Pretty clearly, this blog supports the progressive insurgent (with the slight residency wrinkle) Joanna Weiss in the CA-47 race against Scott Baugh, while the ironically-named Liberal OC is clearly in the bag for the corporatist insider (with the slight DUI wrinkle) Dave Min. But which Democrat has a better chance of beating Republican Scott Baugh, given that the overwhelming priority is that Democrats take back the House nationally? Well, Joanna’s team (unsurprisingly) has a new poll contending it’s Joanna! And I had some other questions I wanted to ask her, but first here’s her press release:
NEW POLL:
Joanna Weiss Is Democrats’ Only Chance to Keep CA-47 Blue
New Poll Confirms that Min Can’t Win
ORANGE COUNTY, CA – Today the Joanna Weiss for Congress campaign released a new poll confirming that she is the strongest general election candidate to take on likely Republican nominee Scott Baugh in November 2024. In a head-to-head general election match up, Weiss bests Baugh, while State Senator Dave Min proves to be an incredibly weak candidate whose recent DUI conviction is deeply concerning to a vast majority of general election voters. Voters are also very troubled by the fact that Min campaigned on a no corporate PAC pledge, and then once in office, accepted over $150,000 dollars in special interest money.
“Candidate quality matters. The poll demonstrates that Orange County voters choose Joanna Weiss’ grassroots leadership in the community over Dave Min’s longtime record of problematic judgment,” said campaign manager Emma Weinert. “Next November, we must defeat Baugh, a MAGA extremist with a criminal history who refuses to acknowledge that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election and who supports a national abortion ban. The poll confirms what we have known, that Dave Min can’t win in the primary or the general election. With so much on the line, there is only one leader who will beat back Republican extremism this election — and that’s Joanna Weiss.”
KEY FINDINGS:
- Weiss leads Baugh in a general election match up, while Min trails him.
- When voters learn about Min’s damaging record, Baugh beats Min by 12 points.
- Min’s DUI raises “major doubts” for 66 percent of general election voters, including 71 percent of No Party Preference voters who are likely to decide the fate of the election.
- Min’s lie about not accepting corporate PAC money raises “major doubts” for 60 percent of voters.
Community organizer and attorney Joanna Weiss has built a broad coalition of support across Orange County and California, earning endorsements from Representatives Linda Sánchez, Eric Swalwell, Julia Brownley, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, and former Representative Harley Rouda. She also has earned endorsements from EMILYs List, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, Controller Malia Cohen, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, OC Supervisor Katrina Foley, Orange County Young Democrats, and grassroots leaders throughout the district. Weiss is on the consent calendar to earn the endorsement of the California Young Democrats at their endorsing Convention this weekend.
Weiss has raised over $1.3 million to date. She also has both the most cash on hand and more grassroots donors than her primary opponent. Based upon a recent FEC press release, Weiss is the top nonincumbent woman fundraiser in the country for a House seat in the 2024 election cycle.
###
Joanna is a former litigator and Adjunct Professor at Chapman University School of Law where she taught courses on Pre-Trial Civil Procedure and Public Interest Lawyering. Joanna served on the Board of Directors of the Public Law Center for over a decade, winning multiple awards for her legal and community leadership.
As founder of Women for American Values and Ethics (WAVE), Joanna has activated over 2,300 community members to contribute over 50,000 volunteer hours, register over 10,000 students, and raise millions to support candidates and causes in Orange County, CA.
Born and raised in Orange County, Joanna attended Capistrano Valley High School and Saddleback College, graduated from UCLA, and received her JD from USC School of Law. Joanna and her husband Jason love to surf, hike, and volunteer with their three children Leah, Will, and Audrey.
******************
So, Vern here again. I’m no expert on polls but this “checks out” I think. If we’re not hearing a bunch of Republican attacks on “DUI Dave” right now, that’s only because they HOPE he’ll be the Democrat to make it through the March primary – and THAT’S when CA-47 voters will have it beat into their heads so tiresomely that THEY’LL feel like pulling over and stumbling home in the dark.
Joanna’s biggest weakness, which is that she lives a few miles outside the district in San Juan Capistrano, doesn’t approach that level of toxicity. Of course I also like Joanna’s politics better and find her more honest. She is currently looking for a home in the district, even though it’s not necessary for Congress. And technically that will make her a “carpetbagger.” But there are so many degrees of carpetbagging, this being on the least offensive rung, as:
- She has worked and lived in that Huntington-Newport district for years.
- Moving there unnecessarily for this race, I think, shows respect to the district.
- If it’s true that only she can beat Scott Baugh, which I believe, then the 47th District NEEDS her.
- Finally, how can the Party of Michelle Steel and Young Kim, who don’t even pretend to inhabit their districts, use residency as a cudgel?
Last concern: It’s been bruited about by the Min-pologists at the Liberal OC – mostly anonymous ones of course – that Joanna refused to pledge to support whichever Democrat makes it through the March primary. Yeah I know, consider the source, but I thought I should check and straighten out the record. Well, Joanna, at the time in question, was answering whether she would pledge to support the choice of the state party straw poll, which was a kind of lame thing to ask of her.
She confirms that OF COURSE she will support Min over Baugh if Dave beat her in March. Not to do so would show a Katie Porter-like indifference to which Party controls Congress – wait, those are MY words, not Joanna’s, and did I just say that? Oh well, too late to take it back. I’ll quit while I’m ahead here. VOTE JOANNA!
Today, the protests on Culver and Barranca were heavy enough to force the cops to shut off Mimi’s parking lot. The House of REPRESENTATIVES doesn’t mean beans if this woman only sniffs as she drives through my town on the 405 or 5. At least a drunk knows where his home is.
What in the Blue Hell are you talking about?
Yeah, WHAT protests? Are you saying there were HYUGE protests over one of the Democratic candidates living outside the district? Hard to believe…
The day of her post there was a free Iran protest and Palestinian car rally in irvine.
The dense Chmielewski was moved to write a long essay about this. His biggest argument with me is that, since I had my share of DUI’s, I’m in no position to predict that the Republicans will use Dave’s DUI relentlessly against him if he makes it through the primary. Yeah, whatever, dude. So predictable. And so dense.
Well, I’ve never had a DUI, and I’ve also never been widely believed to be intoxicated at DPOC meetings to which I’d driven myself and explained it away as having used some special kind of mouthwash. So I’ll adopt these sentiments as my own and he can chug that down.
I was actually preparing to write about this. Chumley is (at least professing to be) more ignorant about polling than I had imagined. At first I thought that he was attacking Weiss for conducting a “push poll” — like “does the fact that Dave Min was arrested for drunk driving make you more or less likely to vote for him? Ok, is that slightly less, moderately less, much less, highly less, extremely less, or horrifyingly less?” (We’ll see those push polls all over the place if Min is nominated and it will not be pretty.)
But no! Weiss is doing an entirely different kind of poll — one that is not only legitimate, but extremely smart! She’s not trying to convince voters of things in a campaign message disguised as s poll. Rather, she is actually trying to learn something from voters about what they think and care about, the better to craft a powerful campaign message. That’s not only legit — it’s exactly what she should be doing right now!
Surely a competent PR professional — or even someone like notBogDan — would understand what was going on here. So my question is: is he simply trying to mislead his readers — or is he so awash in mouthwash that he imagines his criticism to make sense?
I have preferred Katie to Adam Schiff enough to incline me not to follow my heart and vote for Barbara Lee — but she’s losing me over this.
Joanna’s biggest weakness isn’t that she lives outside the district. It’s that teachers’, law enforcement and labor groups, and gun control, LGBTQ+ and Dem Party activists have rejected her.
My question is why?
Oh, for the most part that’s easy: pressure from above. As an incumbent, Min falls within the protection of the party and its leaders so long as he cooperates with them. They sell endorsement at the price of obeisance. He actually got more rather than less useful to them as a result of his DUI because now he owes them big and can be better controlled.
Not a lot of people outside of politics like that — and even a lot of people who are part of those groups will quietly invite trusted friends to join them in voting for Weiss.
This is pretty much what happened when Josh Newman beat Sukhee Kang for Senate. In fact, the more I think about it the more this race seems like that one.
Newman beat Sukhee Kang because a PAC tattooed Kang in Fullerton.
That was certainly part of it. There were others — along with his just being the better candidate.
I’m sure her husband being a partner in a union busting law firm doesn’t help.
Back that up or lose it.
1. Her husband is ________.
2. His bar number is ________.
3. His firm is ________.
4. Proof that they are in the business of union-busting can be found ________________.
It’s your assertion; I’m not obligated to go on your snipe hunt.
They went to law school together.
https://twitter.com/joannajweiss/status/1674890484152688641
https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/185268
Jason Weiss usc Sheppard mullin
https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/193298
Joanna Weiss – usc
https://twitter.com/CDAW_National/status/1527355512005984256 (Cadw refers to Sheppard mullin as union busting)
OK, thank you, um … Susan, I presume?
This certainly invites two questions: (1) Is her husband directly involved in this practice? (2) What are her own views on this area of practice?
Is it damning?
If the answer to (2) is “no,” that she doesn’t like it, and would work in Congress to protect labor rights even at some minimal cost to her own income then no.
Holding a spouse responsible for their spouse’s area of work, in which they are not involved, is guilt by association.
If the the answer to (1) is that he’s not involved in this area of practice, then it’s even more attenuated than that. Sheppard Mullin is a big firm with many areas of practice; he may have a more palatable (or, as common in corporate firms, at least ethically neutral) position. Beyond that, representing employers before the NLRB is nowhere near as bad as what some of the smaller boutique firms focusing on this area do. Of course, if they refer clients to those kinds of firms as part of their services, that’s bad — but again it’s not really on Joanna’s tab. Being part of a major corporate firm is always an exercise in compromise. I was lucky not to have ever agreed to work on any case at my NY firm that seemed worse than ethically neutral, although I found other of the firm’s area of practice repulsive. They did, though, pay for me to help save one asylum seeker’s life (and contribute to the welfare of many others); to help end the “stop and frisk” program for several years in NYC; to fight against Florida’s felony re-enfranchisement bar; to mentor other pro bono immigration associates; and to organize the firm’s aid for people trying to deal with Hurricane Katrina. It seems to have also funded Jason Weiss’s wife to do some really good things with her share of that support. Do you wish to condemn all corporate law, Counselor?
I remember Philibosian as being a really decent DA. Ave atque vale.
Back that up or lose it. Stop and frisk. Saved an asylum seeker. Hurricane Katrina aid. You’re making it up.
Uh, what sort of proof would suffice?
Never mind: I don’t jump through hoops for anonymous cowards. But I will say that that photo of me speaking into a landline phone? That was me talking to FEMA people about Mississippi claimants.
No judging. Just fact checking.
1) Yes
2) Who knows. She claims to have marched and fasted with Cesar Chavez when she was in high school so I assume she’s competing for union support, making her case and failing.
3) Joanna’s law license is registered at the same apartment complex as the accountant for WAVE. Bizarre if she’s still a practicing attorney, right?
Have you done any due diligence on the candidate you are supporting?
Correction: same apartment UNIT as WAVE’s accountant.
Who practices law out of an apartment unit? Sad.
FEC rules require her to cut all ties with the PAC she founded. Just wondering who is paying the rent on that apartment in Newport Beach since Weiss Iives in San Juan Capistrano.
Address is 2525 Ocean Blvd, Apt 2A, CDM 92625.
You’re a super sleuth. Who is paying for that apartment unit?
In other Sheppard mullin news,
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2023/robertphilibosian_111423.htm
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/littler-cashes-in-on-starbucks-sprawling-anti-union-campaign
(Find Sheppard mullin)
The Weisses’ appear to have sold the unit in Newport Beach to an Asian couple in March 2015.
Related reading material.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/17/joanna-weiss-dave-min-dui-attacks-00127869
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/10/17/convicted-criminal-dave-min-loses-ground-in-race-for-katie-porters-seat/amp/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrat-dave-min-federalist-society-joanna-weiss_n_64c18467e4b0dcb4cabb2fca/amp
My wife called it. She said Weiss’ smear campaign against Dave Min looks like it’s coming from the Republicans. And she is right. Weiss has a number of extremist GOP donors. I hope the racist tropes she uses in her attack ads backfire on her. Min is endorsed by Katie Porter. To me that counts for a lot. Min has my vote!
Whatever about your vote. The allegedly racist attack ads (which I haven’t seen but if they’re as bad as claimed) are apparently I.E.’s from AIPAC – attacking Dave, and we don’t know if they favor Joanna or Baugh.
I do think Joanna should condemn them though, and I’ve told her that. I wish she would. If they’re as bad as people are saying. Who wants to be the beneficiary of racist attacks?
Yes it would be good if Joanna Weiss disavowed the racist attacks sent in a mailer funded with dark money by a GOP super pac. So far she has refused. The 24% AIP voters that comprise the 47th congressional district won’t forgive her.
I’d like to see this offending mailer if it’s online somewhere or if you could email it to vernpnelson@gmail.com
Smells like Troll Spirit to me.
I’ve heard only that these mailers & ads focus on his DUI. I’d like to see even a news report of the content of the ads being racist. And if they were not racist, perhaps that explains why Weiss hasn’t condemned them on such grounds.
Frankly, the only one who would benefit from attacks on Min based on his race in a largely Asian district is Min himself, just as Weiss would benefit from over the top attacks on her for her gender. I suspect that our troll is trying to stir up a fight between them to benefit a white man expected to make the runoff, and I ain’t down for that.
There has been coverage of this mailer by Los Cerritos news.net and Korea Times. We have received an almost daily barrage of disgusting negative Dave Min attack mailers from Joanna Weiss that have been thrown out. The mailer in question has yellow scrawled over Min’s face and he’s wearing a money suit.
And it’s literally from Joanna? I kinda doubt it.
Go to Dave Min.com. You can read more about it there.
And so I did. Here’s the story buried in the “news” section of his site:
So let’s boil this down to the main points:
(1) Someone posted a yellow-tinged photo of Min. That’s nasty, and weird, and probably ineffective — unless the yellow was actually sepia, in which case it might not even be that bad (if there was a reason to use sepia), especially if other people are also depicted in sepia, in which case not necessarily bad at all.
(2) I had to look up what a money suit is. Maybe it has another meaning that is specifically directed at Asian culture, but what I found was this kind of haute couture available at Walmart, which depicts a suit with a pattern made up of a cascade bills. I suppose that the implication is that Min is “bought” — at least that is how I’M going to use it now that I know that “money suits” exis! — but it doesn’t seem to have any implication that East Asians are more likely to be bought. The implication seems to be that it is inherently racist to accuse an Asian person of having sold out, and that seems really weak. Frankly, I thought that a “money suit”was going to be the pinning cash to clothes that I’ve seen at a seen at an old-fashioned Italian wedding. Maybe depicting Min getting a red envelope full of campaign cash would be racist in invoking an Asian tradition, but even invoking an Asian custom is different from asserting that Asians (or ant least their politicians are especially likely to be bought.
(3) The article makes no bones about calling this deliberate racist attacks by Weiss. No evidence of the photos appears, so I don’t know that she had any involvements.
(4) The last paragraph presents many historical wrongs that deserve to be condemned, but in essence asserts that due to that history it’s categorically wrong to accuse an Asian politician as anything less than noble. That is utter crap. One’s ethnicity or race does not buy one an impenetrable shield against accusations of anything less than perfect trustworthiness; that’s just an argument against having any accountability for political (or other cultural) figures. Maybe if I saw the ads I could identify caricatures or something that bolstered the argument made, but at this point I can’t rule out it being a ginned up controversy employed to make people think that Weiss is a racist based on what may be a little as nothing.
I’d like to see Weiss asked for someone to bring her these images (if she hasn’t already seen them) so that she can look at them, evaluate them, and if it’s called for disavow them.
I didn’t say it was literally from Weiss.
Ummm… You keep saying it.
I think she should condemn it. But I’m sure she didn’t make or send it.
I stand corrected. The ad is in support of Weiss.
It actually mentions her?
Thought not.
I couldn’t find a copy of these allegedly incredibly offensive mailer(s), and I would still like to see them, and see if I can get Joanna to condemn them.
I had no luck to tracking down that mailer, even
dug through the trash where it belongs.
I thought you said you already told
Weiss to condemn it (even though apparently you hadn’t read it). This is your blog.
With some due diligence you can look it up and report back to us with an informed opinion.
OK I FINALLY tracked down that flyer. And I have several Irvine Democrat friends who are supporting Min, believe it or not. They were all, “I didn’t see anything like that,” “I haven’t seen anything racist,” and “It may be some urban legend”… before one got a copy from a friend of his… and sure enough for one thing it’s from AIPAC (calling themselves United Democracy Project.)
So THAT’S what a money suit is! I want one! Is this racist? I can’t tell. I’m the guy who got called racist by Kim Nguyen and Melahat Rafiei for singing a song about Avelino and Sidhu, so what do I know?
I feel silly for bugging Joanna about this:
How is this racist? What am I missing?
And what is a “corporate” PAC?
It’s bad guys in the Democrat lexicon. It would certainly include prison guard unions, who love them some Dave Min.
More like big oil, big utilities, big tobacco (back in the day), big auto, big banks — but not, usually, Silicon Valley. And unions definitely NOT what it means!
I know right? But leave it to me and you not to be finely attuned to such subtle matters.
His shirt and the background is yellow-tinged, hence…
I’m sick to death of all these “Ouch” Contests.
It’s a “racist trope” to point out that Michelle Steel is incomprehensible.
I’m racist because I criticized Avelino to the tune of a song that happens to be from Spain (De Colores.) And called Harry Sidhu “dirty” in the same song.
They call all of us homophobic and antisemitic because we criticized Brandman.
This flyer is racist because it has some yellow in it (and a “money suit?”) and it didn’t even come from Joanna, but it’s bad enough that Minions like Susan Tate write “Joanna will never get the stench of this off her!”
And conversely, Joanna calling it “misogynist” when people point out that most of her campaign money came from her husband, who has defended some questionable clients.
Buncha thin-skinned wank-offs.
That IS misogynist, Vern! This is a community property state — that money came from her! Holding wives responsible for their husband’s real or imagined sins is an old trope, and it’s bullshit. This doesn’t happen as much the other way around, though there are exceptions (like Tipper Gore.)
Yeah, it’s tiresome.
The other day some knucklehead accused me of racism because I referred to some thing as a Trail of Tears. Almost 200 years ago? And I wasn’t trying to be funny.
People assert ownership over the atrocities committed against them.
Aboriginal Americans (the term that I find least ambiguous) don’t like people watering down “Trail of Tears” not only because they find that treating it as one of many, but because they think it cheapens it. If you were using it to refer to transfer of populations in Gaza and the West Bank, I think you were completely right. And I think that that should bolster rather than undercut public understanding of what happened to Florida tribes.
Jewish groups are extremely protective of the term “Holocaust,” which literally means “a burnt sacrifice to a God,” but has now taken on the secondary definition of “destruction by fire.” Of course, fire as the means of death wasn’t a predominant method in Nazi genocidal crimes against Jews (and as many other civilians) during World War 2. I’m fine with people naming what happened to them, using a word that does not have a technical meaning in the sense used; I feel less obliged to accept their being proprietary about it.
We’ve had discussions here about whether the Armenian Genocide was in fact a genocide in the sense that the Nazi attacks on Jews and Roma, the Hutu attacks on Tutsis, and the the American attacks on some of the aboriginal tribes here. To me there is a distinction to be made about trying to actually wipe out a people and its culture stem and root versus trying to kill a whole bunch of them to subjugate them, except perhaps for a docile few allowed to continue living in subservience. (Palestine could still go either way.) But I understand what Armenians feel that it is a genocide, and except when someone gets in my fact demanding my concessions about it, I’m fine with using the term, and attentive to the basis of Turkish denials of it.
I’d consider that lower photo of Min yellow-tinged. Not a reason to vote for him, but enough to make one despite the United Democracy Project a quantum or two more. But we don’t even know if Weiss has even seen it. If she has, she should have said that she found it in bad taste. Hopefully, she’ll be able to include that in her victory speech tonight.
Politico reports that AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israeli lobby group is spending $100 million dollars to defeat progressive Dems in 2024. AIPAC as noted in this thread is responsible for that contentious flyer. Min did not call for a complete ceasefire in Gaza, has criticized Netanyahu. Min and Joanna Weiss have vastly different views on the war in Gaza.
I don’t remember Joanna ever speaking about Gaza. Doesn’t matter now, Dave’s our candidate. And I hope those AIPAC attacks don’t make him more timid on the issue, but bolder.
He should take the bull by the horns and call for cutting off aid and for no longer using the veto to protect Israel from Netanyahu’s crimes.
He’d take in Arab/Muslim money, but more importantly he’d show AIPAC what it’s like to get kicked in the teeth after they kicked someone in the balls. They DID put that ad; Asians who have been so mad at Weiss should go after the real culprits! Lots of Jews would praise him for it.
Trying to be nice here, but that does not sound like Min’s style.
Didn’t say it was. But making Baugh defend “Israel, right or wrong” might back him into a corner. Things are only getting more foul.