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I was recently hoodwinked by Ed Lopez into taking his place as Vice President of the Anaheim Democratic Club. One of the more enjoyable tasks that comes with that position is to write the monthly newsletter… which I just finished, and I think is good enough to share here. Remember, one of the rules I have to follow is “Don’t say anything bad about any other ‘paid-up’ Anaheim Democrats” (which would include Jordan Brandman, Sukhee Kang, and Arty Montez) … I try to skirt that stricture imaginatively. And apologies to all my dear non-Democrat friends…
Hello Anaheim Democrats! We have a lot to celebrate in this year’s election, if you can take your eyes off the horror show in Washington DC for a moment. By the way – did you know that Orange County went for Hillary? Yes, longtime Republican bastion OC is now blue! And that’s just the beginning of the good news from Anaheim, the OC, and California. What do we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving? Let’s see…
Josh Newman. Our new state senator had first to overcome the resistance of his own Party, who “already had a guy” as inadequate as that guy might have been, and then the millions of dollars and endless slander of the deplorable Republican Ling Ling Chang … and has now emerged as the victor! Josh’s victory gives Democrats the supermajority in the state Senate. The former Army officer and Bernie Sanders supporter will focus on, among many other things, improving the efficiency of the state’s service to our nation’s veterans.
Sharon Quirk-Silva is BACK – and our new and former beloved Assemblywoman – and the driving force behind our planned Veterans Cemetery – gives us a supermajority in the Assembly! Months ago, she told the Orange Juice Blog (in a yet-unpublished interview) that her three priorities if elected would be: 1. Helping the state’s millions of homeless from the vantage point of the Housing Committee; 2. Prioritizing local students over foreign students in access to higher education; and 3. Working on the Veterans Committee to provide them more jobs. How lucky are OC veterans with two such advocates as Josh and Sharon in Sacramento?!
Oh, did you catch that? Who’s your Daddy county, California Democrats? The OC has given you the supermajority in BOTH houses of the legislature! You’re welcome.
In Anaheim, most spectacularly: Dr Jose Moreno! The party-endorsed candidate, paid-up AnaDems member, architect of the district elections lawsuit, and (to steal Matt Cunningham’s favorite slur) “leftist academic” has just squeaked onto our city council by 44 votes, creating an honest council majority for the first time in at least 15 years – showing that people power can indeed overcome bottomless dollars from Disney, the resort district, and the more corrupt unions. Jose joins three honest and decent Republicans (including our beloved Mayor Tait) for a majority that will stop robbing Anaheim’s treasury blind for special interests.
A BIG AnaDem shout-out to our own former and paid-up Vice President Ed Lopez, who TROUNCED a very unqualified fellow for a seat on the North Orange County Community College Board. I don’t know how the quiet and bald man pulled it off, but anyone who hears Ed talk about higher education can tell he has an encyclopedic knowledge of what the hell he’s talking about!
Looking around the county, there was plenty of other great news. Most dramatically, Costa Mesa has achieved a council majority, with the election of Democrat John Stephens and the re-election of decent (and brilliant) Republican Sandy Genis, who will join probable next-Mayor Democrat Katrina Foley – a council majority which will bring humanity and sanity back to Goat Hill for the first time in decades. This follows the long Mansoor Era which was marked mainly by immigrant-bashing; the Righeimer Era which was marked mainly by public employee-bashing, outsourcing, overdevelopment, and bitter partisanship; and finally two heartbreaking near-wins in 2012 and 14 when the good people came within 100 votes of victory. Special bonus this year – the humiliating defeat of bully Mayor Steve Mensinger!
Elsewhere in Democratic OC Council triumphs, we congratulate Fullerton’s Jesus Silva (husband of Sharon) who warmed our hearts by beating out corrupt police union thug Larry Bennett, and Melissa Fox adding class and smart liberalism to Irvine’s council. (Our saddest defeat was that of OC’s greatest councilwoman, Westminster’s Diana Lee Carey, victim of $200,000 worth of lying attacks in a town that looks to be the OC GOP’s next petri dish of corruption and outsourcing … but even SHE managed to pass her most important project, Measure SS.)
Looking over to Huntington Beach’s Ocean View School District, heroic and embattled President Gina Clayton-Tarvin, a progressive Democrat, liaison to HB’s latino “Oak View Comunidad,” and the number one target of HB’s scary alt-right, soared to re-election, a week before getting a final victory against Rainbow Disposal, forcing this filthy and smelly dump directly across the street from an elementary school to completely clean up and enclose. Between that and the statewide ban of plastic bags, HB’s alt-right (led by Chris Epting) is pulling their hair out, consoling themselves by muttering “Trump – Trump – Trump.”
Pivoting on Gina and the OVSD, she also had a great success passing her Measure R school bond. SCHOOL BONDS across the County passed handily, along with California’s Propositions 51 and 55, showing that voters across the county and state are more than willing to pay a little more to keep our children educated.
And the passage of PROP 57 (early parole for non-violent offenders) and 64 (marijuana legalization) puts California in the forefront of ratcheting down the Prison-Industrial Complex and the War on Drugs.
So Happy Thanksgiving, Anaheim Democrats, stay brave, and keep up the great work! Trump too shall pass.
” By the way – did you know that Orange County went for Hillary? Yes, longtime Republican bastion OC is now blue!”
Don’t encourage them, they’ll start to think they’ve been doing something right.
Blue with localized red spots. Big spots, making it hard to notice the overall blueness of the county..
Luckily, Hillary’s winning OC is all the County’s doing and has nothing to do with her rampaging through most of the rest of the state as well.
“Leftist academic.”
Or when Wordsmith is feeling particularly peppy: “leftist Chicano Studies professor.”
Because obviously rightists are so afraid of that gol’ dern useless book lernin.’
In a few months he won’t even be remembered as the Kronicler to the Kleptocracy®.
Kamala is the big news….don’t know why you missed it. That is a six year seat and will create added support for important issues….if she chooses to take them on: Homelessness, Immigration, Big Pharma, Medical Pricing and a whole raft of other biggies. Someday, we are hopeful that folks will understand that Non-Partisan is really just trying to do the right thing. No one needs a tattoo to do the right thing. What we need are caring human beings…..it is amazing when this happens….amazing.
Why would Anaheim Democrats be excited about Kamala beating Loretta?
1. Loretta is from Anaheim,
2.the outcome wasn’t a surprise,
3. neither one is that exciting,
4. they’re both a step down from Boxer,
5. and I preferred Loretta anyway.
Maybe because Kamala supported Josh Newman and Loretta supported Jordan Brandman?
But in the interest of conciliation:
“LORETTA FOR CA-46 in 2018! Cure LouCorrea!”
Bizarrely, Loretta supported both Jordan and my wife Donna – polar opposite Democrats. I understand the Jordan thing was just cuz she really doesn’t like Jose. Yes, there is such a thing as Moreno Derangement Syndrome, afflicting both left and right, I’m not sure why.
It’s not bizarre. Donna being in the race gave Loretta an easy out from having to support either of the others. Plus, she probably presumed that Donna wouldn’t win, so it was a good and cost-free opportunity for her to burnish her credentials within the party.
This says nothing about Donna’s level of worth as a candidate, but just that Loretta’s endorsement wasn’t necessarily “from the heart” if she didn’t see it as potentially costing her something. That’s politics, Vern — the compliments don’t necessarily mean anything more than the insults.
Aside from the possibility of a lot of what you say being true, we had a lot of input – from those close to Loretta and Loretta herself – that she really was enthusiastic about Donna.
I’m going to start sounding like Zenger if I continue this discussion. Perhaps offline.
Why? I’ll give you three good reasons: woo, woo, woo!
I was waiting for that.
From an OCWeekly article about the Court’s rebuke of OC’s disgrace of a DA-
The California Court of Appeal ruled late on Nov. 22 that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and his staff prosecutors have repeatedly proven themselves ethically unfit to handle basic criminal justice system duties in a pending death penalty case, People v. Scott Dekraai, and rejected Attorney General Kamala Harris’ defense of the cheating as “nonsense.”
So what was she being “caring” about in defending the “ethically unfit” RudeCaCa’s “snitchgate” (not to mention the Court’s characterization of her efforts) ??
Further enraging Loretta Sanchez’s big contributing supporters within the county, who are close to Rackauckas?
Aw c’mon. Give Kamala a break. She was running for office!
So was Lucille Kring.
*Have you noticed how …..when someone in this county is actually doing a pretty good job…….that out of the blue someone has to dust off the old chopping block…”because”:
Mike Carona, Webster Guillory, Bob Dornan and now Tony. Sounds a whole bunch like “Insider 1% Torture Technics”…to us. We know, we know….”those without sin cast the first stone”……but please…… A dirty carving set for a French Chef, a evil server for e-mail for a Presidential Candidate or an unwashed hand for a restroom attendant? Sometimes, the inside of the bathtub……doesn’t always require a microscope!
*Well said, well said……grandfathers.
If Newman wins, it will be a trifecta of rebukes of OC’s three most noxious online personalities: Matty, Fib OC, and Chrissie. Oh, the crying those CHAVALAS will be doing…and two of them have already started!
Trifecta of rebukes for sure, carnal
Cunningsmith is still crying about districts! Like blaming the referee for losing a game played over two years ago.
Vern: Jesus Silva was endorsed by the Fullerton Police Officer’s Association. They didn’t spend as much money as they have in past election cycles but they spent more on Silva than any other candidate as of late October (see link below):
http://docs.cityoffullerton.com/weblink/1/doc/603458/Page1.aspx
It’s a tangled complicated world. Sharon did boast to me that she was THIS time (now that she’s not running against Norby) opposed by police and sheriffs and would thus feel free to pursue a more civil liberties agenda. As council goes, as always we preferred Jane to everyone else. But with Jesus I think we at least have an anti-Poseidon vote.
Thanks for the warning though.
Wait, really, more than Bennett?
“Sharon did boast to me that she was THIS time (now that she’s not running against Norby) opposed by police and sheriffs and would thus feel free to pursue a more civil liberties agenda.”
¡Ay caramba!
If she really said that it’s a pretty awful revelation that she puts loyalty to her donors ahead of her constituents.
Sometimes the truth slips out at most inopportune moments.
Inopportune how?
Inopportune for her. Now you can ask her what difference it makes (regarding civil liberty) whether or not the cops helped put her in office.
She has to run again in 2018, doesn’t she?
This individual has been all over the policy map like a pendulum depending on who she’s trying to please. Remember the Poseidon fiasco?
I will never forget the Albert Rincon mess in Fullerton. He was the cop groping women he “arrested.” Quirk went on TV and got all serious about being a woman and a mother, promising an investigation, yadda yadda. And in the end? She hired an in-house police chief who claimed there was no culture of corruption in the FPD, and that those who said there was were misinformed.
That is really weird. Why do you think that they didn’t support Bennett more?
Maybe they were trying to ingratiate themselves with the person they expected to be elected to the State Assembly.
In any event, this looks more to me like their trying to make sure that their door is open to get to talk to Silva rather than that they’re just trying to install someone that they know is their permanent vassal.
What does SQS mean, by:” Prioritizing local students over foreign students in access to higher education; ? It has a xenophobic flavor, especially during these Trumpian times.
Regarding the Anaheim VP position, I guess that the local parties just anoint officials, rather than having a democratic process electing them. I may not understand the difference between a club and a party.
Today is the “Orange Day” and I am sure that Dems and everybody else will appreciate its significance:
http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/take-action
In this context, “local” probably means “in-state” and “foreign” means “out-of-state.” In other words, the disfavored group includes Mississippians rather than (California resident) Mexicans.
I hope she isn’t using Dan C as her political advisor, who else would advise her to use this kind of language in today’s context of fear among many Latinos?
I was reading Dan C on his reply to your Disney Branding post, and I noticed that the DPOC advertises in his blog. Doesn’t he has a history of attacking Dem endorsed candidates, lately against Jose and Donna, and he still gets ads from the DPOC ? As I said before, I don’t understand whether this is a party or a club.
The dick will put up what he wants whether it’s paid for or not, to make himself look good. I really doubt the DPOC pays him for anything.
Ricardo,
“Foreign students” means foreign students. Some California JCs make lots of dough having foreign nationals attend and paying a full, non-subsidized rate. Since the subsidy for a JC student is virtually 100%, this is seen a a welcome revenue source.
Santa Monica College, for instance, has a substantial number of Asian students paying the full freight.
Quirk is probably referring to some means of filling up classrooms with Americans first.
This might help make America great again.
Thanks David for the information.
Making America great again…. let’s see if the announced OJB interview will provide further clarification.
Which again, under California law allowing undocumented resident students to pay in-state tuition, is about California residency rather than U.S. citizenship.
Right after the election results a very reliable source who wishes to remain anonymous reported seeing a man wandering PCH bellowing about Gina, hard left community activists and people who feed bread to ducks. Eventually he stopped wailing and wandering and stood before a plaque about the Golden Bear. This man was touching it over and over while mumbling, “I do exist. I do exist. I run this town! It’s MINE!!! I am important. So important. I exist. I exist.” The concerned reliable anonymous source approached cautiously. Suddenly, the man turned his horrible orange visage toward them while wiping away his tears with a plastic grocery bag clutched in his fist and screamed. “SEE?!! THEY ARE NOT SINGLE USE!!!”
The anonymous and very reliable source fled. The scary orange man’s screams about how he still controlled everything echoing in their ears.
Of course you can’t tell us who this anonymous source is, because they are scared to death for their job at OVSD, right?
Correct.
But the Birds still love me. lol. Nut Job!
Like clockwork, Epting is demanding an apology and retraction for me calling him a leader of HB’s “scary alt-right.” Let’s see, how best to double down?
I remember what really drove him around the bend about Joe Shaw three years ago was when Joe called him a “tea partier.” “Just go ahead and embrace your teabag nature” or something, Joe snarked at him, and then it was game on. Chris likes to pretend that nobody knows what his politics is, even though he can’t keep his mouth shut about all his positions. He doesn’t like to be stereotyped – who does? – but his politics as expressed publicly is consistent. “Tea party” I think was lazy on Joe’s part – Chris doesn’t seem to care about the size of government or the Constitution. “Alt-right” as popularly used this year seems to fit though. He’s consistently expressed hatred of unions and Democrats, treats man-made climate change as a joke, and was one of the very few – the only really vocal person – to defend Rainbow’s dump across the street from a Latino elementary school. I’ve previously written a few paragraphs on how he seems to be anti-Latino. http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2016/06/trump-brought-his-social-indigestion-tour-to-anaheim-acid-reflux-ensued/ He uses “community organizer” regularly as a slur against anyone who gets involved in Oak View – and he expects that innocent phrase to be understood as a slur. He treats “Black Lives Matter” the same, a movement that he assumes everyone in HB will agree with him is evil, scary, anti-cop and “racist.” He has been the ringleader of a hateful gang including Chuck and Bridget Johnson, Jim Knapp, Ann Marie Boyer, the confederate felon Craig Frampton … and from there down it gets less colorful, about a dozen vocal haters, all bitching about how well-treated the Mexicans in Oak View are and how they don’t deserve it. All Trump supporters except for supposedly Anne Marie … except I remember HER talking about how Oscar (pictured above with Gina) should keep his opinions to himself “because he can’t vote” – obviously assuming (wrongly) that he’s not a citizen. Oh, I do go on and on. Look at the time. Let’s see if I get any responses.