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The pajarito, or “little bird” – source of all rumors, or “chismes.”
Hark! how the brisk January days are enlivened by exaltation of birdsong. And what chismes are these pajaritos warbling this month? They sing of the Tuesday January 27 race to take dirty Janet Nguyen’s place on the Board of Supervisors – only twelve days away now! – and they chatter, they chirp, and they ululate.
This district, redrawn in 2011 by three of the Supes including Janet to make it more Republican AND Vietnamese – an arguably legitimate use of the “communities of interest” criterion of redistricting – consists largely of Garden Grove, Westminster, north (Viet) Fountain Valley, and Santa Ana – high-propensity Republican-Viet and low-propensity Democrat-Latino areas. Unless something has changed in the drinking water lately.
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There are three candidates with, arguably, half a chance:
Andrew Do, Lou Correa, Chris Phan
But you knew all this. What are the pajaritos saying?
Well, for one thing they’re telling me there’s mucho discord and resentment in the Grand Garden Grove Court of Bao, as the brand-spanking-new charismatic Mayor has decided to throw his weight behind fellow Democrat Correa instead of his erstwhile friend Phan who helped him win so many Republican votes to barely eke out a 15-vote victory against Bruce Broadwater. This seems especially unfair given that, as far as I know, Correa lifted not a finger to help Bao, and reportedly preferred Republican Developer Steve Jones for GG Mayor. In fact what Democrat loyalty there is to Correa has long been unreciprocated as the wily politico goes to bat for the likes of Kris Murray, Gail Eastman and Tony Rackauckas.
What could Bao be thinking, is he just being a partisan Democrat? Or is he thinking what I’m thinking, that Phan doesn’t really have a chance and Lou is the only candidate capable of beating Janet Nguyen puppet Do, and putting an end to her era of misrule at the County, an end to that boundlessly corrupt and unpunished reign of Cronyism?
Because pajaritos also opine that Phan, while hands down the most likable, honest and trustworthy guy running, isn’t really qualified to be Supervisor, doesn’t really have enough experience in government after only two years as a GG councilman. “Not his time yet,” as Republicans like to drone.
Furthermore, pajaritos indicate that Lou was an early, strong supporter of Phan and feels betrayed by the Navy officer’s challenge to him, and his calling Lou a quitter.
As far as THAT goes, I don’t know if someone’s pointed it out yet, but ALL THREE GENTLEMEN ARE QUITTERS. To wit:
- Lou famously quit in the middle of his last Supervisor term to jump into the state Senate, ironically paving the way for Janet’s inexorable rise to power; and he’s a good bet to quit again when a higher office opens up (e.g. AG).
- Phan hasn’t been around long enough to quit yet, but he’s obviously HOPING to quit his Garden Grove Council seat (where Bao could really use him to help clean that cesspool up) for the 5th Floor.
- And, lest you’ve forgotten, Andrew Do quit HIS Garden Grove council seat in 2010 for no better reason than boredom and frustration. (Which I wrote about here: “D’oh – There Goes Do!“) It’s like Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Quittin’ Palins.
Then there’s the fun game of “Who’s taking votes from whom?” which can be expanded into conspiracy theories. You know like in the old bon mot, “Republicans worried that Tait and Kring would split the Republican vote and give the Anaheim Mayorship to Galloway; reformers worried that Tait and Galloway would split the reformer vote and give it to Kring; but as it turned out Galloway and Kring split the Stupid People vote and Tait won hands down.”
Well, it’s pretty obvious by now that this was destined to be a Correa-Do race, and Correa should ignore Phan’s impertinence and criticism and just be glad he’s in there taking Viet and Republican votes from Do.
And Janet fucking knows it. The Voice of OC reported today that two of her Jannie operatives were fired from the Westminster Social Service Agency service center for doing Do campaign work while on county-paid time – the first time there have been ANY consequences for this common Jannie behavior. In response Janet RUSHED home from Sacramento, got herself on Viet radio, and caterwauled falsely that this Little Saigon service center was going to be closed next, and that it was the very end of the era of Viet-American representation if her people didn’t unite behind Do! (These crooked Little Saigon pols always think that nobody will hear or challenge what they say on Viet radio – thank God we now have tough little Thy Vo at the Voice.)
Janet and her little clique of Jannies have been doing this sort of thing for so long, they really think there’s nothing wrong with it. We’ve just kicked two of them upstairs to Sacramento (Senator Nguyen and Assemblyman Harper) but maybe now we can eradicate the disease at its roots, here in Orange County. The biggest reason I’d like people to vote for Correa.
There’s been plenty of writing on this blog about how no good Democrat can really be enthusiastic about Lou Correa, and all of it is true. But beyond lesser-evilism, there’s this: Lou really is best qualified, as a Democrat with 8 years experience and connections in Sacramento, to bring back the taxpayer money this DONOR COUNTY shovels northward. We could literally DO worse than Lou.
Oh, and you Vietnamese Republicans: Don’t forget the straight-shooting War Hero Chris Phan! (Hat-tip commenter Donny C.)
That Westminster office was a pure scam from day one – a totally unnecessary storefront political office for Nguyen to dispense her brand of government cheese to her Raza. It’s hilarious that this crappy little dodge should be Nguyen’s only bell to ring.
THE DAMN PLACE SHOULD BE CLOSED. There is a regional SSA office a mere three miles away on Brookhurst in GG – the heart of the Vietnamese community!
Hey, this is what I’ve been saying. It’s interesting to see how even Bao Nguyen is recognizing this reality. If you’re in the First District and want to put an end to Janet Nguyen’s reign of error, you know who to vote for. Sure, Lou Correa is far from “pure”… But he’s also far from the Jannie Sleaze Machine.
Is it just me, or does it seem like Janet Nguyen is the new Van Tran?
Me and Paul Lucas have been saying for 7 years that Janet was a bigger threat to good governance than Van Tran. It’s the Liberal OC and a lot of the DPOC that didn’t believe us.
Oh, certainly. You & Paul are being vindicated as we speak. I still don’t trust the Vannies as far as I can throw any of them (how many are left?), but the Jannies are certainly no better.
I meant I’ve been saying Lou is by far the “least of all the evils” on the ballot here. He may be OC’s biggest Blue Dog, but I’ve never seen him run so many underhanded schemes like Janet Nguyen and her acolytes have.
Janet should stay in Sacramento to do the job she was elected to do. It is not her place to pick who replaces her at the county level. We need an independent person not someone beholden to her.
“It’s like Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Quittin’ Palins”………. Hmmmmmm
Is it suppose to be a Tongue or Truth twister?…… or is there something divine in it?
I have to say that the Phan camp is putting up a pretty good fight. If you asked me a few months ago if I thought Phan had a chance, I would have said hell no. I still think he’ll to loose to Correa, but you have to admire the strong campaign he’s been running on virtually no money. Check this ad he put out. It’s actually pretty funny:
[Embedded at end of post now – editor]
But I think Do and him will split both the Republican and Vietnamese votes enough that Correa’s going to have a pretty easy victory.
And Lou should be grateful to him. Phan is young, he’s got a long future ahead of him. Garden Grove still needs him though.
Absolutely, yes. As long as Phan pulls away a significant amount of Little Saigon votes, Lou has a good shot at winning. And clearly, Janet Nguyen is worried about precisely this. Why else would she rush back here from Sacto just to cry on a radio show?
Yeah pretty funny ad – I embedded it in the story now for you (and him.) “He pretends to dig holes, for photo-ops.” What politician hasn’t had to do that?
Why the Carmina Burana? I guess he HAS to use that if he’s a Republican, even if he’s joking.
“Why the Carmina Burana? I guess he HAS to use that if he’s a Republican, even if he’s joking.”
Huh?
Speaking of being a donor county, that is the very basis of modern liberal wealth redistribution. And it’s the legislators not the county supervisors who can do something about that – via property tax allocations.
When he was in Sacto Lou sold us down the river on a big tax increase – violating his no-tax pledge. He got OC $50 mil (the so-called “Correa money”) in return from his party – a pittance of the billions in new txes extracted from OC.
I guess Phan is the Man.
Carmina Burana – I know you’re a classical music guy so I’m sure you know the piece. In a hundred horror movies AND Republican / Tea Party campaign ads, because it sounds like encroaching evil, or liberalism.
Of course it’s the legislators who deal with wealth distribution, but the point is a lot of them are Lou’s friends by now. NOT the friends of Michelle Steel or Shawn Nelson or Lisa Bartlett or Todd Spitzer or Andrew Do or Chris Phan.
Oh, I thought maybe Carl Orff was a Republican.
*Lou has organization, intelligence, caring and lots of money if necessary. The Hispanic 100 is nothing to be sneezing at…….even Arnold knew that. We love Lou, he dresses well and has a lovely family and group of friends around him. He also throws incredible Christmas parties.
Lou did not quit – he did not even want to run for that Senate seat. Umberg was a dead duck – Lou saved that seat for Dems – and you know it Vern.
Wow. I actually have to agree with you on this! Well, maybe Lou secretly did want the promotion to the state house. Nonetheless, Lynn Daucher would have become a State Senator and CA Democrats would have suffered an embarrassing loss during what was otherwise a favorable cycle if Tom Umberg had become the SD 34 Democratic nominee. It didn’t take long for his dirty little residency secret to be revealed.
Or his other little dirty secrets, either.
Daucher wasn’t so bad. It was hard to tell her record from Lou’s.
Yes she was. Bulldozer Daucher helped oversee the worst Bedevelopment abuses in Brea.
P.S. Sort of a Kris Murray kind of Republican.
Is that bedevilment and redevelopment rolled together into something even worse, because yeah.
Yeah, that’s about it. And no, I wasn’t drinking.
As both a resident of (and generally a fan of the development projects I see in) Brea, what do you consider to be the worst such abuses? I’m not trying to provoke you (as if I have to try); I’m legitimately seeking information.
Brea destroyed its historic downtown, abused eminent domain, harassed property owners and businesses, and cleared all the Mexicans off the mesa.
Then it built its hokey corporate flavored theme park on Birch Street.
But not to worry. My outrage over what happened in Brea pretty much petered out a long time ago. But people have such short memories – or are otherwise incurious.
What, who doesn’t like Old Navys and Gaucho Grilles and Improvs? This formula has been proven elsewhere over ten thousand times… Oh.
Proven not to work, I presume you mean to imply — except where it does. In Brea’s downtown, judging by the ever-present crowds, it seems to be working. And yet Birch Street lacks the cloying artificiality of Downtown Disney.
I got here too late to appreciate the old Brea Downtown, but while I generally prefer historic districts left as is I don’t think it mecessary to shoehorn Downtown Brea into the mold of a failure just because such ventures so often fail. Brea also used to be a “sundown town” for Blacks, as I understand it; not all heritage begs for preservation.
The problem would occur if and when downtown property owners start clamoring for public subsidies. (Watch these pages.)
“And yet Birch Street lacks the cloying artificiality of Downtown Disney.”
No it doesn’t. It smacks of cloying artificiality. And that’s because it IS cloyingly artificial.
nipsey was being sarcastic.
I don’t find Farrell’s cloying (although I guess it is indeed “artificial.”) Plenty of Edwards Theaters? Well, screening two dimensional images to give the illusion of three-dimensional movement is inherently artificial as well, I guess. It has nice restaurants, great places for outdoor concerts (which are done often and well), and is a decent place to let young teens run free without having to drive through a maze to get to Downtown Disney.
There’s only one truly offensive thing on Birch Street, and that is the presence of Rep. Ed Royce’s office — but even that has provided the opportunity for some good protesting.
It’s not a place that Charles Bukowski would hang out, but it’s also not Downtown Disney.
So can we quit calling Lou a quitter now?
Of course he’s not a quitter. He keeps running and running and running.
I must agree with Zenger on this one, albeit for somewhat different reasons. As soft as Lou has sometimes been on LGBTQ civil rights, Daucher always outright opposed marriage equality while voting against most anti-discrimination bills. On most other matters, Daucher had the more conservative record. She was only on par on reproductive rights… And she loved her some eminent domain & corporate welfare during her time on the Brea City Council.
Silly ex-pat — district residency isn’t actually required for State Senate seats in OC!
Ask Mimi Walters if you don’t believe me.
Oh, I believe you. It’s just that Umberg was so careless about it that it ultimately became hard to overlook when he ran for this very Supe seat in the 2007 special. Mimi Walters is pretty much doing the same thing and deserves such as much of the fire & brimstone that Umberg got. But because she’s been more hush-hush about the Irvine apartment (and OC Republicans don’t mind their own carpetbaggers), she’s getting away with it.
In case you missed it, being an Ex-pat and all, the problem with Mimi was when she took out a fake Irvine residency 3 years ago to run for STATE SENATE. She doesn’t have to keep up that pretense now in Congress, not only DOES she really live in her Congressional district, she also doesn’t HAVE to.
So now she can be the new Eye Candy standing behind John Boehner on TV (taking Kelly Ayotte’s place) to remind us all what liars these Congressional Republicans are.
*Carpet Bagging and Carpet Cleaning are certainly two different concepts. Look, Mimi passed muster during the recent the election and she is actually quite bright, if you get the chance to chat with her sometime. Will, she take up the Darrell Issa (I am a rampant flame thrower of the right)….probably not. Will, she act like Michell Bachmann and pretend she is the clone of Sarah Palin………we think not. However,
we will monitor the situation and reserve our judgment until we see which direction the boat is going.
did they really clear out all the mexicans in brea?
Not in my neighborhood. I should add that I have no idea what you’re talking about here.
Wiki – Brea demographics 2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Brea had a population of 39,282. 26,363 (67.1%) White (52.7% Non-Hispanic White)
549 (1.4%) African American
190 (0.5%) Native American
7,144 (18.2%) Asian
69 (0.2%) Pacific Islander
3,236 (8.2%) from other races
Hispanic or Latino were 9,817 persons (25.0%)
My wife says we can’t vote for Lou because he is named after vagina discharge (Leukorrhea). Sorry Lou!
Lou Crayola then…….there…..now you can vote for him. Burnt Umber #2
Caca guy!
Well you certainly don’t beat around the … uh, the shrubbery.
Bad news. Well, not really news, given that Lou has been tricking for PringleCorp lately.
There are a couple of houses on Broadway – in Anaheim – that are political bellwethers. They always (ALWAYS) sport campaign signs for whatever Pringle Puppet is in the queue. Kring, Murray, Brandman, Steven Albert Chavez Lodge; the flavor du jour is Lou Correa – even though the these houses aren’t in the First District!
Looks like Pringle wants another toehold in the County Hall of Admin.
*This report should be placed in and under the rumour and innuendo file.
Hence the title of this article – “Chismes” in Spanish means gossip – rumor.
Gracias
It’s a hat-tip to old godfather Pedroza too, when I use “pajarito” and “chisme”… gotta do that now and then, he started this infernal blog.
*Rumors and politics go together like peanut butter and banana…to make a delicious sandwich…Wow! Annette Funicello! Now there was a Mom!
A truly Winshipian reply Zing-man.
*Don’t be talking about my Annette….I was personally at her 13th birthday party and we played “spin the bottle”…..I was kissed on the cheek, by the wonderful Annette and did not wash it off for a week. Eat your hearts out..
rw
For the win!
I am VERY jealous. We saw Annette, Shelley Fabares and Frankie Avalon at an OC Fairgrounds performance – fun times!
You can’t keep voting for same termed out people and expect different results — fulls.
*You can’t be voting for the same “GOP approved new candidates” of the Lincoln Club, Scott Baugh or even our new guy and expect any different results ….either!
These are nodding doggies in the window. What do they say: “Better the Devil you know…..than the Devil you don’t know!” Especially, if they answer e-mails and phone calls.
I don’t know much about Annette, but I know Andrew Do has been canvasing my neighborhood hard. They are offering rides, help getting to the polling location and are armed with absentee info (although I don’t understand how it works….)???
These guys and girls are out in force in Westminister and Garden Grove.
If it rains next week as predicted, cash the check for Do.
Can’t wait to see what happens and if it really matters.
I think we have to vote for Lou to keep Do out but it does worry me that he is allied with Pringle. That really sucks.
At least we can all agree that Do is a Don’t.
I don’t know if allied is the right word. He is carrying water for the Kleptocracy – no doubt about that I think has been on wagon since at least 2010 – when Pringle’s OCBC endorsed him over Kringle.