The rules are: reactions to ONE RACE (or set of associated races) per top-level comment!
You can have as many comments as you’d like — and you can reply to each top-level comment (so long as you stay on topic) as often as you’d like. (But note that Neshanian Rules do apply.)
See the first comment for an example.
At left: Tasty Bite’s excellent microwavable Punjab Eggplant! At right, Shawn Steel’s proposed pay for campaign workers — one scoop only!
This is not a generalized Open Thread, it is just a political results commentary Open Thread. A regular, “talk about anything you want” Open Thread will appear no later than the day Shawn Steel pays up!
About Greg Diamond
Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that.
Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too.
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)
His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)
I was pretty bummed about racist racial agitator James Mai winning this race over split opposition. Then I remembered that Larry Agran was just elected Mayor — and at least it will be fun to see how they have to handle each other! Mai will have at least one second for his motions in Mike Carroll — and this may allow him to drive Agran batty.
Note: In all council conflicts between them, I’ll be rooting for “Agran at great personal cost,” of course!
So in the unsurprising event that Chumley was wrong — and he can sometimes be right when someone who knows feeds him the correct information — what *will* be the electorate for replacing Larry Agran’s seat on Council?
I think that, based on the controversy that happened when Bob Page took over, the seat being filled must be filled from the same electorate that initially voted that person into that seat, meaning that it’s a vote of the whole city. What I don’t know is whether candidates for the special election (presuming that it can’t be an appointment) have to reside in that district during this two-year transitional period.
I’m not sure how this tab got onto my browser, but I think I recall Vern mentioning that Matt’s Marsh had gotten a competent new writer, and this seems to fit the bill. She mistakes the role of DPOC vs. DGI — which are not on the same level — but the discussion of ICNV fits what I’ve seen.
This seems like a good moment to ask whether the allegations she makes in the article are true, and if so: has anyone brought this to the OCDA, to the California AG, or considered a PAGA (private Attorney General Act suit if neither of them will act? I’m not endorsing any such action — my sense of Agran is that he tends to come close to the lines but rarely if ever colors beyond them — but with his re-ascent to power there should be fresh interest in them. The notion that Agran had allied himself with Mike Carroll certain caught my attention — if so, maybe he’ll be allied with James Mai as well! At any rate, if the people allied with the views of the sources that fed this article take no actions of this sort, than what can we do but ignore them? Is that a just end?
This article is more than two months old, Ms. Jaffe is a crackpot and the whole Larry has a newspaper schtick has been overplayed. Sheesh! You don’t know who Ms. Jaffe is? She was contributing to Voc well before Matt’s marsh. And you expect anyone to take you seriously Greg. Meh. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
This looks like Fred Jung’s town now — and certainly not Ahmad Zahra’s. Jung and his Republican pal Dunlap both won handily, but the real race was in District 4, which now has:
JAMIE VALENCIA 3,473 36.01%
VIVIAN “KITTY” JARAMILLO 3,420 35.46%
LINDA WHITAKER 1,734 17.98%
SCOTT MARKOWITZ 1,018 10.55%
Jamie Valencia, who appears to be part of the Jung wing rather than the Zahra wing, is stubbornly holding onto her lead, expanding it at least a little most days. (That’s just my impression; I haven’t been charting it.) But look: even with Scott Markowitz in the race, presumably taking away votes from Linda Whitaker (and I suppose also from any misogynists out there) their combined total would still leave them 8 points behind Jaramillo and 8-1/2 behind Valencia! I haven’t been focusing on Fullerton this year, but I have to ask those who were: Was it Linda Whitaker who was the spoiler here all along? And if so, who would have gotten her votes had she (and thus Markowitz, who we’ve reported was only there to drag her down) not been part of this race? Did y’all see this coming before the results came in, or was it a total surprise — and if so, why?
We all saw a close election. Jamie had a lot of support and worked hard.
Jaramillo’s team created a phony candidate because they thought Bushala was all-in for Linda Whitaker. Really Bushala was all-in to make sure Jaramillo didn’t win, regardless of who did. When word got out that Markowitz was a set-up and then that he committed perjury, a lot of people started asking questions that people like Sharon Kennedy (“journalist”) tried vigorously to stonewall, pretending that Markowitz acted all by himself.
That led to a barrage of mail/text/and cable ads talking about election fraud in Fullerton by Jaramillo’s “team.”
With the money she raised plus the MJ lobbyist money, laundered through the grocery workers’ union, Jaramillo should have won easily. Suspicion is that it was the MJ lobby that paid for the Markowitz scam and some well-known Fullerton Democrat organized it – including collecting the nominating papers and suborning Markowitz’s perjury.
The bright spot is that the eternally dishonest Zahra took it in the shorts
Who knows where they dredged up Truxaw? Sort of a creepy dude with the most annoying voice I’ve ever heard in politics.
The old war horse Flory should have stayed in the barn, but for some reason she thought her “experience” was needed to save Fullerton from itself, and thus another lap around the track.
She got clobbered, but good. And Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform didn’t even bother.
Okay, but if all Tony wanted was “not Jaramillo,” how do you and he know that Valencia will not also be convinced to support Zahra?
I have zero information here, but I can tell you that she is extremely likely to be lobbied by party figures with a formidable array of threats and inducements.
She owes “the party” nothing and as an outsider won’t be induced by some pie in the sky promise for higher office, especially if she were to learn that the movin’ on up jobs have already been promised.
She might support Zahra, but I find that astronomically unlikely.
STEPHANIE KLOPFENSTEIN 15,687 26.93%
DIEDRE THU-HA NGUYEN 14,341 24.62%
LAN NGUYEN 10,146 17.42%
PHAT BUI 7,811 13.41%
JOHN R. O’NEILL 7,448 12.78%
MUSAAB B. MUGHAL 1,473 2.53%
THOMAS THAI NGUYEN 1,352 2.32%
The race was between Klopfenstein and Dierdre Thu-Ha Ngyuen.
Two other Nguyens were in the race: One finished third, the other finished last (but still got almost exactly the number of votes as the margin of victory.)
Klopfenstein’s white opposition was less than half her total. Nguyen’s Viet opposition was 80% of her total.
My question is: Was this result in any way engineered by running certain categories of candidates to split the ethnic Viet vote?
If so: could (or at least should) Garden Grove adopt an instant runoff system for Mayor?
With as many Viet aspirants in the race as we see here (and elsewhere), this is going to keep happening year after year, again and again.
Splitting the vote works. This was splitting the vote, even if most voters knew who was whom. Never underestimate the low cognitive effort all but the most avid and concerned voters are willing to put into voting.
And what happened to Do’s COS, some dude with the unfortunate name of Wangsaporn. He vanished this fall right after Do do tuned up by the Feds. Apparently there was some sort of contract between the County and Wangsy’s girlfriend.
I went to the OCBC Election Day luncheon once at a Disney hotel. Is that the same thing? (Someone bought me a ticket so I could report on it, and Lucy Dunn and Curt Pringle kept giving me the evil eye.)
IRVINE DISTRICT 3:
I was pretty bummed about racist racial agitator James Mai winning this race over split opposition. Then I remembered that Larry Agran was just elected Mayor — and at least it will be fun to see how they have to handle each other! Mai will have at least one second for his motions in Mike Carroll — and this may allow him to drive Agran batty.
Note: In all council conflicts between them, I’ll be rooting for “Agran at great personal cost,” of course!
So in the unsurprising event that Chumley was wrong — and he can sometimes be right when someone who knows feeds him the correct information — what *will* be the electorate for replacing Larry Agran’s seat on Council?
I think that, based on the controversy that happened when Bob Page took over, the seat being filled must be filled from the same electorate that initially voted that person into that seat, meaning that it’s a vote of the whole city. What I don’t know is whether candidates for the special election (presuming that it can’t be an appointment) have to reside in that district during this two-year transitional period.
Just ran into this: https://ocindependent.com/2024/09/opinion-larry-agran-needs-to-come-clean/
I’m not sure how this tab got onto my browser, but I think I recall Vern mentioning that Matt’s Marsh had gotten a competent new writer, and this seems to fit the bill. She mistakes the role of DPOC vs. DGI — which are not on the same level — but the discussion of ICNV fits what I’ve seen.
This seems like a good moment to ask whether the allegations she makes in the article are true, and if so: has anyone brought this to the OCDA, to the California AG, or considered a PAGA (private Attorney General Act suit if neither of them will act? I’m not endorsing any such action — my sense of Agran is that he tends to come close to the lines but rarely if ever colors beyond them — but with his re-ascent to power there should be fresh interest in them. The notion that Agran had allied himself with Mike Carroll certain caught my attention — if so, maybe he’ll be allied with James Mai as well! At any rate, if the people allied with the views of the sources that fed this article take no actions of this sort, than what can we do but ignore them? Is that a just end?
This article is more than two months old, Ms. Jaffe is a crackpot and the whole Larry has a newspaper schtick has been overplayed. Sheesh! You don’t know who Ms. Jaffe is? She was contributing to Voc well before Matt’s marsh. And you expect anyone to take you seriously Greg. Meh. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
https://voiceofoc.org/2021/06/jaffe-history-an-inconvenient-truth-to-the-palestinian-narrative/
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2020-10-20/community-newspaper-backed-by-former-irvine-mayor-and-current-candidate-dra
I’ll wait to hear from a more credible sourc: literally almost anyone.
Honestly, I know cats that are less self-absorbed than you are — and that’s not easy! And this “I knew it because I Googled it” routine is pathetic.
Nevertheless, I hope that everyone else at your Thanksgiving dinner enjoyed the conversation — which means that you were likely bound and gagged.
Read both links while lunch is cooking.
(1) “ONOZ, the article is two months old!” Uhhhh … so?
(2) Her criticisms of Hamas et al can be legitimate without legitimizing Israel’s response.
(3) Agran’s disingenuousness in that article is good reflection of why you as an Agranista wuv him so vewy much!
The entertaining writer at Matt’s sump I mentioned was Mina Kim, not Karen Jaffe, whose name I recognize as a longtime anti-Agranista.
https://ocindependent.com/author/minakim/
I guess as long as they’re attacking Democrats, any Democrats, they have a home at OC Independent.
Matt’s latest cri-de-couer laments the victories of Fink, Min & Jessie Lopez despite the scandals he hoped would sink ’em. I guess voters decided their strong points, and their unworthy opponents, outweighed all this: https://ocindependent.com/2024/11/editorial-assault-battery-duis-harassment-no-longer-barriers-to-elected-office/
Karen Jaffee is not a competent writer. Period. Exclamation point.
FULLERTON DISTRICT 4:
This looks like Fred Jung’s town now — and certainly not Ahmad Zahra’s. Jung and his Republican pal Dunlap both won handily, but the real race was in District 4, which now has:
JAMIE VALENCIA 3,473 36.01%
VIVIAN “KITTY” JARAMILLO 3,420 35.46%
LINDA WHITAKER 1,734 17.98%
SCOTT MARKOWITZ 1,018 10.55%
Jamie Valencia, who appears to be part of the Jung wing rather than the Zahra wing, is stubbornly holding onto her lead, expanding it at least a little most days. (That’s just my impression; I haven’t been charting it.) But look: even with Scott Markowitz in the race, presumably taking away votes from Linda Whitaker (and I suppose also from any misogynists out there) their combined total would still leave them 8 points behind Jaramillo and 8-1/2 behind Valencia! I haven’t been focusing on Fullerton this year, but I have to ask those who were: Was it Linda Whitaker who was the spoiler here all along? And if so, who would have gotten her votes had she (and thus Markowitz, who we’ve reported was only there to drag her down) not been part of this race? Did y’all see this coming before the results came in, or was it a total surprise — and if so, why?
We all saw a close election. Jamie had a lot of support and worked hard.
Jaramillo’s team created a phony candidate because they thought Bushala was all-in for Linda Whitaker. Really Bushala was all-in to make sure Jaramillo didn’t win, regardless of who did. When word got out that Markowitz was a set-up and then that he committed perjury, a lot of people started asking questions that people like Sharon Kennedy (“journalist”) tried vigorously to stonewall, pretending that Markowitz acted all by himself.
That led to a barrage of mail/text/and cable ads talking about election fraud in Fullerton by Jaramillo’s “team.”
With the money she raised plus the MJ lobbyist money, laundered through the grocery workers’ union, Jaramillo should have won easily. Suspicion is that it was the MJ lobby that paid for the Markowitz scam and some well-known Fullerton Democrat organized it – including collecting the nominating papers and suborning Markowitz’s perjury.
The bright spot is that the eternally dishonest Zahra took it in the shorts
Flory and Truxaw were not exactly formidable candidates either.
Who knows where they dredged up Truxaw? Sort of a creepy dude with the most annoying voice I’ve ever heard in politics.
The old war horse Flory should have stayed in the barn, but for some reason she thought her “experience” was needed to save Fullerton from itself, and thus another lap around the track.
She got clobbered, but good. And Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform didn’t even bother.
Okay, but if all Tony wanted was “not Jaramillo,” how do you and he know that Valencia will not also be convinced to support Zahra?
I have zero information here, but I can tell you that she is extremely likely to be lobbied by party figures with a formidable array of threats and inducements.
Valencia’s mentor is Fred Jung.
She owes “the party” nothing and as an outsider won’t be induced by some pie in the sky promise for higher office, especially if she were to learn that the movin’ on up jobs have already been promised.
She might support Zahra, but I find that astronomically unlikely.
GARDEN GROVE MAYOR:
STEPHANIE KLOPFENSTEIN 15,687 26.93%
DIEDRE THU-HA NGUYEN 14,341 24.62%
LAN NGUYEN 10,146 17.42%
PHAT BUI 7,811 13.41%
JOHN R. O’NEILL 7,448 12.78%
MUSAAB B. MUGHAL 1,473 2.53%
THOMAS THAI NGUYEN 1,352 2.32%
The race was between Klopfenstein and Dierdre Thu-Ha Ngyuen.
Two other Nguyens were in the race: One finished third, the other finished last (but still got almost exactly the number of votes as the margin of victory.)
Klopfenstein’s white opposition was less than half her total. Nguyen’s Viet opposition was 80% of her total.
My question is: Was this result in any way engineered by running certain categories of candidates to split the ethnic Viet vote?
If so: could (or at least should) Garden Grove adopt an instant runoff system for Mayor?
With as many Viet aspirants in the race as we see here (and elsewhere), this is going to keep happening year after year, again and again.
I really think Vietnamese American voters know their Nguyens from each other.
Not like running an extra “Joe Moreno.”
Splitting the vote works. This was splitting the vote, even if most voters knew who was whom. Never underestimate the low cognitive effort all but the most avid and concerned voters are willing to put into voting.
Nick Gerda reports about twisted fate of former OC deputy CEO.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/orange-county-andrew-do-los-angeles-homeless-services-authority-lilly-simmering
Yes, it is a Simmering Scandal.
And what happened to Do’s COS, some dude with the unfortunate name of Wangsaporn. He vanished this fall right after Do do tuned up by the Feds. Apparently there was some sort of contract between the County and Wangsy’s girlfriend.
Crickets from Voice of OC.
Dumb dumb Donny has some skin in this. Epic.
Queue faith no more. I see more fish flopping.
https://youtu.be/ZG_k5CSYKhg
Seems like a few folks tried to get out of dodge er the county. If you are waiting on voc don’t hold yer breath.
Wangsaporn had the nerve to show up at the OC Public Affairs Election Day lunch still hobnobbing with Roger Faubel, Brian Probolsky, etc.
What a distinguished gathering.
I went to the OCBC Election Day luncheon once at a Disney hotel. Is that the same thing? (Someone bought me a ticket so I could report on it, and Lucy Dunn and Curt Pringle kept giving me the evil eye.)
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2018/11/ocbc-luncheon/
President Biden pardons another turkey. And I don’t blame him!
https://apnews.com/article/biden-son-hunter-charges-pardon-pledge-24f3007c2d2f467fa48e21bbc7262525
And the hypos in the GYP will go apeshit.
When Hunter comes to la he hangs out with Lebanese Armenians. EN said it.
The pink toad and the myopic one both think I’m not qualified to recognize racists. I must be on to something.
I’ve had some Lebanese friends. Still do. Is there a problem with that?
Nor one bit. Go eat at Carosel in Hollywood or Glendale.
Just calling em how I see em.
Feds looking at his weewee on last time.
https://bsky.app/profile/theonion.com/post/3lcbvxu4xik2z
And what’s up with the “had”, did they flee?
First one I thought of went back to Lebanon. He was the spoiled partying son of some diplomat.
Then I remembered Bushala!
And now for something completely different. Skinny puppy!! Live form anaslime er crime.
https://youtu.be/3q4MuMyR-cs
I’m just trying to find a Dubai bar without having to travel to Little Arabia and wondering if the folks claiming to be Syrian are really Turks.