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Things are coming more clearly into focus as the Tuesday primary hurtles toward us like a meteor. Also, when I say “most important OC votes” I mean to exclude “federal” votes like Congress, Senate, and President, and “state” votes like assembly and state senator. And also to exclude the two supervisorial races which it’s hard to get too excited about this year.
As far as the judges, and Board of Education members, who will have an outsized impact within this county, we’re now seeing the priorities as 1) keeping out or kicking out the more corrupt judicial candidates (Mike Murray and Scott Steiner); AND driving out the two biggest crazies on the OCBOE – Robert Hammond and Ken Williams.)
But you know Newton’s second law of Politics – you can’t drive out something with nothing – so just as we’ll need Hillary to prevent a President Trump, so must we enthusiastically support Thomas Martin and Karen Schatzle for judge, and get Beckie Gomez and Michael Parham resoundingly onto the Board of Education! (Board of Ed will be next post in a couple hours.) Let’s zoom in…
1. Why NO on Mike Murray and YES on Thomas Martin?
You can’t have missed the fact that we have the worst District Attorney around (Tony Rackauckas) who has subjected us to international scorn and ridicule, most notably and recently with his Jailhouse Snitch scandal, which spat on the Constitution while endangering the convictions of many dangerous criminals including Seal Beach mass-murderer Scott Dekraai.
Tony’s Assistant DA Mike Murray was KNEE-DEEP in this scandal, as this fine article details. (I also include a powerful mailer on the topic below, although it would be more powerful if the people who made it knew how to spell “criticize.”) And this cat, this constitution-dissing, civil rights-dismissing petty tyrant, wants to be elevated to Judge? Only in the OC. Brothers and sisters, don’t let it happen.
How about Thomas Martin? Truth be told, none of the names on your ballot are judicial candidates you would take home to meet your mother (my goodness she loved her some Thurgood!) but there are clear shades of better and worse. My colleague Diamond says that Martin has “a good deal of legal experience — but not much in the way of endorsements besides a couple of good sitting judges.” Most importantly, he is NOT embroiled in T-Rack’s Jailhouse Snitch Scandal! Vote Martin for Judicial Office #49, and send a message against Rackauckas’ abuses!
2. Why NO on Scott Steiner and YES on Karen Schatzle?
You may have read, and you may have put out of your mind because the image was too unpleasant, of Judge Steiner being censored for having sex in his chambers.
Now, I’m well familiar with workplace sex, but the sense of disrespect and irreverence is an essential part of it. And it doesn’t sit well with ME that a sitting judge (now “sitting” even sounds dirty) would treat his workplace, OUR halls of justice, with that kind of disrespect and irreverence. You?
On top of that, the OC Bar Association has given Scott – alone among our candidates, the dread rating of “not qualified.” (I assume, for more cause than simply joyous bench-shtupping.)
“WELL QUALIFIED,” on the other hand, is how they rank the bold young prosecutor Karen Schatzle, who is making a potentially kamikaze career move taking on this powerful sitting judge, and getting a lot of anonymous slanderous gossip in return. Give the girl a hand, vote Schatzle for Judicial Office #48!
Some have bitched that they don’t hear anything about Karen but the “boldness” of her run against horny-ass Steiner. Well, duh, that is what makes good press. Some have not seen her video:
A word about candidate Larry Yellin.
Some are treating Office #40 candidate Larry Yellin as just as culpable for T-Rack sleaze as Mike Murray (see last page of the same flyer, below.) We are not prioritizing the defeat of Yellin the way we are with Murray, for a few reasons:
- It looks like just ONE bad call he made that had no ill effects, in contrast with a whole destructive pattern with Murray;
- the OC Bar gives them their HIGHEST rating of “Exceptionally Well-Qualified,”
- and his opponent Thuy Pham isn’t running much of a campaign so Yellin with all his endorsements will certainly win.
But if you want to feel extra clean, AND make the strongest possible anti-T-Rack statement, vote Pham. And I believe, if Diamond doesn’t mind, that I will change our Office #40 recommendation to “no recommendation.”
P.S. For Judicial Seat 3, STEIN looks FINE.
Stein is having trouble against Don Wagner’s wife Megan for Office 3 because he has defended someone who did something really bad. As he has said, that’s his job — and this was hardly a fat cat, but someone who seems to have had a screw loose. AND, he did not get her acquitted of charges, but simply got an acquittal on a felony charge that, as lurid as the case was, was probably prosecutorial overreach.
As for Yellin — what he did in the case in question was a judgment call. I can disagree with it without thinking that it was malicious or corrupt. I tend to trust the OC Bar Association ratings, and the fact that they gave Yellin the rarely awarded top possible rating of “Exceptionally Well Qualified” while giving his tarnished colleague the lowest acceptable rating of Qualified tells me that they were distinguishing among ADAs — and knew who the bad actor was and who was the good actor. That he has the endorsement of the incumbent in the office, straight shooter Judge Steven Peak, also counts for a lot in my book.
So let’s make it a split decision: Greg says “Yellin,” Vern says “No Endorsement.”