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TOP ROW (large photos): Doug Applegate (CA-49), David Dodson (Board of Equalization), John Chiang (Governor), Dave Jones (Attorney General); TOP ROW (insets): Nathaniel Fernandez Epstein (Assessor); Mary Navarro and David Boyd (County Board of Education, Districts 5 and 2), Duke Nguyen (Sheriff), Toni Smart (Auditor); MIDDLE ROW: Jestin Samson (State Senate 34), Marggie Castellanos (State Senate 36), Brett Murdock (District Attorney), Yes on Irvine’s Measure B — Veterans Cemetery, Sharon Quirk-Silva (AD-65; BOTTOM ROW: Joe Kerr (4th Dist. Supervisor), Tony Thurmond (State Supe of Public Instrution); NO ON THE RECALL (Josh Newman pictured with great sign), Scott Rhinehart AD-73.
It’s essential that all of us Orange County (California) voters who 1. want a Congress that will stand up to Donald Trump, and 2. want to fight the perpetual corruption in the OC itself, show up to VOTE TODAY, Tuesday June 5, 2018, if you haven’t already.
Most of these recommendations are from Greg Diamond and/or Vern Nelson, who both happen to be Democrats. When Vern and Greg disagree that will be noted. When our other bloggers, such as Ryan who is a Republican, agree or disagree, that will also be noted. (As a state and county central committee member, for which he does not speak, Greg often sits out races where he disagrees with the party’s recommendation.)
When we can, for if you’re interested, we will link to our previous oceans of commentary of why we made each of these recommendations. Now get out there and vote, and make sure all your friends do too!
Statewide Offices
Governor: JOHN CHIANG! “EVERYBODY JOHN CHIANG TONIGHT!”
Lieutenant Governor: ELENI KOUNALAKIS.
Secretary of State: Vern says RUBEN MAJOR.
Controller: Vern says BETTY YEE.
Treasurer: Vern says FIONA MA.
Attorney General: DAVE JONES!
Insurance Commissioner: Vern says ASIF MAHMOOD.
Member, State Board of Equalization: DAVID DODSON!
United States Senator: Vern says KEVIN DE LEON. Greg says HILDEBRAND.
U. S. Representatives
The Fighting 38th – LINDA SANCHEZ.
The Fighting 39th – Greg says THORBURN. Vern & Donovan say CISNEROS. Ryan says SHAWN NELSON.
The Fighting 45th – We have NO IDEA. But whoever gets thru to fight Lying Mimi, we will fully support in November.
The Fighting 46th – Vern says to write in LOU NOBLE. Donovan’s choice LOU CORREA will win in a cakewalk anyway.
The Fighting 47th – ALAN LOWENTHAL.
The Fighting 48th – Vern says HARLEY ROUDA, Greg is staying mum.
The Fighting 49th – DOUG APPLEGATE, hands down.
State Legislative Offices
State Senate
District 29 Recall of Josh Newman? Greg, Vern, and Donovan say HELL NO!
. . . . . . (But Ryan says YES!)
District 29 replacement if Josh N is recalled? Vern says Bruce Whitaker; Ryan says either Whitaker or Ferguson. Greg says that unless your choice is Ling-Ling Chang, your choice is going to lose — so don’t vote for the recall because Ling-Ling is just playing you for a fool.
District 32 – ALI TAJ.
District 34 – JESTIN SAMSON!
District 36 – MARGGIE CASTELLANOS!
Assembly
District 55 – Vern doesn’t like any of the candidates. Greg is writing in GIL CISNEROS. (He is from Yorba Linda and HE could win!)
District 65 – SHARON QUIRK SILVA!
District 68 – MICHELLE DUMAN
District 69 – Vern says write somebody in; Vern wrote Jeanine Robbins.
District 72 – JOSH LOWENTHAL!
District 73 – SCOTT RHINEHART!
District 74 – COTTIE PETRIE-NORRIS!
NONPARTISAN OFFICES
Judge of Superior Court Office 13 – KEEP TED HOWARD, we haven’t heard anything bad about him and have no idea why someone’s running against him.
Superintendent of Public Instruction – TONY THURMOND!!! Important!
County Superintendent of Schools – Write in Gina Clayton-Tarvin!
COUNTY OF ORANGE
Supervisor, 2nd District – BRENDON PERKINS!
Supervisor, 4th District – Vern unenthusiastically says JOE KERR, as the preferred Cynthia Aguirre has no chance. Greg was that sole holdout in DPOC against endorsing Kerr — he likes Kerr but preferred no endorsement — but with Doug Chaffee spending freely he is now falling in line behind Kerr. Both Vern and Greg see Chaffee and Lucille Kring as the worst Democrat and Republian, with Kring winning worst overall.
. . . . . . . . . Ryan and Cynthia say TIM SHAW
. . . . . . . . .
Supervisor, 5th District – Seriously, everybody write in former San Clemente mayor KATHLEEN WARD, who has worked hard (AGAINST Supervisor Lisa Bartlett) to keep the 241 toll road from being extended through the south county.
Assessor – NATHANIEL FERNANDEZ EPSTEIN!
Auditor-Controller – TONI SMART!
Clerk-Recorder – Vern says old OJ friend HUGH NGUYEN!
District Attorney – BRETT MURDOCK!!! The three others are UNTHINKABLE.
Sheriff-Coroner – DUKE NGUYEN!
Treasurer – Write in CYNTHIA AGUIRRE!
County Board of Education, Dist. 2: DAVID BOYD!
County Board of Education, Dist. 5: MARY NAVARRO!
State Ballot Measures
Prop 68 – YES (?) Vern is torn.
Prop 69 – YES ON THE JOSH NEWMAN TRANSPORTATION LOCKBOX! (Ryan says bah humbug)
Prop 70 – NO
Prop 71 – Yes (?) Greg is torn.
Prop 72 – YES!
Local Ballot Measures
Irvine Measure B, to have an OC Veterans’ Cemetery – HELL YES!
Westminster Measure E to lengthen Mayors’ Term: NO!
I am a qualified Write-in Libertarian candidate, running for State Assembly in the 69th district. Government is too big. The Libertarian Party wants to reduce government to 25% of its current size — only what the Constitution requires. If elected, my votes in the Assembly will always be for less government spending and more personal responsibility. http://autumnbrowne.com/lib_candidate.php
Hey, I know you and your husband, don’t I? Hi Autumn. I wish you’d have told me, I already wrote in my pal Jeanine Robbins.
Yes you do know Michael Buss! As the top two vote getters go forward I am guaranteed a spot in November, so I’ll count on your vote then!! (Write-in votes for anyone who has not taken out papers with the Registrar of Voters will not count. I am the only qualified write-in candidate.)
Villaraigosa so Cox does not even get on the ballot.
We have to vote for Silva? She gave us 30 minutes on the homeless issue and then said she was for more money for shelters like Kramer – KILL ME NOW.
Eleni buys the office like rich people do.
Joe Kerr is really involved in the homeless issue the #1 issue in the OC so much so he actually took the time to tell one of his aids to come to Housing is a Human Right OC.
WOOOHOOO
Look lets be serious we are fucked.
Hope they kiss us first…
Yeah, I heard that “Villar so no Reep on ballot” plan from Drew Levine … but a lil late!
Thoughts on Westminster Measure E to change the term office for mayor from two to four years?
None, we are just hearing about it now.
Since we lost Diana Lee Carey we don’t like anyone there. Is this a Tyler Diep thing? Or is this to keep Margie Rice in charge till she’s 100+?
Tyler Diep proposed the ballot measure, while Margie Rice opposes.
Already leading to vote no against the change, but would love to hear your input as well.
Go with Margie’s opinion over Diep’s. She’s decent and thoughtful; he’s awful and self-serving.
Oh, Margie is very self-serving, temperamental, and rock-headed. But more decent than Tyler, which is like being better than Saddam Hussein.
I’ll call up Diana, one of the few people I trust in that town.
DIANA SAYS (and we will add this to our guide) NO on Measure E.
It is a ploy for the Tri Ta / Tyler Diep clique to consolidate their power even more. (Which also makes Margie feel left out.)
And the impoverished town had to pay $82,000 to get the measure onto the June ballot (where the proponents expect a friendlier electorate) rather than November’s which woulda been much cheaper.
Can you explain why you endorse each candidate or link me where you do?
Thanks for asking. Yes, I’ve explained most of my rationales at painful length. If you click on the link to the offices, they will usually take you to the one of the six “long-form” pieces I wrote about each race. If you can’t find the one for a race you’re interested in, just use our search field to put in one of the candidates’ names and it will likely bring up the piece you’re looking for.
I can’t get over Harley Rouda’s Republican past. If he’s for gay marriage, abortion rights and immigration reform, didn’t he know what the Republican Party and conservativism in general are all about? I think he saw opportunity, and took it.
And for LG, I find it problematic that Kounalakis accepted donations from Big Pharma. So I’m going to bite my lip and go with Ed Hernandez because I remember when he went up against Pharma for better prices in Calif.
Did she? I know that she’s getting lots of support — what seem truly to be independent expenditures — from medical doctors who hate Ed Hernandez because he is an optometrist and they want to horn in on the provine oc the ophthalmologists. I hadn’t heard about a Big Pharma tie — but maybe Big Pharma just presumes that Big Med knows what it’s doing.
I’m not one of those merciless radical lefties who think that taking money from some group automatically translates into complicity. I’m generally OK with candidates taking corporate money from all but a few industries — so long as they are willing to betray those donors’ interests. I’m not against giving most corporations access, at least if that access is offered in equal measure to their critics. What I object to is selling out. And I don’t think Eleni is a sellout — but, who knows, she might be. I think that Hernandez has shown himself to be one, at least enough so to be inferior to a decent alternative..
Vern loves him some Harley, so he can take that on. I’ve seen elsewhere that his past Republican lean is highly exaggerated by his critics. For example — he gave money to John Kasich. Hey — trying to knock off Donald Trump in the primary was a GOOD thing to do, right? Democrats who wanted him nominated because he’d be the easiest to beat look like idiots right now — and at time I may well have been among them, though I recall my stance on that shifting from week to week. I’d LOVE Kasich to be President right now, if Hillary was going to lose anyway, given what we now know of the alternative. Sanders vs. Kasich would have been the first race in over 60 years where one could think that both candidates were decent, honest, and well-intentioned people. I presume that I’d have supported Hillary over him too — Supreme court, you know — but I’m not especially proud of it.
I’m backing Harley, not because I love me some or because he’s perfect, but because I think he’s the best chance we Dems have of beating Dana and Baugh.
Yeah, that’s what I meant.
Thank you for getting me to take a closer look at one of the most crucial offices in this election: Attorney General. I watched this debate and came away with full agreement that Dave Jones is the clear winner for the office. I’m excited to really feel good about voting. Thank you.
Meant to post the link to the debate.
Early is very scary, Bailey is boring and scary, Becerra I like in some ways, but Jones is the one.