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I know, it’s hard, they come fast and furious, three or four a day, glossy as all get-out, littering the pavements of Anaheim and Santa Ana, many calling opponent Joe Dunn a liar and a failure, most paid for by deep-pocketed corporations and Republican billionaires.
But to those of us who actually fought four years or more to get district elections for Anaheim, this one takes the cake. (Hat-tip Ada Briceño, writing at the Voice of OC)
“The people of Anaheim say ‘Thank you Lou!'” for bringing the gift of improved democracy to us little folks. And a quote is pulled from a brief last-minute speech Lou made at a December 2015 council meeting, the first and only he’d ever made on the topic. The blood boils. I was there, I’ll tell you what happened.
The People’s Map had been unanimously approved, it was only to be determined which four of the six districts would get to vote this year. The Klepto majority of Brandman, Kring and Murray, led by Brandman, suddenly refused to let the most-Latino district, District #3, vote this year during a Presidential year, even though Latino disenfranchisement was the legal justification for the lawsuit pushing districting on the city. The people there were outraged and unanimously opposed to Jordan’s sabotaging of the reform, which it turned out (despite his nonsensical justifications) was solely due to his not wanting to face his nemesis Dr. José Moreno in an election this year.
Lou Correa was there that night, as was I, wandering restlessly around the overflow room, listening to the public comments. I was a little surprised to see him – he’d never shown an interest in districting before, and I couldn’t guess what his position would be – so I asked him, “Are you going to speak?” And he said, “Oh, hello, Vern… Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.”
Finally, after a few dozen speakers had raked Jordan over the coals for denying a 2016 vote to District 3, Lou strolled up … and said the same thing. He said it pretty well, and I was relieved, and complimented him. But it took hearing a few dozen people saying the same thing first; you could practically see the finger in the wind poking out of his bald scalp.
Plus, for what it’s worth, his speech had no impact at all. Jordan and his gang stubbornly stuck to their guns; and at the next meeting Jordan made things even worse, “turning the table over” Frank-Underwood-style by throwing out the People’s Map altogether and going back to square one … it was not until Jan. 12, near-riots, and Lucille finally ditching the anti-democracy majority, that “The Kleptos Caved.”
I try to be fair, and rack my brain: Was there ANY other time before or after that little December speech that Lou spoke out on districting? And all I can think of is this: His 2010 & 2014 endorsements of Republicans Kris Murray and Gail Eastman, who spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars FIGHTING AGAINST districting, and his 2012 endorsement of Jordan Brandman, who tried to sabotage it at the last minute so it wouldn’t happen this year and he wouldn’t have to face José. “Voting Rights Champion” my ass.
Now his supporters come out – namely, Oscar Reyes, who CREATED the People’s Map – a fine map, that everyone agreed was perfectly acceptable, but Oscar is also someone who joined the struggle at the eleventh hour. Oscar’s apologia is that “Lou came out to help when we called him” (to back up his map), and that he had nothing to do with this flyer, as it was “Paid for by Howard Ahmanson/Fieldstead & Company and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. P.O. Box 19599, Irvine, CA 92623.”
Wait a second, that’s even weirder. Howard Ahmanson, the anti-choice, anti-gay, Republican billionaire from Irvine, wants Lou in Congress so badly that he had his people create an awkward, dishonest and offensive mailer ostensibly designed to appeal to progressives and other democracy advocates?
People are asking, will Lou distance himself from this mailer, disown it? I ask, but where would that stop? Presumably he also has nothing to do with any of the other Lou Correa mailers that come out, with their half-truths, exaggerations, lies, and slander against Joe Dunn. They are ALL paid for by shady groups (well, most, I can’t say I’ve examined all 100 of them so far.)
Another day in CD 46… and I’m guessing this is going to go on another five months.
I didn’t think lou could out do his fake loretta endorsement piece but I guess i was wrong.
I penned a few blog comments. Can I get in on taking massive credit, too?
What’re you running for, champ?
I can just make that up, too, right?
County Clerk of Offices in Space
Heads up though – I think Much-Sidhu-About-Nothing has the inside track there.
Yeah, but I actually live in outer space. He’s clearly carpetbagging.
I love this exchange. More wit than in a year’s worth of GlibOC.
I wouldn’t waste too much time arguing over who should take credit for bringing Districts into the city of Anaheim because it’s not going to make much difference anyway. The real determiner in politics is money and I predict that in 4 or 5 years from now or ten years or Twenty Years you will have the same lack of fair representation that you have now in the city of Anaheim.
Unless political campaign financing is totally revised which it won’t be, and unless immigrants both documented and undocumented have a say. The only way for that to happen is to organize the workers in the Disneyland area. Ask yourselves why that is not being done. And I’m talking about the service workers, the hotel workers and restaurant workers especially. The Disneyland area is a powder keg of worker power but the unions and in particular the hotel union have done absolutely nothing to take advantage of that situation.
The reason they haven’t done anything is because that Powder Keg could explode in the faces of the leaders of these corrupted unions that are linked to the corrupt leadership of the Democratic Party; that is, they are linked to Democrats like Lou Correa, more or less. Instead you have union leaders especially those in the hotel Union supporting districts so that they have yet another mechanism with which to manipulate votes for their chosen Democratic party candidates. It’s a farce.
THe point is a politician taking credit for something he didn’t do, that hundreds of other people did. And that even if you’re cynical about districting, there’s still a big difference between Correa or Dunn representing us in Congress.
Bao would be better, but a politician taking credit where credit isn’t due isn’t as newsworthy as the districting issue and you all are missing the bigger story.
Your point, however, is by far the lesser of two evils. You all are missing the bigger story.
This has to be the last straw. Even if it was ALL AHMANSON and not Ahmanson and Correa, the fact is that this Ahmanson character has invested in Correa and this is not something we can abide. It’s time to show Correa the door.
Maybe he worked behind the scenes??
And maybe … oh God, i don’t have the energy right now to come up with a smartass comeback.
If he did, one of his many supporters would have told us what he did by now. And why would it have had to be SECRET, then or now?
What we do know is he convinced a lot of Democrats to vote for Murray, Eastman, and Brandman, hence SLOWING THE PROCESS WAY DOWN.
Lou would never “work behind the scenes” for anything. If he cant grab a photo op out of it with minimal input he wont be seen for anything.
He still hasnt distanced himself from ahmanson