Jordan Brandman’s Vicious Texts.

Well, what else can you call these?

(Brandman’s cell number redacted by this blog, so’s not to “dox” the boy;
Jodie’s response probably redacted by her.)

District 2 Anaheim Councilman Jordan Brandman sent these texts early in the morning of Feb. 12, 2020, to former West Anaheim activist Jodie Mosely, and they referred to then-District 1 Councilwoman Denise Barnes, a bitter rival.

But the first thing you think (if you’re me) is, “Did the famed, sainted Mara Brandman really talk like that?”  I’d always heard of her as a wonderful beloved woman on a horse, with an equestrian center named after her in Orange.  Jordan sometimes uses her death 13-14 years ago as an excuse for things. 

For example, when the entire Democratic Party was furious with him for not giving Jose and Denise a “third” last year to agendize a Black Lives Matter resolution, he came back the next meeting sounding like he was furious with the REST of us for expecting him to be ABLE to give a third to anything.  “It was the thirteenth anniversary of my mother’s death, and I WAS BAWLING MY EYES OUT!” he indignantly stammered.

Now I picture her a little differently

But still…

Why so ANGRY, why so VICIOUS, toward gentle Denise Barnes??  I don’t know about you, but I try to find CONTEXT to at least understand things a little better, even when they’re inexcusable.  (And right now, Ms. Mosley is being uncooperative.)

This was early in the morning right after a long Council meeting that went to 10:30 or so, the February 11, 2020 meeting.  (One of the last pre-Covid meetings.)  I watched that whole meeting.  I saw that Jordan left a little early…

UPDATE Oct. 2023

[I think I was wrong, in my original version of this story, about what made Jordan so mad at Denise after the Feb. 2020 meeting. So the next two paragraphs are an update.] 

We know now that Jordan made the vast bulk of his income as a political “consultant” the Building Industry Association (BIA.)  And apparently the sore spot that night was a building project in the Hills – on Serrano, FAR from Jordan’s district – lobbied for by Jeff Flint. John Saunders (mostly famed for rent-gouging at Senior Mobile Home Parks) wanted to tear down a popular shopping center and build “affordable housing.”

Sidhu and Trevor O’Neil, representing the Hills, got “hall passes” to vote against it so as not to piss off their neighbors. But the cabal figured they’d at least have Jose Moreno and Denise voting yes, as “OF COURSE they’ll support ‘affordable housing,’ they’re Democrats DUH.” But those two Democrats looked at the project and beheld that it was shitty. Denise was actually the deciding vote dooming that project. And in the morning the BIA Councilman wanted to “rip off her tits.”

Provenance.

In other words, how did these texts get to me?  Good, circuitous story there.  Have a seat.

As you can see from the time stamps, about 90 minutes after her text conversation with Jordan, Jodie shared those two screenshots with three of her (then) best friends – all (then) West Anaheim activists  – Amanda Edinger, Tracy Urrutua, and Kathy Chance.  Chance tells me those four used to “text all day, and text all night!”  These two screenshots from Jordan and Jodie were a little shocking to all of them, but they kept it a secret amongst themselves for over a year.

All four of these ladies were then members of the astroturf organization “Anaheim First” – all except Kathy Chance, who’d been invited but didn’t trust the group.  The other three have all since left Anaheim First, disgusted with the city’s general corruption as well as Jordan’s language – Amanda, who was working as Councilman Faessel’s aide, has even left the state.

And these texts may have stayed a secret forever, were it not for Jordan’s histrionic performance blasting Sister Cities Commissioner Larry Larsen from the dais for using the term “China Virus” (and spouting similar anti-China rhetoric.)  Jordan put on such a spectacle of righteous outrage – refusing to even pronounce Larry’s evil name – that Ms. Chance got fed up with his hypocrisy and decided the public should see Jordan’s anti-woman texts.  Do you think she was right?

.

What’s he say there at the end – “We have a responsibility to be pro-active, in making sure we’re stopping Asian hate … hate of ANYBODY.”  The same guy:

It took months for Ms. Chance to get any kind of results!  On April 29, two days after Larsen was removed from the Sister Cities Commission, she sent the texts to Councilman Moreno; and, a little later, to Councilmen O’Neil and Diaz for some damn reason.  She tried to post about them on the Anaheim Blog (where she had been prolific in her condemnations of Mark Daniels’ nasty remark about Mosely herself), but Matt kept calling her a liar and deleting her comments.  She sent the texts to Anaheim’s Human Resources, which confirms they’re doing an “investigation” with all details “confidential” – why would they want to rock the boat?  (I have copies of all these e-mails.)

Finally Jose confronted Jordan at the end of a Council meeting:  “I need to talk to you about some texts you wrote last year about Denise Barnes.”  The smile evaporated off Jordan’s face, and “he gave the textbook illustration of “blanching.'”  “I have no comment on that,” he stammered, and took off at a near jog. Or better, here’s Jose’s description in an e-mail to Ms. Chance:

“After Council meeting last nite I did approach him to confirm he received my email and text with interest to discuss the issue. At first he said he had not received any of my messages but when I described the substance of the email he said ‘Oh yes. I am not commenting on that’ and began to dart away. I did get chance to ask him ‘Jordan, I simply want to talk about it to confirm the screenshots and how to move forward if they are yours. I’d like to be in conversation.’ Unfortunately, he kept walking nodding his no and saying ‘Do whatever you want I am not commenting on that’ and briskly walked away.”

Next, Jose sent the texts to Denise Barnes herself, who was horrified and unsure what to do.  Meanwhile rumors of these mysterious texts were circulating around Anaheim, and I was trying to get a copy myself.  After two weeks of getting no response from Human Resources, Denise relented and sent me the e-mail threads, and thus I met Ms. Chance, a non-political person who holds all sides to the same standards.  She told me, “Oh good, I was hoping  this would eventually get to you.”

Should This Guy Be on Council?

Should someone who speaks and writes about women this way, any women, when he’s around folks he’s comfortable with and considers friends, should he continue to represent the people of Anaheim?  YOU ALL answer this.  I’m already doing my best to recall him, for lots of other reasons, before I even knew about this.  I’m also wondering:

  • What the Democratic Party of Orange County thinks about it?
  • What Ada Briceño thinks about it?
  • What Gloria Alvarado thinks about it?
  • What Jordan’s handler Melahat Raifei thinks about it?

This is the guy who not only was apoplectic over Larsen’s remarks against the nation of China;  who not only raved about the “anti-Semitic speech” of a homeless drunk Jewish commenter who made a dumb crack about “Jewish lawyers,” but who also penned a 700-word tirade last fall calling ME racist for my great song about Avelino – apparently I was racist because I used an old Hispanic tune to sing about a Latino politician, and also because I called Mayor Sidhu “dirty” in the same song, which apparently you can’t do if the person is from India.

We learn over and over, that “Those who huff and puff the most … often have a lot to hide.”  Or, something along those lines.

UPDATE June 18

Today, Jordan went to his friendly blog outlet, the ironically named “Liberal OC,” to admit to writing these texts and make just about the most phony apology imaginable:

Weasel-Boy with an unsuspecting
Senator Gillibrand in Costa Mesa.
Pic by Dan “Chemical Lewinsky” Chmielewski.

“I am disheartened to learn that a private conversation of mutual distaste from February 2020 is making the rounds on social media due to recent votes I cast regarding a housing project and removal of a city commissioner. While I would ask for grace and patience, as the screenshots released do not represent the conversation’s full context, I want to sincerely apologize. My language in the heat of the moment over a year ago was beyond inappropriate and should never be uttered about any human being. To those who respect me and have been impacted – I am sorry. l look forward to working to build back that confidence and trust in my leadership.”

In how many ways is this pathetic and insufficient? Let’s get started:

Jordan’s “apology” should not be directed at “those who respect me and have been impacted” – which is basically nobody. It should be directed first at DENISE BARNES, whom he still hasn’t called, then maybe to Jodie Mosley who was horrified by the text and shared it with her three friends, ALL of whom were so grossed out that they quit “Anaheim First.” After that, maybe all women, and humans.

From Howdy-Doody to Fire Marshall Bill,
the pop culture foreshadowings of Mr. Brandman
have been manifold.

Jordan employs all the weasel arts here: If only I had given more “context” to his texts then they wouldn’t seem so bad. Well, I tried to get more context, but what context would excuse “rip her f-ng t*ts off” and “c**t?” Maybe, if Denise had broken into his house and killed his dog. Then, MAYBE.

And he claims the release of his text is due to his “votes on a housing project and removal of a city commissioner.” What housing project? Does he think the Sunkist vote was a housing project, he paid that little attention? (This is actually more evidence that Jordan didn’t even write this “apology,” along with the good spelling and vocabulary.) His hypocritical excoriation of Larry Larsen did inspire my source to release these texts, but the only reason she AND I released them was their grossness combined with his two-faced sanctimony.

By the way, what the hell is a “private conversation of mutual distaste?” Jordan and Jodie both felt distaste for the words that were popping out from their fingers? Or they both felt distaste for Denise, you want to go there still? [Update: Most people seem to be reading that as “Jodie and I both can’t stand Denise.”  Nice throwing Jodie under the bus, Jordan – along with first instructing her to lie and say she knew nothing about the texts, and then suddenly admitting them.]

We learn three things from this fake apology –

  • Jordan admits the texts are in fact genuine,
  • he plans to try to ride this out, and not resign, leaving it to Anaheim District 2 to recall him (or the Council to expel him.)
  • DPOC Chair Ada Briceño has seen all this, and we await her statement. Many of us Democrats have been telling her for years that this is not a person for the Party to be proud of.  If we don’t stop this ambitious and hateful politician NOW, he will be angling soon enough for Assembly and Congress.

“When those strings are cut,
he will fall into a heap on the floor.”


About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.