[Originally published in the OC Register, 2/22/2024; and including the sentences they left out!]
At this point, voters in the north county’s 40th district who are trying to pick a candidate that can beat Young Kim and help end the madness and paralysis in this nation may be confused about which Democrat they can trust. You can trust Allyson Muñiz Damikolas, the chemical engineer and elected education leader. Joe Kerr, not so much.
Allyson is the only one to win elected office – Tustin School Board – and she then fended off a culture-war recall accusing her falsely of forcing the dread “Critical Race Theory” on our schoolchildren. Joe, on the other hand, has never won any of his previous races. But he has been polluting your mailboxes and airwaves with truly Trump-grade lies (fashioned with the help of his Republican consultants i77 Strategies.)
You may be wondering, if you saw his latest mailer, how he could have “successfully passed over 200 bills and initiatives” when he has never held elected office?
Well, that’s a good question, but you don’t have much time to think about it before he tells you that Allyson “believes in chem-trails” and is therefore some kind of rightwing conspiracy nut. This should be beneath response, but here goes: Joe cherrypicked six words out of an answer chemical engineer Allyson was giving to a question about fossil fuels.
Also beneath response: a recent mailer accusing her of “funding” all manner of reactionary causes, based on mutual funds in her IRA/401k accounts – something many of us have, and of course we don’t have control or knowledge of every little place those get invested in by managers like Vanguard or Fidelity. How do we have this sort of information about Allyson and not Joe? Because she holds elected office and Joe doesn’t – so her financial holdings are public record. We’re sure Joe’s holdings are the same or worse.
Allyson has been calling herself the only candidate who is 100% pro-choice, a bold but supportable claim considering Planned Parenthood has given Joe a 100% rating. But we submit that august institution did not do its due diligence, and the rating is based on questionnaires Joe filled out during his previous losing campaigns. A politician should be judged not on how they fill out questionnaires, but what they have actually done.
And here’s what Joe Kerr has done, in regard to women’s right to choose: Throughout his 17-year stint as President of the OC Firefighters Union, he poured thousands of dollars into the campaigns of Republican politicians who were anti-choice, and anti-gay rights, as long as they voted to give firefighters higher wages, pensions, and benefits. Van Tran. Todd Spitzer. Ken Maddox. The list goes on. This is not a pro-choice record.
Who remembers Poseidon, the $1.5 billion desalination boondoggle Orange County was almost stuck with until the Coastal Commission thankfully put a stake in its heart last year? It would have raised all our water rates considerably, for the benefit of a Canadian hedge fund group, and not given us a single drop of additional water. Meanwhile it would have been an environmental nightmare. But it would have provided a few temporary union construction jobs, and that’s enough for some people.
And to Governor Gavin Newsom, it fit his statewide water plans. We don’t always disagree with Newsom, but he does think of Orange County as a dumping ground, and wanted to stick us with Poseidon, which happened to be lobbied for by his friends who put on that notorious “French Laundry” lunch during Covid.
So Governor Newsom appointed Joe Kerr to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, along with Anaheim klepto-Republican Kris Murray, to push through this pet project of his with as little restrictions as possible. And Joe Kerr followed his orders no questions asked. In fact, Joe and Kris were such troopers they voted to not make Poseidon do any environmental mitigation!
And that’s why Newsom endorsed Joe Kerr for Congress last month, but Newsom doesn’t know what’s good for Orange County. We deserve an independent, intelligent, honest representative who evaluates each project on its merits and doesn’t follow anyone’s orders. We deserve Allyson Muñiz Damikolas.
My own inability to trust Joe Kerr dates back to 2018 and his first unsuccessful run for OC Supervisor. He was living, as he always has, in Coto De Caza, but telling everyone he’d moved to Fullerton Brea so he could run for the open seat there. At first I thought he might be telling the truth about where he lived, and he seemed at least better than Doug Chaffee or Tim Shaw, so I offered to meet him and interview him at his new north county home.
At the last minute he called and said, “Let’s meet instead at the Placentia Fire Station – I’m a firefighter you know! We can have a beer.” I didn’t bother, and I haven’t trusted him since. That was illegal, lying about his residence to run for Supervisor, and it’s a shame he was never prosecuted.
District 40 voters, remember all this when you get the next dozen lying mailers about Allyson. She’s the one who can beat Young Kim and help us take back the House, so our nation can finally get back to slowing climate change, restoring women’s rights, and defending itself from the MAGA assault on democracy.
Vern Nelson, a Democrat, runs the Orange Juice Blog, Orange County’s only independent political blog.
Next Register piece: “Scott Baugh is dying to run against Dave Min!”
New one’s out, and they didn’t change a word this time. CA 47 vote Joanna Weiss, to get back the House and keep Katie’s old seat!
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/02/26/scott-baugh-is-dying-to-run-against-dave-min/
Wow you’re famous. Chemical’s gonna go bonkers.
WTF? That crap about 200 bills is just about the worst thing I’ve ever seen. That came from a PAC or did he lie himself? He has become used to lying about his fake residences, but this takes some sort of huevos.
Maybe “passing bills” is a reference to cash bribes?
The Joe Kerr “track record” mailer is outrageous.
Was it an IE or Paid for/Authorized by the Kerr campaign?
Good question. The “track record” mailer – if you mean the one bragging about Joe’s 200 bills and trashing Allyson’s alleged “financial investments” – was sure enough “paid for by Joe Kerr For Congress, PO Box 5012, Orange CA etc” so he gets all the responsibility for it.
On the other hand the ad accusing her of believing in chemtrails – which we’ve actually seen on TV out here in the flatlands outside the district – was done by some shadowy group called “Flip the 40th.” It’s probable though that Joe’s people provided the IE group with the sound that they cherrypicked.
I’ve heard more chismes since this got published – folks wonder why Joe Kerr would go out and hire a consultant, i77Strategies, that mostly works for Republicans. What I hear is Joe was turned down by several Democrat consultants who didn’t think he was a good candidate, and then i77 approached him. (The imagination can continue with questions such as, what or who motivated i77 to snatch up Joe?)
What a flaming pile of hot garbage. Literally no facts. Lucky for you this libelous and defamatory dumpster fire was only submitted as your irrelevant “opinion.” How embarrassing for you. Go do your homework.
Yes ma’am!
Of course still no specifics on anything wrong.
Take your pick Vern. This entire mess is an easily debunked disaster from top to bottom.
Well then, take paragraph 1! Or paragraph 2 if that is juicier.
(This is Joe’s wife, and fiercest defender.)
PS. If my piece is so unfair and error-ridden, have you guys asked the Register for space to refute it? Maybe you should!
You chose the paragraph about the races?! Ok fine let’s go there. You claim that Joe has never won any races. Patently false. Over the course of Joe’s career his name has been on a ballot 22 times, and he has won 20 of those races. But let’s address the 2 losses since that seems to be your myopic focus.
He lost the 2018 Supervisor race by 376 votes out of 88,141 votes cast. That is .004%, or 4/100 of one percent, and he only lost because AOCDS dropped a huge IE on his head right before the primary with no time to respond. Definitely not a landslide by any stretch of the imagination.
As far as the Senate race in 2022 goes, what everybody fails to mention is that Joe had actually been running for Lisa Bartlett’s open 5th district BOS seat for over a year at that time, and he was well poised to win that race. However, because of redistricting and the BOS redrawing all of the district maps, sitting supervisor Katrina Foley somehow ended up down here in our district. So RSM, right outside our gate, is not a community of interest with Coto, but Costa Mesa is. Whatever, I’m not here to get into a gerrymandering debate. Despite the fact that he had devoted so much time and energy into that race, in the interest of the good of the Democratic Party, he voluntarily stepped down from that race so Katrina could run in the 5th district unopposed by a fellow Dem. He had ZERO intention of running for anything else at that time.
However, as soon as he stepped down he was immediately asked to get into the senate race, because then mayor Blakespear was violating her local citizens’ First Amendment rights on her social media page, and she was also threatening to fire a large portion of her city’s firefighters over a vaccine mandate which was a total violation of the collective bargaining process and could have had statewide implications for all firefighters. So, did Joe have much of a chance of winning that senate race when the other Democrat candidate Blakespear had already been campaigning for about a year and a half and had already locked up most of the endorsements and financial support? And 80% of our senate district is located in San Diego County where she is more well known than Joe? Of course not. But Joe answered the call of his brother and sister firefighters like he always has, in order to change the narrative, and it worked, none of them got fired. And in the end he got 25,908 votes in that race. Pretty respectable for not having much time at all to campaign, and not having the endorsement or support of most of his natural allies that had already pledged their support to Blakespear back when she was the only Dem in the race.
So that brings us to AMD and her one small race in Tustin where only 12,854 total votes were cast for their local school board. Much has been made of her “defeating the 24 year MAGA incumbent by 10 points.” What is never mentioned is that there was actually a 3rd person in that race, another Republican, who pulled votes away from Republican Tammie Bullard. Allyson got 6,297 votes, Tammie got 5,081 votes, and Kirk Hahn, the other Republican, got 1,476 votes. If Hahn was not in the race his votes would have gone to Bullard and Allyson would’ve actually LOST that race by 260 votes. Sometimes math is hard, but this isn’t one of those times. And as far as her “standing up to MAGA extremists,” that wasn’t the case last Thursday night at the MV Chamber of Commerce candidate forum. Three obnoxious red hats showed up to heckle the candidates, and when one of them held up his phone to record her she fled the room and never came back. Young Kim’s campaign manager was there too but must’ve texted her not to even come inside because she never showed up. Joe was the only candidate who stayed and fought for our shared values.
So I’m not sure how you could have possibly compared Joe’s decades of dedicated and highly successful public service and legislative accomplishments to novice AMD and her winning one small city race by 1,216 votes, and come to the impossible conclusion that she would be the better candidate to try and take down a sitting GOP Congresswoman with a massive political war chest in an R+3 district. That’s quite a leap of faith. But that part is fine, of course you are free to vote for whomever you want.
My issue with you is that are attempting to sway the election by trashing Joe with your bizarre made up fantasies and that is totally unacceptable. You and everybody that is sharing your garbage opinion piece that lacks even a shred of truth should be ashamed of yourselves. All you are doing is helping Young Kim.
And lastly, you have no idea what I know about your preferred candidate that I have so far chosen not to share publicly that would blow this whole ridiculous narrative out of the water. The difference between us Vern is that I DO my homework and I have all the receipts.
You said “top to bottom” and that’s where I offered to start. This should be fun. We can work our way all the way to the bottom if you like. I do want you to have your say here (just in case the Register doesn’t let you.)
One little followup before we get to the next paragraph: what are some of these 20 electoral victories Joe has had, how come nobody has heard of them, and how come he never talks about them? Does this include like highschool class president? Is it all union stuff? Or what?
Please reply here, and then you can start a new thread on every fault you find with paragraph 3. This’ll be fun!
So where you guys living these days? Brea? Placentia?
And please explain how Coto Joe passed 200 bills. This oughta be a hoot.
And please, no more about saving the boy in the pool.
We live in Coto, go take a civics class, and it was a baby girl, not a boy. You seem about as interested in facts and details as Vern.
I think we are both very interested in the facts and details of those 200 bills.
Vern, in reference to Joe’s numerous elected positions, when you say, “nobody has heard of them,” why don’t you just own your ignorance and admit that it’s YOU who has never bothered to find out because that would require effort and you are a lazy writer whose dog ate his homework.
In addition to being a highly decorated Fire Captain with the OCFA for 34 years Joe has held numerous elected and appointed positions, and was successfully re-elected to hold those positions for years.
Organized Labor & Fire Positions:
In 1994 Joe was elected as the Southern Director for the CA State Firefighters Association (CSFA) where he represented firefighters throughout Southern CA in all areas of firefighter safety, training, political action and *legislation*.
In 1995 Joe was elected as the first President of the newly formed Orange County Professional Firefighters Association (OCPFA) Local 3631 during the turbulence of what was the world’s largest municipal bankruptcy. He was repeatedly reelected every two years for almost 18 years until he retired from the fire service and stepped down. In that role he dealt with all facets of collective bargaining, including negotiations, employee representation, political action, and firefighter health and safety issues. Under his leadership the union was able to save the OCFA nearly $1 Billion dollars by cutting costs and identifying/creating functional revenue streams, they pre-funded retiree health care, created their own health care trust, lowered workers comp to a 6 year low and created a wellness/fitness program. All of this without adding one single penny in new taxes. When Schwarzenegger was Governor he called Joe’s firefighter union “the cornerstone of pension reform in CA” in his blue ribbon commission report.
In 1997 Joe was elected as Vice President to the Orange County Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) and was repeatedly reelected for over 17 years . He helped chart the labor course for unions in OC in concert with the CA Federation of Labor and the AFL-CIO in Washington DC.
In 1999 Joe was elected as Vice President of the CA Professional Firefighters (CPF) based in Sacramento and he was repeatedly reelected. They work on *legislative* remedies for firefighter collective bargaining and health and safety issues with the CA State Assembly, the State Senate and the Governor’s office for over 30,000 professional firefighters in CA.
In 2001 Joe became the very first District Field Services Representative for the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) based out of Washington DC. His job was to help firefighters in the western United States (primarily CA, AZ, HI and NM) with their political action strategies and initiatives.
In 2003 Governor Davis appointed Joe to the CA Workforce Development Board of Directors. The CWDB assists the Governor in setting and guiding workforce development policies and initiatives.
In 2007 Governor Schwarzenegger offered Joe the position of CAL FIRE Director. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in the state and the 2nd largest fire department in America behind FDNY Joe respectfully declined since our son was very young and he didn’t want to take a job that required him to be away from home for long periods of time.
In 2020 Governor Newsom appointed Joe to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board where he later became Vice Chair.
As far as elected positions within the Democratic Party, Joe has served as:
DPOC Central Committee member
State Committee Member
ADEM Delegate
CA Democratic Party Executive Board Member
Convention Delegate
As President of the OCPFA his union contributed millions of dollars to Democratic causes, candidates, and voter registration to help turn the county blue over the past 25 years.
Regarding some of his public safety related legislative achievements, they include the National Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) appropriation for 28 FEMA teams that was passed by the U.S. Senate in 2010, he partnered with the IAFF on the National Public Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) for firefighters who die in the line of duty from cardiac-related events and it was signed into law by President Bush post 9/11 who renamed it the “Hometown Heroes Act”, he worked with US Senator Barbara Boxer on the Deferred Compensation 457 Plan Protection for all public employees in the United States and that was signed by President Clinton, and he worked with CA Speaker Curt Pringle and Governor Wilson to get AB355 signed for CDF/ORCO employees’ retirement in 1996, just to name a handful.
Bottom line Vern, Joe is by far the most qualified candidate to represent us in the United States Congress with his extensive experience and the relationships he has cultivated for the last several decades while he was busy getting things done for firefighters, organized labor, and every day citizens like you and me. He has earned every single one of his incredible endorsements through hard work and delivering results. The fact that you would even question or mock his numerous contributions as a dedicated public servant, and your buddy would be so rudely dismissive of his heroism reviving a lifeless baby, is pathetic. Grow up and get over yourselves.
And I’m not going to continue going point by point on your completely fabricated opinion piece, except to say this about Poseidon since you continually bring it up as one of your main talking points and you’ve said it’s the primary reason you don’t support Joe. You embellish your ludicrous claim with nonsensical stats, facts and figures, and you have been making false accusations about Governor Newsom and the reason for his endorsement of Joe. So, you are either a shameless liar or you are being deliberately obtuse.
Joe voted NO on Poseidon. Go look it up.
You are clearly a very supportive wife. But you are viewing this race through a lens distorted by personal interest.
Winning DPOC seats is largely a matter of connections and being on the right slates. It has very little to do with winning an election before the general electorate. Same goes for winning union positions. And an appointment is not winning an election. I know understand why you came up with your figure, but it doesn’t support your assertion.
When you say that your husband voted “no” on Poseidon, are you talking about his vote on the Santa Ana Regional Watershed Board, to which he was appointed by Gov. Newsom to support the Poseidon project, thus sending it to the Coastsl Commission? Are you saying that he betrayed Newsom? We were watching that quite closely and my recollection matches Vern’s. Where did you “look this up” — or did your husband just tell you that’s what he did? Or are you getting this from his Republican consultants?
Trusting your figures on the Damikolas race as correct (for now), even winning against a split field in such a district shows some serious political skills —by which I mean ELECTORAL political skills, not “representing a widely respected interest group and leveraging that position into an appointment” skills. And, with school boards having nonpartisan races, voters don’t have the cues they would need for them to just move on to the next Republican. There’s no basis to make the assertion that the third candidate’s votes would have necessarily gone to the Republican.
In my experience, Joe is a nice guy but not an energetic (or otherwise compelling) speaker. He seems to view electoral success as something he’s entitled to because he’s a fire fighter and people love fire fighters. He views politics through a lens of what’s good for fire fighters, as has been his role as a union leader. That’s no substitute for the skills one hones in running a real competitive campaign before the general public.
Your comment seems like it was crafted by Republican political consultants who desperately want Young Kim to face your husband rather than Trustee Damikolas in the fall. Did you have that sort of help on the talking points?
Do tell us where you looked up Joe’s Poseidon vote. Regards from Brea.
You know, I think they intentionally conflated lobbying efforts for bills the fire unions rammed through compliant legislatures.
The bills “passed” and Coto Joe was responsible. So he’s a legislator. Get it? Cute.
And now that I reflect on the way the fire unions have helped rake California taxpayers over the coals with their self-serving political machines, I wouldn’t be bragging about it.
It got Joe a nice McMansion in Coto, but the rest of us are paying for it.
Aw, I only asked about where you live because your husband perjured himself (twice) when he tried to be my County Supervisor.
Ah, but then there’s the problem of the 200 bills he “passed” a lie so titanic that it’s almost admirable.
And we get the same old fire union Hero resume.
Do you get the sense that this was the product of some consultants? So much casuistry! I doubt that an amateur could do this!
No email address, either, just an IP number. Do we even know that this is really from her?
Well, she’s been doing this on Facebook as well… she is quite impressive in her way.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3196962823866353/posts/3774666036096026/
This has been an amusing and instructive exercise, only strengthening my opposition to Joe. His wife China is unusually articulate and aggressive, a real Lady Macbeth, and props to her. But she has really pissed me off now when she says he “voted NO on Poseidon” and that I should “go look it up.”
The only time Joe ever voted on Poseidon was on the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, and I watched every second of those proceedings three years ago, and documented it all in “The Poseidon Whores.” https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/04/the-poseidon-whores/
You better believe I WANTED him to vote no on Poseidon, I had his cell number at the time and tried several times to call, left messages, texted, telling him all the reasons he should vote no, but he never answered, as obviously what Gavin Newsom expected from him is more important than what some blogger called Vern might have to say. But I was trying to give Joe a chance – for the second time – to do the right thing. At the time, Joe was planning to run for South County Supervisor (THIS time, without faking a residence!)
We still don’t know exactly why Gavin was so hellbent on forcing Poseidon on Orange County, but one way he went about clearing a path for them was getting rid of outspoken well-qualified water board members who opposed the boondoggle and replacing them mainly with obedient labor folks who could be counted on to roll out the red carpet. The valueless Kris Murray had been placed on this particular board a couple years earlier for precisely this purpose, and as a crucial Poseidon vote drew near, Gavin canned the brilliant Poseidon critic William Von Blasingame and installed two obedient Democrats to have Kris Murray’s back – Joe Kerr and some Clark lady who was Tustin Mayor at the time.
(I’m not gonna pick on that Clark lady right now because she’s not in my face trying to get into Congress and lying about everything.)
Poseidon came to be a LITMUS TEST to me over the 16 years I fought it. Politicians (left or right) who supported it were either dishonest (and on Poseidon’s payroll) or stupid, or quite often both. Politicians who took wishy-washy stances on it, made wishy-washy statements, were wishy-washy politicians. Politicians who saw and spoke the plain truth and opposed it (left or right) were brave and frequently faced consequences.
Anyway the question before that board in April 2021, before the SARQCwhatever in regards to Poseidon while Joe was there, was about requiring Poseidon to do environmental mitigation to compensate for all the environmental harm their project would cause – an infuriating idea to begin with when the whole project was not even necessary.
There were seven members on this board, and let the record reflect that they split three ways:
ALL THE BOARD’S SCIENTISTS and the ONE honest Board member (Daniel Selmi) wanted a “discharge prohibition,” forcing Poseidon to begin all its mitigation projects (which included helping rebuild Bolsa Chica wetlands or something) BEFORE IT COULD BEGIN OPERATION. (Because they wisely didn’t TRUST Poseidon, a company that already had a long history of breaking promises.)
Three weaker members found some “compromise” position that eventually won out.
And the three total POSEIDON LOVERS Kris Murray, Joe Kerr and Clark actually had Poseidon VP Scott Maloni up on the stand WITH them and pushed for a resolution POSEIDON ACTUALLY WROTE that woulda let em TOTALLY WEASEL OUT of any expensive “infeasible” mitigation. And they NEARLY WON! China’s husband had the RED CARPET ROLLED OUT for Poseidon, and finally grumpily had to give in to the compromise position.
THANK GOD the Coastal Commission came along the following year and rendered Joe Kerr’s YES vote on Poseidon moot.
If Joe Kerr ever voted NO on Poseidon it was in some sort of alternate, upside-down universe, where Superman is evil and the Joker was a philanthropist, where Donald Trump never met E. Jean Carroll, and where OCBC COO Natalie Rubalcava always opposed Harry Sidhu’s Angel Stadium Giveaway.
That is all. Vern out. Thanks for playing.
Full disclosure. I was Joe’s Director of Government Affairs for 12 years.
The issue on how Joe voted on Poseidon is public record.
The minutes of the Board of Directors meeting on 04-29-21 indicate a “NO” vote on the primary motion.
https://waterboards.ca.gov/santaana/board_info/minutes/2021/minutesof_04_29_21.pdf
HA! HA! Casuistry hath made its masterpiece! (to continue the Lady Macbeth theme.)
The PDF good ol’ Tony provides shows Kerr, Murray and Clark first unsuccessfully attempting to amend the motion in order to make it easier for Poseidon to skirt environmental mitigation (voting YES there), and then when that amendment failed, all three pissedly voting NO on the unamended motion that Poseidon didn’t like.
And Kerr’s folks now try to portray THAT as voting “NO” on Poseidon?
“WOW. JUST WOW,” as Epting always liked to say.
Casuistry truly HATH made its fucking masterpiece.
Translation for the uninitiated: LIES, DAMN LIES, and PDFs.
You claim Joe voted “YES.” The official records show that is not true.
Your use of sophistry is impressive.
But it does not change the error of your claim.
You’re not going to stop now? And ME “sophistry?” Say in your own words what you’re claiming he voted “NO” on.
Since this apparently is a bigger deal politically than I’d thought (and good!), I should probably make this its own story.
PS just for folks who may not have caught on yet: Joe Kerr and his two allies voted “NO” to putting conditions on Poseidon that Poseidon didn’t like. That Poseidon found onerous. That was the purview of the board he was on.
You just got you ass handed to you. Are you going to take credit for “passing” 200 bills, too.
Or was it really just using union goon tactics to get them passed by a semi-supine Legislature.
In either case, we pay for the largesse you got.
Nice tag team effort, but no extra credit for the use of a grown-up word.
Renewal of Waste Discharge Requirements and National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES Number CA8000403) for Poseidon Resources (Surfside) L.L.C., Huntington Beach Desalination Facility – Order R8-2021-0011
Thank you for the softball.
Vern, you wrote;
“PS just for folks who may not have caught on yet: Joe Kerr and his two allies voted “NO” to putting conditions on Poseidon that Poseidon didn’t like. That Poseidon found onerous. That was the purview of the board he was on.”
That vote effectively killed the project.
Or do you believe he should have voted “YES?”
Which is it.
That is a total lie dude, and I’m sure you know it. And
I’m going toI may stop printing your comments because there’s getting to be too much trash here.Have you even figured out what you’re saying? What vote killed the project, the SARQCB vote or Joe’s losing dissent to it? (Hint: NEITHER.) The SQRQCB vote kept Poseidon going, made it stronger; while Joe & his friends only dissented because they wanted it friendlier to Poseidon. NOTHING done by that Board in 2021 killed the project, least of all Joe’s vote to make them do even less mitigation.
Poseidon lived on in good health for another full year, strengthened by THAT board AND by boosters like Joe, until the Coastal Commission unexpectedly ripped its throat out.
Incredible the revisionist history your crowd attempts! But I’m glad you all are running away from this now with your hair on fire. It’s important for the rest of us to remember it all, because who knows what epic tomfoolery you guys’ll be trying to foist on us NEXT time we’re not paying attention?
The mission of the Water Quality Board is:
To preserve, enhance, and restore the quality of California’s water resources and drinking water for the protection of the environment, public health, and all beneficial uses, and to ensure proper water resource allocation and efficient use, for the benefit of present and future generations. To this end, the State Water Resources Control Board develops statewide permits, policy, and regulations to protect water quality, regulates drinking water, administers California’s water rights system, and supports Regional Water Quality Control Board efforts. In addition, the State Water Resources Control Board provides financial assistance in the form of grants and loans for projects that clean up and protect water quality and drinking water supplies,
and that otherwise protect water resources. In all it does, the State Water Board works to advance several foundational values, including climate change resilience, environmental justice, and racial
equity.
The actions on that day are in alignment with that mission. We can debate the necessity of desalination. Personally, we (CA) are in a constant state of drought or near drought conditions. The primary water sources of the state’s water supply are being challenged by other interest groups with valid claims.
Go ahead and not publish my comments. I am not worried.
I was active in OC politics for the better part of 20 years. I am now happily retired outside of OC. But still in CA.
If it helps, your name would occasionally come up in conversation. Typically you were viewed mostly as a dilettante. Mostly though you were viewed as a gadfly.
Your ad hominem attacks are duly noted.
I know those are also “adult” words to you. You may be surprised to know many others have a decent command of the English language. Your exaggerated sense of self-importance and claims of superior intellect are both duly noted.
Have a good day.
I know who you are. I believe we’ve met. This comment is way too long and irrelevant. I’ll leave it up for a bit. It’s hard to tell if your little personal barbs are aimed at me or David.
Maybe I shouldn’t have used the words “NO” or “YES” in describing Joe’s Poseidon-boosting record – I left myself open to sophistry and causi-whatever like this. The plain fact is Joe pushed hard to make Poseidon a reality, most folks now are glad he and his friends failed, and this is all reflected (very humorously actually) in his backers trying hard to rewrite the history and muddy the waters. MUST… WRITE… NEW… STORY!!!!!!!
Leave it up. We’re creating a record here.
Tony, a quick true-and-false quiz:
(1) Gavin Newsom favored Poseidon and wanted SAR Board members who would agree to support it.
(2) Von Blasingame was taken off of the SAR board because he didn’t favor Poseidon and would not agree to support it.
(3) Joe Kerr (and Kris Murray) were appointed to the SAR board because they agreed to support Poseidon, regardless of their personal beliefs about it, if any.
(4) In the proceeding of that day, an amendment was introduced to make Poseidon accept certain conditions (essentially remediation prior to building the plant.)
(5) Poseidon strongly opposed that motion.
(6) Kerr and Murray knew and understood this.
(7) Kerr and Murray, in accord with Newsom’s wishes, voted no on that motion.
(8) With that amendment passed, Newson and Poseidon no longer favored the root motion as amended. (It turned out that they planned on treating the rejection as appealable to the Coastal Commission, which if I recall correctly was a surprise to opponents.)
(9) Kerr and Murray knew and understood this.
(10) Kerr and Murray voted against the root motion as amended.
(11) This set up the aforenoted appeal to the Coastal Commission.
(12) Joe Kerr has won a public election before the general electorate.
ANSWER KEY: Only #12 is false.
Tony’s assertion, designed to bamboozle readers, is one of the most disingenuous things (MAGA excluded) that I’ve seen in months and perhaps years.
If Tony gets a letter (or group of them) into the Register, anyone and everyone is welcome to quote this in reply.
Despite the above, Tony, that while you’ve stopped work you are “not happily retired.” I’d think that you’d be pretty happy given your pension — at least until the next public bankruptcy.
(I’ll change “not” to “now” if you’d like.)
P.S. What’s wrong with being a gadfly? /GAD
And I know who you are. You are correct. We met at one of the Anaheim Dem Club meetings when Joe was running for Supe in 2018.
Time will tell whether or not killing that project (which was the purview of the Coastal Commission) was a good idea.
CA’s water requirements are only going to get more pressing in the future.
Desal will be one of the many ways that will (I predict) be required to address it. At a much higher cost than when it was proposed 2+ years ago.
And may it be done by a company not run by lying thieving crooks, using outdated ghetto-rigged technology to save themselves money.
PS. Where I come from, “gadfly” is a good thing.
Which one do you recommend?
Certainly you would not make such a demand without an alternative in mind.
I am sure you enjoy the term “gadfly.”
Just know that everyone else realizes it refers to someone that is never taken seriously.
They are usually very good at criticism. Never are they any good at viable solutions.
Greg, thank you for correcting the typo.
I also have a pension from my time in the private sector.
Sad how that benefit is now the target of so much derision.
That used to be the norm when I worked for private companies.
Now only the principal officers enjoy that benefit. With no one challenging that doubte standard of how employees should be treated.
I’m going to continue my reply to Tony about what Joe Kerr tried to facilitate in this less crowded sub-thread. He wanted to know, among other things, who would build Desal, which he sees as a necessary part of the eventual solution to water shortages. First one small attempt at reaching acceptance on a premise:
Kerr voted to support Poseidon’s position. Can we agree on that?
Now as to the future of desal. Tony asks (and I paraphrase) “what company Vern thinks would be the one to build a desal plant, if not Poseidon?”
This is a telling question, because he presumes that it must be built by some outside profit-seeking venture. It probably shouldn’t. The desire to buy a government (as in Anaheim and Huntington Beach) that will hand over public assets to a private entity at the expense of its citizens/ratepayers without care or remorse is simply too great. If responsible desal is ever built, it will have to be by an entity that will protect the environment (as the Coastal Commission directs) AND protects the public to make sure that everyone gets access to water at the lowest possible rates. (Note that, in trying to get the OCWD to partner with Poseidon, the proposal was to make NON-South County (where OCWD rules) pay for water to be sent to South County (where it doesn’t). So maybe Coto-residing Kerr really did like this plan on the merits!
First of all, we may not need desal, if we make water capture and widespread conservation easier — as we’ve already had success doing!
Second, I’d expect that desal would be implemented in multiple smaller-scale sites, each of which would be funded by bonds (as these are prototypical cases where the benefits of a structure really are to be had down the road.) Desal may well be built by a publicly supported non-profit based upon siting and operation plans that have been approved by the Coastal Commission — and I want people like Zenger and Tait overseeing it to make sure that not even the officers are getting rich off of their own approved plans.
But who knows? Technology is continuing to develop, and maybe we’ll be able to do things we can’t currently imagine given the advent of fusion energy and AI. Maybe we’ll discover that it’s cheaper and fairer to let people set up legions of backyard stills that purify small amounts of seawater using sunlight.
One definition of a gadfly is “an annoying person who provokes others into action by criticism”; another is “one who attacks intellectual orthodoxies.” Hell, I’ll own that gleefully! “Annoyance” is not intrinsic in the action itself, but in the beholder, and I am thrilled at having annoyed the people who tried to push this boondoggle onto us without accountability.
Vern and I and fans of this blog are very interested in accountability, Tony. And now it is Joe Kerr’s turn in the accountability barrel — and he’s likely to lose. I guess that his closest advisors, whoever they are, should have advised him to take a different course!
Her name is Letitia Clark.
I was just trying not to embarrass her or drag her into this. But yes. That is her name.
We disagree on what is more embarrassing.
But hey, I’ll point out that when Newsom removed the superbly qualified African American water expert von Blasingame from the Board, he had to scramble to find someone with similar qualifications. Unfortunately this did not mean finding someone with stellar water policy credentials, but only another African American so that we couldn’t be accused of being racist for removing Von Blasingame.
Of all of the things that Gavin Newsom has ever done, this is perhaps the most Gavin Newsomy. And yes, it is racist to treat Blacks as interchangeable parts.
In the tradition of Bush 1 replacing Thurgood Marshall with Clarence Thomas!
Shit, now we’re really insulting Letitia. I didn’t mean it that way.
Appointing Letitia Clark to the Supreme Court instead of Clarence Thomas would have been fine.
And Danny DeVito instead of Alito.
Yes, DeVito would be more graceful when things don’t go his way, than Snotty Sammy.
There’s an A-A named Von Blasingame?
Oh yeah and he is hardcore distinguished, smart and honest. (I’m assuming A-A means African American?) Here he is
ripping OCPA a new onewarning an incipient OCPA against over-reliance on consultants a few years ago:Yes. You’ll find his photo, and some relevant history, about halfway down in this 2022 story of mine, which presents a pretty good record of its moment.
He’s speaking to Irvine’s council there, am I right?
(Vern: Yup. [Sorry to intrude here, didn’t seem worth its own comment.])
And in re-reading my comment above, I’m reminded of why I don’t find Letitia Clark’s action as reprehensible as, say, Kris Murray’s.
Clark was the mayor of a relatively small city and the Governor, from her own party, contacts her and says “hey, I have this critical policy initiative and I need you on this small Board to vote for it. Will you do that for me?”
The vast majority of ambitious politicians in that situation will say “Why thank you, Governor! I’ll happily accept your appointment!”
I would bet heavily that he did not inform her that the vacancy occurred because the vacancy arose because he had removed a Black man on the Board and now he needed political cover. And once she had accepted the appointment, she was stuck.
This is all on Newsom. God, I hope he’s not nominated for President.
I said elections AND appointments. They are obviously not the same and I am well aware of the difference. I included both to highlight the numerous positions Joe had held as I was sitting here reflecting on his professional achievements and experience over the years.
Of course I support my husband and his desire to continue his public service. It’s in his bones. But your characterization of him is way off. He has never believed or acted like he’s “entitled” to anything, he has worked incredibly hard for everything he’s achieved. And my “personal interest” here is simply in defending Joe’s name and reputation from the likes of Vern, who obviously has a very casual relationship with the truth and sees fit to make wild public accusations not based on facts. His “opinion” piece is total garbage, and looks like a childish, desperate attempt to be accepted and liked by a small group of Joe haters. Seems like it worked since they’re sharing it around various social media pages without fact checking either, so kudos to you Vern for getting invited to their lunch table.
Something important about Joe that I forgot to mention last night that I personally believe makes him the far better candidate is that he has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to successfully reach across the aisle to get things done, and he’s an excellent negotiator, which is something sorely needed in Congress. He is not a polarizing figure (unlike AMD nobody has ever tried to oust him from any of the jobs he’s had) and he doesn’t make decisions based on emotions. He’s a logical and pragmatic problem solver who has earned the respect of the people he’s worked with regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. As a voter, I am personally sick and tired of the partisan gridlock in Washington and just want my elected representatives to quit playing partisan games and get to work. Joe’s campaign has already knocked on over 100,000 doors and the feedback he is getting from voters all across this district is that they feel the exact same way. He has even flipped many Republicans that like his message. They want a strong representative like Joe who has a long track record of true leadership, they are sick of the extremists that keep throwing up roadblocks, and they are ready to vote out MAGA puppets like Young Kim who just toe the party line.
And yes of course that’s the Poseidon I’m talking about. The vote was public and it’s not hard to find with a simple Google search. I’ll add here that Kris Murray also voted no, so again, Vern is lying to the public.
Vern may fancy himself a journalist with a focus on local politics, but if he wants anybody to take him seriously as a journalist he really needs to put in the work and make sure what he puts in print is factual. Were this not a rambling, nonsensical opinion piece, he could have opened himself up to potential consequences.
I personally find it laughable that Vern tries to speak intelligently on investment portfolios but clearly doesn’t understand the simple act of divesting; he is telling us we can’t trust Planned Parenthood to do their proper due diligence before supporting pro-choice candidates; he obviously doesn’t have a clear understanding of how labor unions work since he thinks they are partisan organizations that should be focused on issues like reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights, instead of the things their union bylaws actually obligate them to secure for their members like better hours, wages and working conditions; he also falsely presumes that Joe was some sort of autocrat who personally hand picked candidates for the union to support when they have a PAC and Joe didn’t even sit on the committee; and we can’t trust the Governor of CA to make informed choices when he decides to endorse specific candidates even if he’s personally known and worked with that candidate for a couple of decades. Instead, we should trust Vern. The guy who can’t even get his facts straight. How absurd.
And don’t be ridiculous nobody is helping me write anything. Nobody on Joe’s team cares enough about what Vern said to even bother responding. They trust that the majority of the electorate is smart enough to see through it. I only chose to respond because of our son. Of course self-absorbed Vern didn’t take that into consideration when he chose to drag Joe through the mud and hastily made up all this garbage to fit his own delusional narrative. I highly doubt Vern has the emotional maturity or the integrity to issue an apology and admit this was a huge mistake, nor do I think he has enough humility to print a retraction, so if at some point our son googles his dad and stumbles across Vern’s “opinion” I just want him to know without question that it was all bullshit.
I won’t be responding any more because I’ve said all I have to say. In a week we’ll all see what the voters have to say and go from there.
“Over the course of Joe’s career his name has been on a ballot 22 times, and he has won 20 of those races.” – China Kerr, last night, above.
The suspicion is not that some consultant is “helping you write” all this, but that some consultant is writing it all, using China Kerr’s identity, thinking it’s more believable or sympathetic coming from the wife. But I don’t know, that could be a sexist supposition, and it doesn’t really matter. I agree, we’ve all said enough now.
“It’s in his bones.”
Could be. This is what, his third attempt to get elected (and I mean by real people, not union gofers) something?
So much detritus left by this Hun invasion, still left for us to sort through and clean up!
“I personally find it laughable that Vern tries to speak intelligently on investment portfolios but clearly doesn’t understand the simple act of divesting.”
China. Tell me all about the DIVESTMENTS your husband has made, from things he found politically unpalatable. When you’re done with that, set it to music. If you can do that, I’ll play piano while you sing about it.
“[Joe] is not a polarizing figure (unlike AMD nobody has ever tried to oust him from any of the jobs he’s had)”
And now we’re proud, are we, that Joe has never done anything that offended MAGA Republicans to the point that they tried unsuccessfully to launch a recall of him on bogus grounds. Wait. No, it is Allyson who is proud of this.
The sad thing is, if I get bored later today, I know I’ll find some MORE bs here that I gotta respond to. God, give me grace and patience. I need to write something new.
“I’ll leave it up for a bit. It’s hard to tell if your little personal barbs are aimed at me or David.”
Yeah, it was a real jumbled comment and some of it was aimed at “me” but I think he rolled his gadflies into one because I’m pretty sure my name never came up in conversations among his ilk. I have been accused of having an exaggerated sense of self-importance and use adult words.
In so many ways we are of the same sad fraternity. In other ways, not.
David, make no mistake.
I did not direct any of my comments at you.
I appreciate that you have put energy into thinking about me and what I am about.
Because I do not think about you at all.
Then you conflated David with me in your snarky comment. You were responding to some of what he said to you. So you did indeed think about David, if only briefly and peripherally. Just so’s you know.
Not true. I did not read any of his comments until after I had posted.
While I have never met him. I know about him and his work history with the County. And why he left.
Au contraire, my dear Mr. Bedolla. You responded to a crack about your usage of “grown-up words,” and that crack was from David. I guess you thought it was me being a Vocabulary Nazi.
And let this exchange, mercifully, end here.
Too late, chum! You’re thinking about me right now, and my big vocabulary.
What a chump.
Notice how neither the wife nor the mouthpiece addressed the bullshit about 200 bills.
In fact they wasted a ton of words not addressing it. Of course I knew all I needed to with the fake address in Brea.
The wife (or consultant-purporting-to-be-the-wife) did “address” that but not credibly. These were bills Joe LOBBIED for, as a union big-wig. By the same criterion *I* could say I’ve passed a few bills. Not 200, but a few.
Still. Rated, what do they say, somewhere between six Pinocchios and “Pants on Fire.”
Yeah, it’s a lie. Just like his previous addresses.
There was something canned about China’s remarks, wasn’t there?
China and Tony should just walk away. They’re giving Vern and Greg and Zenger what they crave: attention and being taken seriously.
They did walk away, but not before leaving a breathtaking (hilarious even) snail-trail of obvious lies. Do you have the critical thinking skills to have even noticed?
Thanks for the shout out.
Hi. Aren’t we splitting the vote, offering no chance for either candidate to win? Do these candidates even discuss this? What would you brilliant pundits do if your only goal is to ensure House dominance for the dems? Thanks
We’ll have eight long months to unite behind whatever Democrats win on Tuesday. And I won’t say anything bad about whoever wins on Tuesday. (Until after they’re elected, then we’ll be watching them critically!)
I’ll say it now – Joe Kerr is better than Young Kim. Kim Nguyen is better than Michelle Steel. And Dave Min is way better than Scott Baugh.
And I can’t wait to see Speaker Hakeem Jeffries starting to really address this nation’s problems.
That comparison won’t matter. Young Kim would stomp Joe Kerr, unless he could somehow restrict the electorate to fire fighters.