon enough to be counted in the first run by which Kris Murray exceeded Gail Eastman.
Gail Eastman beat Kris Murray on Election Day, in other words, by 112 votes. But the final result had already been determined by Vote-by-Mail ballots. Reelecting Kris Murray was the #1 priority of the Pringle Ring; they could lose every other race without regret — and they did.
- Mayor Tom Tait — it’s so nice that we can still use his de facto first name — stormed to a massive victory with over 54.1% of the vote. The showings of Lucille Kring and Lorri Galloway were humiliating, both under 20%.
- Tait’s choice James Vanderbilt inserted himself neatly about 1/3 of the way up that 893-vote gap to oust Eastman.
- Measure L — the Districting measure for which its supporter Dr. Jose F. Moreno sacrificed his seat on the School Board — won with over 68% of the vote. Unexpectedly, it was Measure M — the increase in the size of the City Council from five to seven members including the Mayor — that struggled.
The nightmare scenario for the Pringle Ring was, ironically, one where Eastman beat out Murray for second place after Vanderbilt. Eastman is not a Pringle confidante; she cannot convey what Pringle wants to the rest of the Council. So they did what they had to do to ensure that that didn’t happen — they got Murray 1000 votes up front that didn’t have Eastman attached. Sorry, Gail — it’s business.
It’s hard to overstate how secretive, effective, cold-blooded, and improbable this effort was. Truly, my hat is off to the political ninjas. I have not seen the polls — but I did hear about them. Murray was not popular with the voters; Eastman was. Finding 1000 votes for Murray that were not also votes for Eastman — and doing it secretly! — must have been a massive and expensive undertaking.
Just sending people some Murray mailers without Eastman attached would not be enough; that would leave too much to chance. At some point, the message must have gone out to many people: “Eastman is expendable. Don’t vote for Gail. We need Kris to have more votes, just in case.”) And it happened so quietly; Eastman must still be shocked by it today.
There’s a lesson here for Lucille Kring. She, too, is not a Pringle confidante. Jordan Brandman, though without Kris Murray’s policy wonking skills, is. In 2016, the Pringle Ring will make retaining Brandman its top priority. She would be the one who will mysteriously get 1000 fewer mail-in votes than Brandman — or, rather, she would if it were not for the approval of Measure L (which means she won’t run against Brandman) and especially Measure M, of which she was the prime opponent, increasing the size of the City Council enough to give her a decent shot at winning.
2. Kring Holds the Cards
Whatever it was that Kring intended to get when she switched sides after the 2012 election to become part of the Pringle Ring — it doesn’t look like she received it. The support for her Mayoral campaign was anemic. She was left to public ridicule for her positions. She was not made an insider, even to the extent that Eastman was. But she did ultimately receive a consolation prize: because it’s Murray rather than Eastman on the dais, she is now the SOLE swing vote on the Council — if she wants to be. And, of course, she sits in that position knowing that the Pringle Ring would not hesitate to sacrifice her, as it did Eastman, if it saw an advantage.
So that means that Kring is the deciding voice on the Council — not a bad gig. If she stays “in the bag” for Pringle, she doesn’t have much power; she’s just a third vote, like Eastman would have been. But, if she decides to assert herself, she can play a decisive role in the city’s biggest decisions — including ones involving personnel matters.
If it seems obvious that Kring will stay put with the Pringle Ring, it shouldn’t be. She’s not going to be Mayor. If they promise it to her, she can’t trust their word. The threat to her reelection, given her South Anaheim location, comes more from the Tait forces than from Pringle’s team. The obvious thing that she’ll care about is the new district lines — but even then, lines that would seem to help her, giving her more conservative areas, would also make her more vulnerable to a challenge. And then there’s the threat of a possible recall — in what would be Anaheim’s last Citywide Council Election — if she really looks like simply Pringle’s third vote.
Oh, and one other thing: she is not a fan of Golden Boy Jordan Brandman, for whose lightweight views and demeanor she has shown contempt on Council. She’ll be sitting next to nice, decent, James Vanderbilt next year while Murray and Brandman chatter and giggle and plot on the other end of the dais. Personal relationships matter in politics — and she may well prefer the Boy Scouts to the other Mean Girls.
Kring is, maybe for the first time in her political life, in a position to call the shots. My guess is that she will take that power very much to heart.
3. Dr. Moreno’s Sacrifice
I did not for most of the year, think that Dr. Jose Moreno would run for City Council, because I didn’t think that he would want to give up his seat on the Anaheim City School Board. But he did it — and he did it because, in his view, he would win either way. Either he would win a Council seat or, by losing, he would show that a Latino candidate could not win Citywide. And if Measure L did not pass, and the matter had to go back to court — possibly under the auspices of CATER, I suppose — then his election would become Exhibit A in showing why judicial intervention was possible.
After a vicious campaign against him, which included the betrayal by Brandman, he lost. But Measure L won — and by a margin probably beyond its proponents’ wildest dreams. So his noble sacrifice — and I use the word “nobel” neither lightly nor ironically — turned out not to be necessary.
What next for Dr. Moreno? Well, funny thing: you can’t be on both the City Council and a School Board. So James Vanderbilt’s ascension to City Council creates an opening for appointment to the Board. I have a feeling that, presuming that Dr. Moreno wants it, I know who’s going to get that position — putting himself into a good position for a Council run two years from now, in his own district. Sometimes a good sacrifice pays off.
4. Other Players
A. Galloway
I still, even now, do not understand what Lorri Galloway’s game was this year. She apparently did believe that she was being called to fulfill her destiny to be Anaheim’s first female Mayor — and I simply don’t know what to do with that. She could have run as Tait’s second endorsed candidate for City Council, putting her in a prime position to become Mayor in 2018, and she blew that off.
I have the hardest time reconciling her belief in herself with her apparent unwillingness to campaign more effectively than a small city candidate for City Council. She had nice signs and she looks good in the red dress, but mostly there was … nothing. I suppose that her strategy was for Kring and Tait to beat one another up and then she’d benefit from the mutual destruction; in that case, she overestimated Kring, which in turn meant overestimating Kring’s backers in the Pringle Ring.
The most effective speech that I saw Galloway give this year was the one where she came after my hide when I spoke against her endorsement by the Democratic Party of Orange County on the grounds that she would take votes away from Tait and possibly elect Kring. As I told them, she was going to finish third, and there was enough of a difference between Tait and Kring even from a Democratic perspective that we should just stay out of the race. Well, she got up there and worked the crowd like a master, saying that she would not even DIGNIFY the argument that she was NOT a VIABLE candidate, and went on from there, slashing and burning and winning a resounding endorsement.
And, last night, she finished third. (I knew what I was talking about, fellow Dems.) It was closer than I thought it would be, though; I too overestimated Kring, and underestimated how much the Pringle Ring solely cared about Murray. But I think that Lorri hurt herself this past year, totally unnecessarily, and fruitlessly as well given that she too would never be a Pringle Insider. And I’m sorry to see it happen; I did what I could to prevent it.
B. School Board Members
Al Jabbar solidified his position last night as the second star player on Dr. Moreno’s reform team, with Ryan Ruelas also placing himself in a position for future advancement. Annamarie Randle-Trejo won reelection against a spirited race by the rejuvenated Hoagy Hoaglund, with Roberto Baeza a distant third and Eleazar Elizondo once again neither campaigning nor placing.
Two other candidates associated with the Pringle Ring began their ascent of Anaheim’s political ladder. Connor Traut finished first in the race for the Centralia School District, based on the same coalition that propels Jordan Brandman — Democrats happy to vote for one of their own and Republicans who know that he will vote with them on the big issues. D. R. Heywood is a generation older than Traut, and now with the loss of Joe Shaw becomes the sole out LGBT elected official in OC. He’s also close to Murray and Brandman. He’s supposedly open to reason, though — and I wonder how that will work out, because that’s not a trait well-known (or much desired) among the Pringle ring.
C. Fitzgerald
Finally, a shout-out to Dennis Fitzgerald, who played a critical role in a county race. If it were not for Fitz, Claude Parrish would not have beaten Fitz’s longtime nemesis Webster Guillory. (Long story, we’ll save it for another time.) But the cranky foul-mouthed old guy has a lot to celebrate today. Now — like the rest of us — he has to dedicate himself to figuring out how to be nice to Lucille Kring.
The only person that had a worse night than President Obama has got to be me. My lil dumpling got trounced in Anaheim despite all the mattresses I’ve donated. I don’t even want to talk about what happened in Irvine. I’ve been in the fetal position since the first returns were released.
My dearest Larry is out, my personal attorney lost and my slow growth candidate for mayor came up empty as well. Who is left for me at city hall? Who will wave to me from the dais and make me feel important? I’m so sad.
Well as soon as I get out of my soiled undies I think I will go write a post about how this is all Greg Diamonds fault.
I would have paid good money to see the look on Dan C’s face last night.
That REMINDS ME — I gotta go look at AnaheimBlog and LibOC. Let me put on my Schadenfreude cap. Although I’m betting on baffled silence.
Jeez, I’m right. Dan and Matt can’t get their thoughts together today. They kind of petered out early in the evening when they saw how things were trending…
http://www.theliberaloc.com/2014/11/04/election-night-results-2014-general-election/
http://anaheimblog.net/2014/11/04/first-round-of-results-tait-murray-leading-eastman-and-vanderbilt-in-dogfight/
C’mon guys take it easy on me, after all I’ve donated a bunch of used mattresses and save the crusts I cut off my watercress sandwiches and feed them to the poor. Heck I even bought a bag of oranges from a Mexican when I was on my way to Drinking Liberally.
It’s been a rough day here in Irvine. I was too distraught to go with Matt and mock those Hispanic mourners in Anaheim. Now you know it must be bad if I pass up on such a fun time like that.
I’ve just been wallowing in my own filth all day. Maybe I should go out on one of my super hero costumes from Comic Con. That might make me feel better.
I can’t believe all those checks I’ve written are all for nothing. Damn you Greg Diamond, this is all your fault.
Stop trying to cheer me up.
Did I mention that I went to the Truman Dinner and you didn’t?
Don’t forget about your day of FIVE WHOLE MEETINGS.
Interesting take on Kring’s future.
2016 will be interesting in Anaheim, that’s for sure.
Worth noting, the Chamber of Commerce spent a quarter million dollars opposing Tait this year. That money could have been used to promote local businesses in Anaheim. Instead, dues paying members of the Chamber will be paying taxes on that money used to attack Tom Tait with absolutely nothing to show for it.
Time for new leaders at the Chamber. Business before Ament’s personal politics.
Yeah, except that money was no doubt laundered PringleCorp bucks, not real Chamber dough of which they ain’t got any.
But as far as the execrable Todd Ament is concerned, if the corporate interests can’t see what a blithering idiot he is, they deserve him. Watch for man over board.
A Latino candidate won citywide last night, according to the OCW :” the GOP even got three new Latinos elected–James Vanderbilt, as an Anaheim councilmember…”
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2014/11/oc_gop_asian_voters.php
Mmmmm — yeah, sort of. But hardly anyone knows it. It’s like celebrating Lorri Galloway for being Asian (by dint of being half-Filipino.)
Right? I graduated high school with Jim, shared some club activities, etc., and had no idea he was the slightest bit Latino. I was surprised to learn it as I read up on the candidates. Glad he got through.
Fitzgerald should be happy, and deserves kudos, for more than just what you mentioned. Few remember, but he and his “Anaheim HOME” have been trying to get district elections in Anaheim for two decades.
Oh, and did we mention his argument against the utility tax Measure N carried the day against Kring’s argument for?
Or how about his collection of votes vs Kring or Galloway. Six figures for each of them and Fitzgerald picked up over a third of their total?
Wow.
I beg to differ with the esteemed Mr Diamond, regarding Lucille Kring. She does not hold all the cards, she has been spanked pretty hard and sent to the corner to think about her future in Anaheim. One more gaffe from her and there won’t BE a future for her, I have been unable to complete my own post-election pieces (including Part 2 of the Disney-ripping-us-off-through-public-infrastructure piece) because I have people calling and stopping by wanting to know when we recall Kring, and how can they help? The mood in Anaheim is a cross over of “get beyond it” and “finish the job.” So that is worth discussion. Perhaps we give Lucille a chance to “get it” for the first time in her political career. She needs to WISE UP NOW or be done forever. She has proven herself incredibly expendable to all sides, not sure how that works for her moving forward.
I agree with Ryan, there MUST be a push to defund the Chamber. If they want to play the part of a private business and express their ugly and lie-packed political views either through the use of full page ads enabled by the Register (with opposition censored by Register) or through their paid mouthpiece “Bear-Burner” Cunningham, then let them do it on their own dime, but NOT ANOTHER PENNY OF PUBLIC FUNDING for them.
I will recap my own winners and losers, but let’s go for now with the big names; Disney/Carrie Nocella. Nobody has harmed the Disney brand in Anaheim worse than Carrie Nocella and her inexplicable inability to separate her friendship/partnership with Murray and her access to Disney dollars for campaign use. Her employer is more aware of, and protective of, their corporate brand than anyone else on the planet, bar none. If Nocella is permitted to waste Disney-bucks in such a losing campaign, blowing nearly a million bucks to retain one now-marginalized Council seat, while blowing the immense good will the brand had held in Anaheim, then we will know she has been acting with orders from higher up, and we are correct in the return-on-investment theory.
Pringle: Goes without saying. He got caught between the rock and the hard place he created for himself. His entire duplicitous scheme depends on finding people gullible enough to be subject to his sick mind control group-think manipulation, but smart enough to be placed to implement it. The combination bit him in the ass this week. Now let’s watch it play out in another, more interesting field where someone with genuine authority can make him answer some interesting questions that are coming up.
Surprise losers of the week: Tony Rackauckas, Kerry Condon, John Welter. Good luck getting anyone to offer them an ounce of credibility in the future. What tools.
The big winners: Obviously Mr, and Mrs. Tait and the dignified Mr. Vanderbilt. But the biggest winners of all time right now are the PEOPLE OF ANAHEIM. When our beloved home-by-the-river needed support, y’all stepped up, took the time to vote, and made it happen. Anaheim’s citizens sent the message that we may “support our Anaheim resort” but we are MORE THAN support FOR the Anaheim Resort. The difference in those mindsets cannot be further than where we have been. Stay awake, Anaheim. Hold feet to the fire, follow through on the work done Tuesday night and let’s finish the job of reclaiming the City’s government for the use of the City’s people.
I am SO proud to live here today. And now, off to reach the next generation of Anaheim’s citizens with a message of where we have been, and why it is important to remember it. Will write later.
She could star in The Incredibly Expendable(s).
Well, as to my knowledge you were the first to point out, she already starred in The Incredibles….
Fair point — the prospect of a recall if she does not remove Pringle’s fishhook from her mouth does (or at least should … or may …) constrain her somewhat. If Tait really put his marker down to get her off the Council so that he could actually govern, he might be able to overcome even an onslaught of Disney money (and police money) in her favor.
My interest here was in the notion that while we SAY that we have a 3-2 Council, we don’t yet KNOW that. For now, we have a 2-2 Council — Tait’s team vs. Murray’s — with Kring as the deciding vote. If she decides to act as an independent, she does hold the cards. If she decides to act as Pringle’s trained monkey, then he holds all of the cards.
A rational person would prefer being the deciding vote — unless, um, other consideration comes into play.
“Other consideration” being a legal term…
It has multiple meanings. 😉
Who is “WE” did the OJB suddenly move to Anaheim?
SQS, SOLORIO what happened where is the “dicussion” feeling mighty partisan around here.
Where are Johnnys marbles?????
OJB is in Anaheim. And it’s in Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and San Clemente. We’re all around in the dark. We’re everywhere – wherever you look. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, we’re there. Wherever there’s a cop beating up a guy, we’re there. We’re in the way guys yell when they’re mad and in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. And when folks eat the stuff they raise and live in the houses they build, why, we’re there.
But we’re not hanging around with you. You’re nowhere.
But the “DICussion” is wherever this Vasquez guy is.
Hey I saw that movie. Henry Fonda’s magnum opus.
THAT’S the spirit of the progressives. I almost lost sight of it. The Grapes of Wrath sums it up rightly. Steinbeck would be proud OJB. Trample on ye anklebiters!