Maybe the Register‘s Hanna Kang is a humorist, I prefer to think that, a PRANKSTER. A political satirist. And maybe her March 20 cover article was a clever indictment of the county’s monopoly daily for its anachronistic subservience to the Republican Party, even in this era when there are more Democrats than Republicans here, and most independents vote Democrat, as witness our 53.5% vote for Biden over Trump.
Why else would Ms. Kang have included TEN Republican women and ZERO Democrats in her piece “Ladies First: 10 Women Who Paved the Way in OC Politics?” Yes, ALL Republicans, from bankruptcy-era Marian Bergeson to today’s racist/racebaiters Michelle Steel and Farrah Khan. And apparently Hanna’s satire went right past her rightwing editors, to whom it all seemed fine and normal. “Copacetic,” as REALLY old conservatives say.
Alternatively, if this WASN’T a satirical prank … then maybe Ms. Kang and her editors really just don’t KNOW any Democrats, which would be kind of sad. In any case, Hanna has left room for yours truly to “pick up the slack” with SEVEN POWERFUL DEMOCRATIC OC POLITICIAN WOMEN THE REGISTER HASN’T HEARD OF. And here goes…
Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva
Sharon’s the one who alerted me to the bizarrely selective Register piece, and she was also a tiny bit miffed that Gabriel San Roman’s October Times piece “Latinas are an Emerging Force in OC Politics” also omitted her – SQS, the highest-ranking elected Latina in the County since Loretta shuffled off the electoral coil. Sharon did NOT say, “What am I, chopped liver?” which would have been undignified and distasteful, but that sentiment would be understandable, and I’m happy to address this gap in coverage of my old friend.
“Paving the way in OC Politics?” Well, that’d be Sharon, paving the way for the big 2018 Blue Wave, the first person to turn a red north OC district blue in decades (in 2012), and the first person to turn a red OC district blue since Loretta in the 90’s, and she did it all as a Latina. Yes, Sharon is a Latina, the Fullerton-born daughter of a Sears appliance repairman and one of ten children. And I can tell you she’s never forgotten her working-class roots, feeling that they make her a different sort of Democrat politician from the Ivy League-educated “Two Tom’s,” Daly and Umberg.
After attending Fullerton College, UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, Sharon began her career teaching at various Fullerton elementary schools while raising four kids. But as her kids grew up and she began paying more attention to city politics as it impacted the schools where she worked, she felt City Council needed a change from the Republican good-old-boys who’d been running the town so long; and after a few years of looking for some candidate to support, she eventually decided to just do it herself. (Shades of Dick Cheney’s VP search but minus the plunder and war crimes.)
So, she was elected onto Council twice, serving from 2004-12, and instituted term limits while she was there. This was when I met her; she signed onto my California Single-Payer Healthcare group. After Kelly Thomas’ gruesome 2011 murder by six Fullerton cops, it was only Sharon and conservative Bruce Whitaker who did anything to get truth and accountability out of the police; the other three councilmembers were recalled for their outrageous callousness and collusion.
In 2012 Sharon set her sights on Assembly, in a district and area where every Democratic candidate for decades had been a pathetic sacrificial lamb. But Sharon COULD DO IT, and did it, beating Chris Norby in 2012, losing to Young Kim in 2014, then winning her seat back for good in 2016. She is preparing now for her final (2024) assembly run, after which she’ll be termed out in ’26. At that time, at this point, she tells me she’s looking forward to doing more gardening, her true love along with teaching.
But WHAT HAS SHE ACCOMPLISHED IN THE ASSEMBLY, why do we like her so much? Most of what she’s done has been in the field of housing, and helping the homeless. She worked tirelessly for years to get an OC Veterans’ Cemetery, first, with a lot of frustration, in Irvine, and finally successfully in Anaheim Hills.
Importantly to us Anaheim activists, she fought hard for years to stop the rent gouging at the senior mobile home park Rancho La Paz; encountering opposition from all sides, she had to tailor that bill narrowly so that it only applies to that particular park, but she earned the gratitude of that whole community, and now Assemblyman Muratsuchi’s AB 1035 is attempting to apply the protections of Sharon’s bill to ALL California mobile home parks!
I have a soft spot for politicians, especially Democrat ones, who seriously fight waste and corruption. And Sharon, getting sick of wondering where the hell all the money she acquired for CalOptima was ending up, decided to audit the County’s health plan for the poor. Sharon’s audit led to the resignation of corrupt Supervisor Andrew Do from his chairmanship of the agency, and the revelation that he’d okayed salaries as high as $840 million for administrators, along with other wasteful and hinky shenanigans. Sharon told the Voice, “We have administrators in our public agencies making close to $1 million from public tax dollars. [That] to me is something we should be shining a light on.” Right on, Sharon!
We haven’t agreed with every vote and decision Sharon has made this decade, but as Dr. Jose Moreno has observed, she is always willing to come out in public and explain herself, and listen to her opposition, unlike any number of weaselly politicians of both Parties. And – hey – look at this! Sharon is coming to speak at the Anaheim Democrats Club (with Santa Ana Mayor Pro-Tem Jessie Lopez) THIS VERY THURSDAY, April 6, at 7pm – Anaheim Unitarian Church at 511 South Harbor. All are welcome!
Supervisor Katrina Foley
Wait, “women paving the way in OC Politics?” You must mean like Katrina Foley, not only the first woman but the first PERSON to bring HONESTY and TRANSPARENCY to the Board of Supervisors in decades at least! I’ve been supporting Katrina since she first ran for Costa Mesa Council in 2004, and we made plenty of Good Trouble together around 2010 successfully fighting the sale and privatization of the OC Fairgrounds. (See, “Great Fairgrounds Swindle.”)
In 2021 and again in 2022 she won election to the Board of Supervisors, from districts nobody ever thought a Democrat could win – all while being sidelined and undermined by resentful faux-Democrat Doug Chaffee. Against all odds, Katrina is PAVING THE WAY for women, Democrats AND honest politicians!
Congresswoman Katie Porter
Another female OC politician the Register has never heard of, or maybe doesn’t think has “paved the way in OC politics,” is ONLY THE NATIONWIDE MEDIA SUPERSTAR, Irvine Congresswoman Katie Porter, the Terror of the White Board, first Democrat to wipe the Irvine floor – TWICE – with her opponents, and now boldly throwing it all away in a mad race for Senate! Well… what can we say?? MOST of us have heard of Katie Porter.
Mayors Aitken & Amezcua
Why focus on Farrah Khan, the Republican mayor of OC’s 3rd largest city, when our two LARGEST CITIES, Anaheim and Santa Ana, also have female mayors for the first time in history? I guess, the problem is, simply, that Ashleigh and Valerie are Democrats.
But consider – there is a statewide working group called “Big City Mayors” consisting of the leaders of California’s 13 biggest cities – they make regular trips to Sacramento and DC getting what their cities and counties need – and Orange County is represented, nationwide, by THESE TWO WOMEN. (A few years ago, that was SIDHU and PULIDO!) I don’t know, sounds kind of important and like “paving the way” to me!
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris
I don’t now a whole lot about this moderate Democrat, but I do know she TWICE beat out Republicans in districts that had only elected Republicans as far back as the memory can remember. And maybe it’s been necessary for her to be moderate and cautious to keep that purple district. But Cottie is the Quirk-Silva of Coastal OC who has won twice now, so CAN COTTIE MAKE SOME BRAVE VOTES NOW? Yes Cottie can!
Memories of Loretta
But by far the most glaring omission, if you’re gonna write a piece called “Ladies First: Ten Women Who Paved the Way in OC Politics,” and you’re gonna go back to the 90’s to include (the apparently decent Republicans) Bergerson and Doris Allen, is LORETTA SANCHEZ. You really can’t get any more pave-the-way than “LO,” who shocked the reactionary county by showing a Democrat, a female Democrat, a LATINA Democrat could win here, beating for that matter a crazy-ass knuckle-dragger named “B-1 Bob” Dornan. It just DID NOT COMPUTE to OC Republicans, they were SURE it had to-a been the “ILLEGALS” voting. But they didn’t, and Loretta just kept winning, for twenty years, until she got characteristically restless, ran for Senate, and crashed up against Mount Kamala.
Like The Who’s “My Generation,” people liked to “put her down,” but I always stuck up for her. Because I’d noticed that despite her ditzy, Valley-Girl persona and “Blue Dog” reputation, all her important votes were great, brave, and progressive. She may have scheduled a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and sent out inappropriately sexual Christmas cards, but what I cared about was:
- She voted against the Patriot Act
- She voted against the invasion of Iraq
- She tried hard to get a “robust public option” into Obamacare
- She opposed both NAFTA and the TPP (defying Democrat Presidents as a populist.)
But still she was considered part of the “Blue Dog,” or conservative Democrat caucus. Once I asked her, “How is that? Your votes don’t seem like the votes of a Blue Dog.” And she winked and said, “Don’t tell anybody this, Vern, but I’m really in the Blue Dogs to spy on them for Nancy Pelosi” (who was considered more progressive.)
And of course as she said this she inched a little closer to me with her hands on her swiveling hips. That’s how she always talked to all men, back before her marriage to Jack Einwechter – my pal Greg Ridge tried to talk her into helping us fight the Fairgrounds Swindle, and after listening to everything he said, she told him, “You have the most beautiful eyes.” Greg snapped back, “Thanks, my wife thinks so too.”
The late Gus Ayer, at a loss for words, used to refer to Loretta as “a force of nature.” In a typical story told at her wedding, she woke up before dawn on an Italian vacation and dragged everybody out of bed to go climb a mountain. When I used to tag along with the Democrat float at the Huntington Beach July 4 parades, she would be running from side to side of the street in her famous short red dress and heels, and dancing with any children who felt like dancing. The local knuckle-draggers used to yell “Baby killer!” at her (for being pro-choice) and sometimes even spit at her; a couple times we had a big guy acting as her unofficial bodyguard to discourage anything worse. She NEVER TIRED.
She’d opposed the war on Iraq, but once we invaded she regularly voted to continue funding the war, she figured that was the responsible thing. The anti-war groups I was part of in 2008 disagreed and tried to get her to stop voting for the funding; we protested outside her office and made our case to her people (and were roundly criticized for that by this blog’s Pedroza and Claudio, which is when I met them.) Once she drove past us, slowed down, and yelled, “Thank you guys for what you’re doing, I’m listening!” And then she began to vote AGAINST funding the war.
Few years later, some of us had a disagreement with her over the DREAM Act – me, Pedroza, Gustavo, and some young “dreamers” wanted her to get behind it, but she wanted to hold out for COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM – she thought that just improving things for the most sympathetic people would take the air out of improving things for everyone – at least her theory made sense. I don’t remember if we convinced her that time.
I played piano at both her wedding and reception (funny story, it was one Melahat Rafiei who recommended me to her.) And that’s when I got to know her husband Jack, a JAG lawyer and really great guy – both times we ended up drinking wine together while everybody else babbled about politics.
In 2016 when my wife Donna ran for Anaheim Council against Steve Faessel, Loretta endorsed her with these kind words:
“It’s exciting and inspiring to see a progressive community activist like Donna Acevedo-Nelson running for Anaheim City Council. Donna is exactly the sort of candidate the district elections reform was meant to encourage. Her commitment to police reform and accountability will strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the community.”
Shortly after that election, Donna and I ran into her at the Santa Ana City Hall, and Loretta gave Donna a big hug. Afterward Donna marveled, “She smelled really good!” Yeah, all these Loretta memories are silly, but the serious things she’s done are history. I should mention, two other ladies in this article also endorsed Donna that year – Valerie and Sharon. THAT’S paving the way.
I’m done. Have a nice day. You too, Hanna. Just remember, There Be Democrats Here.
My first experience in politics besides walking in Prop 187 protests in high school was going door to door for Loretta’s Congressional campaign in Santa Ana back in 1999. We were based out of Hermandad Mexicana. That was also when I met Lou Correa because he was helping Loretta along with Nativo Lopez.
ThLiberalOC beat you to this story two weeks ago with a take on just Loretta….you have no imagination
Really, dumb shit? Beat me to what story, the story that the Register has ideological blinders?
One, my story is nothing like Dan’s little dribble. Two, I promised Sharon I’d write this piece days before Dan put out his little dribble. But there were more urgent things to write about first, as anyone can see.
But I’m glad you brought that up because I welcome the comparison. Between the above piece and this:
https://theliberaloc.com/2023/03/22/women-the-register-missed-in-10-women-who-paved-the-way-in-orange-county-politics/
Not to mention this:
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2023/04/ocgop-statement-on-trump-indictment-they-say-weaponization-but-forget-to-mention-soros/
versus this:
https://theliberaloc.com/2023/04/03/ocgop-statement-on-trump-indictment-from-the-people-who-brought-you-lock-her-up/
I feel good!
Vern, you deserve a cocktail or two!!! Chubby can’t hold a candle to you. He ain’t even in the minor leagues.
This isn’t a “story.”
I think the word for Kang and her side kick is “neophyte”.
I was at what I think was only Loretta’s second formal campaign event, which was a luncheon for women in business. I had no idea of whether she could win (having long endured OC’s GOP/White-Male-Supremist society). But I bought a table for me and my women managers and she seemed like such a breath of fresh air.
I have no idea where she got that courage it took to run in such a hostile environment. But after she won, there was a real crack in the wall for others to tear down.
Yes, she was a breath of fresh air. And later on, when she had established herself, occasionally a breath of nitrous oxide.
What can you expect from the PC Register?
Quirk did NOTHING in the wake of the Kelly Thomas murder. She just had the sense to say sorry and had the sense to keep her mouth shut.
If Norby hadn’t had a crazy wife, Quirk wouldn’t have beat him in 2012.
Why are you doing press releases for her?
Loretta Sanchez accomplished exactly nothing in 20 years in DC. Absolutely nothing. She was a complete waste of space. Foley? That cow’s entire political career has been bankrolled by fire unions. She earned her OCFA knee pads the old fashioned way. Ashleigh already has her sights on Congress. She’ll be every bit as terrible as Sidhu and will sell out her constituents in a heart beat if it helps her lock up her next career move.
That sounds about right. I would add Sharon Quirk to your list. Utterly useless. The leadership in Sacramento keeps giving her softballs – like a Veteran’s Cemetery, but really, she was created by the Police Industrial Complex.
Sharon was the one who instigated the Veteran’s cemetery. They did give her the Chair of the VA committee — not considered a gigantic prize at the time, but she ran with it. It would have never, ever, happened without her. The idea was rumbling around with a Vets’ committee I was brought into by Brian Chuchua — but we had no traction until Sharon picked up the ball.
Yes, she was generally pro-police — but her not doing more at the time of the Kelly Thomas killing was due to limits on what she could admit, as an agent of the city, with litigation expected.
Her contribution to the KT murder was absolutely typical of Fullerton’s liberal old guard – turn it into a homeless issue, not a police misconduct issue. Socks are what they really need. I’m sure the FPOA loved her for it.
When Fullerton cop Albert Rincon was busted for sexually molesting women in his cop car she went on TV all outraged. Then did nothing.
Can you think of any legal difference between excessive — even horribly excessive — use of force against someone and sexually molesting woman in one’s vehicle?
I think most people can. Hopefully you too.
That’s not the point. The point is she did nothing to address the out-of-control PD in Fullerton.
Did she have the political power to make anything happen? Not until at least after your recall succeeded.
She did nothing. She said almost nothing. I think there were some tears. And the misdirection of socks. Then radio silence.
My recall? No, can’t take credit for that. Talk to Tony Bushala.
I meant you and Tony as a team.
The Fullerton 2012 recall is Tony’s and Travis’s legacy, not mine.
Also, didn’t Lo break up that guy’s marriage?
And compared to these other females, Aitken really has accomplished nothing in public life at all. Zip. Why is she even mentioned in this post?
Milestone of being Anaheim’s first-ever female Mayor, presumably.
So she gets credit for running a political campaign.
She gets credit for winning an office — unlike Galloway or Kring.
Hardly a badge of honor. And she’s done nothing to distinguish herself after four months in office. Quite the reverse.
It still makes her a pathbreaker or trailblazer or whatever. And while I might want to argue your point, I’d also like for her to give me better ammunition to work with.
But it’s tough. She’s in a situation a lot like Tait’s before he got a working majority. (Or after he lost it; I forget the chronology.)
Placing trust in her is going to be poor investment. Anyway, winning an election by spending a fortune against a cypher isn’t trailblazing. It’s just being rich and/or calling in favors.
What a high bar.
Okay, to all the critics, especially Zenger and Hector who I usually agree with. First of all, I never said ANY of these politicians were the Second Coming of Whatever (except maybe Katie Porter.) The main point was these seven are a hell of a lot better, and at least as important, as the ten that the Register listed. And that the original piece was written with GOP blinders on.
For one thing, my progressive buddy Danett pointed out on Facebook that out of these seven ONLY Katie is a supporter of single-payer health care, which is mostly true. That’s why I stuck in the fact that Sharon had signed on to my Health Care For All group back when she was on Council, as a backhanded reminder that, now that she’s in the legislature, she changed her tune, as I sadly documented here: https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/11/no-sharon-single-payer-healthcare-will-not-cost-the-entire-ca-budget/
And I think Danett is wrong about Loretta – she tried to get a “robust public option” into Obamacare, which single-payer fans believed would eventually LEAD to single-payer – which, once the cat was out of the bag, is why the public option failed. And I’m pretty sure she was a co-sponsor of Conyers’ single payer bill.
Another thing: all these women were elected with the support of law enforcement (except maybe Katie), making us wonder if a female Democrat can be elected to OC office (apart from Santa Ana Council) without law enforcement support. Valerie particularly is an SAPD politician, and I didn’t say much about her, except that she is more important than Farrah Khan. Katrina won her unlikely victory with Sheriff support, and her record on Sheriff issues has been mixed – some good votes but Vince was disappointed that she didn’t join him on replacing Lexipol for the Sheriffs as he did in Santa Ana.
Sharon knows we are disappointed with her votes on police issues – we need more legislators that will stand up against POBOR. But that’s not the only issue. She’s authored over 50 bills that’ve been signed by the Governor, mostly having to do with increasing affordable housing and helping the homeless. She’s been tireless on getting the OC Vets Cemetery, she saved the seniors of Rancho La Paz although she wanted her bill to apply to more mobile home parks – she’s still fighting to get Muratsuchi’s AB 1035 passed.
And she AUDITED CALOPTIMA, which has already had a big impact, although the audit results won’t be out till next month. When we complained to her Thursday night that the Anaheim Council might vote to keep the corruption report under wraps, she said that if that happens she will move to audit Anaheim.
That’s all. I think. I might add some more to this later. Happy Easter.
Oh yeah ASHLEIGH. All I said about her is she’s more important than Farrah Khan and shoulda been in the Register piece. It’s too early to really say how good or bad she’ll be, though she sure benefits from comparison to her predecessor(s.)
She’s more “moderate” or “conservative” than some of us hoped. She’ll never back a Gate Tax (which she was clear about when she ran) and believes that campaign finance reform can’t apply to independent expenditures (which she was not.) She is against Santa Ana-style rent control in Anaheim, and doesn’t think developers should have to provide more than 10% affordable housing which many of us think should be 15 or 20.
Basically not much different from Tom Tait, whom everybody deifies.
Quirk couldn’t audit a coloring book. She jumped on CalOptima 11 years AFTER it became a public disgrace.
Your low opinion of Sharon is noted, but I don’t think she is the actual auditor.
Exactly.
I will say this for her. She seems to be the brains of the Quirk-Silva duo.
this you? https://anaheimblog.wordpress.com/tag/david-zenger-2/
But we do wear his hostility as a badge of honor.
I note his Anaheim Obscurer has been down for a week now, I wonder if he’s noticed? Well, what’s he been doing on his ironically-named “OC Independent?”
A breathless report on the activities of a scary “leftist” group called VietRise which is trying to organize Little Saigon mobile home residents to know and stand up for their rights;
A defense of the new MAGA HB council’s removal of the gay pride flag;
And lots of throwing the name “Soros” at Santa Ana police reform activists.
I think all of us here will be okay with Matt Cunningham’s ridicule.
My bio isn’t scribbled by Jerbal Cunningham.
Good Lord. A “new voice” for orange County. Obviously a swipe at Voice of OC. I wonder who’s bankrolling the latest rodentine effort to promote to attack Democrats. Even a dummy like Jerbal must see the sinking ship he’s tethered too.
One of his biggest benefactors is the Santa Ana Police Union bullies, who are now allied with landlord groups in trying to recall two progressive Councilwomen – hence the rent control obsession. The anti-gay thing just comes natural to him.
I believe that auditing authority depends on one’s being on a committee that has jurisdiction over a given area (and on being able to get the committee to agree to it.)
She wasn’t on the right committees and didn’t have the influence to make audits happen a decade ago.
I get why you have a grudge against her over past events. But I’ve been dealing with her for 15 years, since Occupy, and she is sharp and (good from my perspective) as progressive as she thinks she can be. She’s no AOC, and I doubt she’d want to be, but in any event she’s never had a district that would allow her to be. On the OC curve, that puts her quire high.
*Great article and reprise …..One thing is for sure: The Day of the Woman is here!
The last ultra-powerful woman in OC Politics we can remember was Harriet Weider!
As a declared Democrat, she supported more Republican issues than even the renowned Tom Reilly! Foley and Porter are very hot commodities with some very sharp personal political skills and very intelligent staff members arrayed around them. The Sanchez sisters have been a force of nature which included “water dunking”….which endeared Loretta to every Republican boob lover. Bob Dornan was kicked out because he was too damn good. Pettrie-Norris is great and things could be changing to actually accomplish somethings for the citizens here behind the Orange Curtain. Right now the Dems seem to have the edge in intelligent women. One thing is for sure, you will not see Michelle Steel or any other Republican Woman tell everyone how they want to restrict abortion and expect to get elected or re-elected. Taking women’s rights away and the Abortion issue have literally killed the Republican Party. What great mind came up with that strategy? Anyway, thanks for taking us down Memory Lane….
Reading Agents’ Orange gives me a high opinion of Bergerson, and a low opinion of Wieder – one of the matriarchs of OCBC.
Bob Dornan was kicked out because he was a lunatic and an asshole.
If Wieder wasn’t in that article (I’m not bothering to look it up), I’m surprised.
Yeah… I guess I was surprised too. But she wasn’t.