Engorged and moistened by the Trump Party’s national trifecta, and nostalgic for their old Glory Days before this past decade of steadily losing ground, local Republicans have begun to fantasize that they’re seeing a “RED WAVE” in Orange County.
And they’ve found a couple of Register writers to assist them in their fantasy: (See “Is a ‘Red Wave’ Sweeping Orange County?”) Not so fast, Bozos and Bozettes, says the Orange Juice Blog. A Red High Tide, perhaps. But OC is roughly the same hue of purple as it was last year (and just you wait for the reaction to Trump’s inevitable excesses.) As for this week, consider the following, and this can double as your daily election update:
1. Presidential Vote – OC prefers Kamala!
Orange County has rejected Donald Trump for the third time in a row. By a lot smaller margin than in 2016 & 2020, yes, but as of today Kamala Harris is more than 26,000 36,000 votes over the Ochre Abomination in this erstwhile GOP stronghold (49.8% to 47%), and her lead keeps growing.
Betraying unseemly excitement, Matt Cunningham prematurely penned a piece ON ELECTION DAY celebrating Trump’s ascendancy here. “Donald J. Trump is on track to be the first Republican presidential nominee to win Orange County since Mitt Romney edge [sic] out President Barack Obama in 2012,” wordsmithed the Wordsmith, typos showing his eager haste, breaking a nine-year cautious refusal to say anything good or bad about the Rotting Yam. “On track,” ON ELECTION DAY? Sorry, Matt, the OC will never be Trump Country.
2. Congress & Assembly stay the same.
Our County will still have the same Congressional makeup as we did before – 3 Democrats out of 5 (or 4 out of 6 if you count Linda Sanchez, who only has our Buena Park.) Dave Min has just beat longtime OCGOP leader Scott Baugh, and Mike Levin has also just beat Matt Gunderson, by 4%. (Breaking news as I write this story.)
And it is still in the realm of possibility that Derek Tran could overtake the lamentable Michelle Steel: He has now cut her lead from 1.4% to 0.8% as of today (Tuesday Nov 12.) But even if he doesn’t quite make it, Steel fighting for her life when she won by 5% two years ago does not, to these eyes, look like a Red Wave. [Update Nov. 16. Derek has now passed Michelle up and is 36 votes ahead, which should be a lot more over the coming week.]
Same thing in the Assembly, in which we’ll continue to have 4 Democrats & 5 Republicans, as Sharon, Cottie, Avelino, and Blanca Pacheco coast to re-election. All pretty handily I might add.
3. and how about…
Placentia-Yorba Linda USD? The last of our problematic culture-war/charter-school rightwing schoolboard majorities has been flipped by concerned parents, just like in Orange and Temecula. Yes, this is not strictly partisan, but the Republican establishment has strongly supported the crazy, destructive, wasteful Boards and policies that are going DOWN. AND this was accomplished by Democrat Tricia Quintero decisively beating MAGA Republican Ryan Miller. In YORBA LINDA NO LESS – suck on THAT! (I’ll be writing a much bigger piece about this victory later this week.)
We mentioned Orange USD, and we should mention it again – it was only last June that the voters THERE recalled their Board’s extremists, including the mad Madison Miner, whom the OC GOP immediately named “School Board Trustee of the Year.” Brave defiance, but the extremists in that locale took their ball and went home – there was no real opposition, this cycle, to the competent moderates now running that district.
Well, how about City Councils?
- It looks like Irvine, now that Melissa Liu has passed up John Park (breaking news!) will have a 5-outta-7 Democrat majority, with their first district elections & expanded Council.
- A reader just alerted me that Garden Grove now has a 4-outta-7 Democrat majority.
- And Fullerton is going to have a 4-outta-5 Democrat majority, whichever Democrat ends up winning Bruce Whitaker’s old District 4, the Zahra/DPOC-backed Kitty Jaramillo or the fresh-faced independent Jamie Valencia (and it’s neck-and-neck right now.)
How ’bout Santa Ana? In a town where the two real Parties have long been Corporate Dems vs. Progressive Dems, it WAS looking for a few days like a Republican could break through. A police-landlord-developer-backed, Zionist-activist Republican named Jeffrey Katz was briefly ahead of progressive stalwart Jessie Lopez. But Comeback Kid Jessie leapfrogged Jeffrey and keeps growing her lead. Meaning the Progressive Majority stays. (In the same election that Santa Ana voters enshrined their landmark Rent Control ordinance in the City Charter, but that too will be its own story.)
How ’bout Anaheim, OC’s largest City? With the departure of Steve Faessel, Anaheim only has ONE Republican left on their 7-member Council, Natalie Meeks, the kleptocrat from the Hills. Andrew Sarega, the one candidate to run this year as a Republican, with help from old rotten GOP organs the Lincoln Club and ATLAS PAC (although 100% funded by police unions), soundly faceplanted. (The victorious, Disney-establishment candidates, which is all of ’em, know they have to run as Democrats or independents – not that it makes any difference in their votes, sadly.) But no Red Wave up here!
Well, then, you ask, how ’bout Brea? Brea where ambitious MAGA Republican Councilman Steve Vargas tried to replace his moderate colleagues with extremist candidates of his choosing, including old anti-gay activist Bill Klovstad (dad of the OC GOP’s School Board Trustee of the Year Madison Miner)? MAGA FAIL.
Oh, we almost forgot LEE FINK – OC Republicans’ ENEMY #1 (because he’s beat them in Court so many times), running for Council in little Tustin. Republican groups spent a jawdropping figure to defeat Lee, unheard of in a Tustin Council race. Well… YOU FOUGHT LEE FINK AND… FINK WON!
Okay, give OC Republicans this:
In our one State Senate race, Steven Choi (R) seems to be beating Josh Newman (D). I don’t know how the old mumbling carpetbagger pulled it off, but I doubt he’ll last more than one term, and it won’t make much of a difference in Sacramento anyhow.
Republicans have managed to keep their majority on the Board of Supervisors, with Don Wagner and Doug Chaffee, joined now by Janet Nguyen who is just as corrupt as the disgraced Andrew Do whose place she’s taking.
Yes, Huntington Beach has gone full-tilt MAGA, not only that but full-tilt MAGA KLEPTO as shown in their corporate welfare to the Pacific Air Show. THAT could look like a Red Wave, there. But I put it down to the fact that HB has so many shallow beds – wetlands, tidepools, sumps – that it is difficult, may take a few years, to dredge up all the red guck.
Sadly, little Aliso Viejo, despite its Democrat registration advantage, now has a 3-2 Republican Council majority, thanks mainly to the manic (albeit terminally ill) wingnut Mike Munzing beating laid-back, underfunded Ross Chun.
What else do OC Republicans have to boast of? (Post in the comments if you can think of something.)
Red Wave in OC? Try more like, a Red Puddle. An unsightly one.
In case anyone missed today’s news buried in this story…
Dave Min has declared victory over Scott Baugh. (Let the record show we broke this story before Dan, the Register, or the VOC.)
At the same time, fine Congressman Mike Levin has been declared victorious at 4% over “Big Oil” Gunderson.
Derek Tran is closing in fast & furious to Michelle Steel, bringing his deficit down from 1.4% to 0.8%.
In Santa Ana, Jessie Lopez is running away from Jeffrey Katz; a big deal as it keeps their progressive majority.
And in Fullerton, Kitty is nipping at Jamie’s heels! (A slightly big deal as it means a Zahra majority or a NOT Zahra majority.)
Might want to look at Kitty’s massive funding infusion at the last possible second.
Really stinks of skunk.
Yep, as I suspected it was the Weed Cartel washing their money through their employees’ union.
And this makes a lot of sense in re: Scott Markowitz. Somebody paid Ajay Mojan & Co. to come up with the phony candidate scam, get signatures and then have Markowitz commit perjury.
The question of who suborned Markowitz’ perjury remains unanswered.
Melahat rearing her head behind the scenes perhaps? She is still out of prison.
The connection between her and Zahra and the whole stinking scampaign of Jaramillo smells like skunkbud.
Every day either Kitty or Jamie is up by 7 or 12 votes. Closest race in the county!
Also gotta mention that Democrats flipped 2 seats in Garden Grove, giving them a 4D-2R-1NPP plurality
Thanks for the tip, I’ll add it to the story, and it sounds like GG Dems actually have a majority.
Yeah, I’m not even being a Democrat cheerleader here – I don’t like all Democrats or dislike all Republicans. I’m just making fun of this “red wave in OC” nonsense.
We should add to the list of good news the results of the Tustin School Board elections. The extremist attempt to overturn that board failed miserably, with Allyson Muñiz Damikolas garnering over 70% of the vote. She is an outstanding leader whose voice was sorely missed in quest to unseat Young Kim. How many firefighters voted Democrat?
Allyson 26!
Mask are species discrimination!
I think it’s fair to say the dpoc’s endorsement and support of Frances Marquez was half-throated at best.
Sadly true. I wrote this at the end of my piece comparing Janet & Andrew Do, maybe a lot of people didn’t read that far:
“Then there’s the Democrats…
“Beyond endorsing Frances, the County Democrat Party (DPOC) hasn’t given her a lot of support. The Democrat establishment has always been a little “hands off” with Janet, maybe because she’s always been good at keeping the biggest UNIONS happy (looking at you OCEA.)
“And now I hear from a reliable source that Janet’s been going around to all the powerful Democrat electeds and THREATENING THEM to “stay neutral” or else she will “RUN SOMEBODY AGAINST THEM!” Oh brother, what a pathetic bully, that’s Janet all over. “OOOH! Janet’s gonna RUN somebody against me!!” Does that work? Apparently so, with our weaker-minded Democrats…”
She’s a sociopath for sure. And a crook.
DPOC leadership is noticeably quiet. Not even any outrage over Trump. It’s not like they are demonstrating any exuberance, enthusiasm or joy over results up and down the ballot. That Tammy Kim endorsement sure was swell!
Here’s something that was not on my radar screen – just as the normal people took back the Placentia Yorba Linda USD, right-wing extremists did take over the largest school board in the county, Capistrano USD. I hadn’t paid much attention to that board since 2010, when I was kind of immersed in it, until the normal people took over back then:
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/07/a-capo-recall-primer/
I guess that is the next battleground. And I guess the OC GOP did more damage in South County (south of Irvine) than north or central.
The Anaheim Democratic club turned into the democrats of greater Irvine. Lol!
I saw that, on Dan’s blog. Before I bother with all the mistakes in Dan’s article (such as every sentence mentioning me), the strangest thing is that none of us in the Club have received any communication from the DPOC about losing our Charter. Not our current president, not the former president, not me. We would have to fight this, if it’s true. We’ve done everything the DPOC demanded (after having a long Club-wide discussion, and voting to follow DPOC rules and keep our charter.)
I’ll leave it there, for now. Are they in disarray over there? Did Dan jump the gun? Weird to make HIM the messenger. We have an e-mail address, we have a phone. Let us know if we’re chartered or not, so we can decide if we’re gonna bother fighting or not.
Did this happen to DGI?
Don’t be drawn into cyclopean stupidity. And don’t touch the pink toad.
Dan is just the (flawed) messenger, this is about the DPOC unjustly taking away our Club’s charter after we followed all the rules.
This is the beginning of a BIG, PUBLIC, FIGHT.
I’m not sure I’d want to be associated with anything run by Ada Briceno. No wait. I am sure.
Sometimes pink toad touches you!
^^^ Excellent joke and point.
Oh, Ryan. The whole point is to not let the pink toad anywhere near you.
Yes, but… when it sneaks up on you, there are measures you must take.
The DPOC has been infiltrated by ethnic immigrant racist females and their acolytes and has no real fundraising infrastructure except a yearly awards banquet good for about 250k a year. No real democrat money flows into the party. And, if they are going to have multiple charters in one city and not follow the endorsement recommendations of their local clubs then what exactly is the purpose of being a local club member? It’s a joke and the leadership is scary looking. Don’t feed the animals!!!
I guess we are the first casualty of the traditional post-GOP-victory Democrat Circular Firing Squad. Trump won the election – let’s kick out the Anaheim Democrats Club!
A fight over this may well become public, but I don’t think that this is the time or place for current (and former, i.e., you) club leadership to be making public statements, because they will be quoted even when you may have come out with superseding statements that you might wish would be quoted instead.
I realize that non-members of the club are curious and would not be stopped from discussing it, but Vern (and even lowly me) should not (yet) be talking about it here beyond what’s already up. Zenger has enough political experience to understand this even it Eric … is irrepressibly Eric. (I disassociate myself from his describing the DPOC leadership as “ethnic immigrant racist females” even though three of those adjectives are indisputable and I have have another ten or so I could easily substitute in for “racist.”)
That’s not what I said Greg. I said the county party was infiltrated by them. Ada and Farrah I’m looking at you.
But even the non immigrant females like Norris play the race and victim card. She is the first to tell you she is the Jewish mother of bipoc kids. And, she looks and acts like a stepford wife. And, she’ll cry anti-semitism if you blast the dpoc for endorsing racists like Farrah Khan. That’s what they did right.
The DPOC also supported Khan and Kim who implemented the rule of two specifically to prevent Larry Agran (a Jew) from agendizing items. How come Norris wasn’t screaming bloody anti-semitism then?
Do you even know what the term “infiltrate” means? I didn’t even address that part, it was so idiotic. But, hey, you too can explain your understanding of the “infiltration” plan in detail! Dumbass.
I noticed Greg didn’t dispute the rest of my comment about the DPOC piss poor fundraising.
https://irvine.granicus.com/player/clip/6665?view_id=68&redirect=true (listen to 5.5, wait for the unicorn)
Okay, I shouldn’t write much more about the DPOC vs. Anaheim Dems Club until there’s more time to consult with the Club and its new leadership, and to see what our options are. But I’ve found out more about the vote (which was a tie, 6-6, a lot of people there spoke up for us.)
Just to say, why were we punished when we had already complied with all their demands, what were our new “offenses?” Dan was told wrong by whatever busybody talked to him, that it had anything to do with our application being a little late and anything wrong with our bylaws (NOTHING was wrong with our bylaws, that was some other Club.)
THESE are the new “offenses” that we were dinged for, and the first one is really funny. Someone at DPOC had seen the video I made with Francisco Rosas as he ran against DPOC-endorsed incumbent Norma Kurtz, something I was free to do, no longer being an officer, and had nothing to do with the Club – we didn’t even allow Francisco to speak at the Club meetings, to comport with the DPOC’s rules. But some people at the DPOC claim that Kenneth Batiste (former President) and his wife Roxanne (current treasurer) are featured in this video. Mira no mas:
That black guy on the right is a volunteer we met named Cody. I guess he could look a LITTLE like Kenneth Batiste, especially with his hat and shades, especially if all black people look alike to you. Apparently they thought the lady on the left was Kenneth’s wife Roxanne. It is Dr. Pat Adelekan, an old member of Los Amigos and the Club, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King. Roxanne is very much a white lady.
Apart from that, they are still really pissed off about the flyer that Dan posted, which Mike Robbins handed out at the State of the City event. This protest had nothing to do with the Club, but Mike WAS an officer, and we complied with the DPOC’s demand that Mike resign as secretary.
Still, some folks keep insisting that *I* was handing out those flyers. I did not, hadn’t seen them, and wouldn’t have had anything to do with a flyer saying Jordan was murdered. All I did that day was hold a sign for a while that someone had made, something about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves being homeless. And talked to passersby including Councilman Jose Diaz who thanked us for always speaking out.
Anyway… just to straighten all that out. We are still looking at our options.
PS and we still haven’t received any notification of this, even though the vote was a week ago.
Watch Farrahkhan throw two name Tammy Kim under the bus, lie that she is a small business owner, lie about her work history, claim she was merely saving citizens money when she disenfranchised them and voted to appoint weirdo Mike Carroll to city council and generally look dumber than a pile of rocks.
https://youtu.be/Yln5YEHj1UU
When some dpoc darlings are at each other’s throats, makes you wonder just how toxic the whole organization is.
That’s not the problem. It’s politics, people often jostle for power and influence. DPOC’s toxicity problems are more from supine negligence.
Shouldn’t Farrakhan be excommunicated from the DPOC for endorsing the non DPOC endorsed mayoral candidate Agran over DPOC’s candidate the Shamster??
Your ignorance is showing. DPOC doesn’t “excommunicate;” you’re mixing it up with the Catholic Church. (Easy mistake, I guess.) It can expel members — but I don’t know that Farrah is a member. I suppose that they could revoke her charter, if she had one.
Because your obsessions with Farrah and Tammy are so incredibly boring and toadlike, you are on a strict limit of how much of them you can offer in a given month. (Mentioning that Tammy has used two surnames, use of the term “Farrahkhan,” and other “witticisms” count twice towards the total; claiming that women of color in DPOC are ipso facto racist counts quadruple. So you’re at your limit for this month; your counter resets in a week. You can still comment on matters unrelated to Irvine — the ones where Vern and I thank you for your contributions for this next week.
Y would DPOC endorse a non member for political office?? In this case khan for supervisor.
And excommunication has a secondary meaning which is to be removed from a group. You need to be more open minded.
I guess you don’t know what the DPOC is. It’s an organization. It is not the Democratic Party. Hundreds of thousands of us here in the OC are Democrats, but not members of the DPOC. Most Democrats that run for office are not members of the DPOC. You can’t be kicked out of the Democratic Party.
Vern: the one exception to “you can’t be kicked out of the party” was San Diego- based Nazi Tom Metzger, who was thereafter no longer able to run for office as a Democrat. That’s the biggest sanction they have.
Farrah was endorsed because she was running against Don Wagner. Except for the added fuel that would have forgiven her political career, that was an easy call. Most Dems understood that; you don’t because your politics are literally based on hated of certain ethnicities countries and those who support them. Whatever sin that may or may not be in the rest of life, the spin in the blogosphere is that it’s boring and highly off-putting to readers.
You are the one having a kniphit about the dpoc f’ing with your club. If they have no true connection to the actual party then why do you care? I give no f’s about them. People like you afford them more power than they actually wield.
We have a short list of reasons we prefer to remain a chartered Democratic Club with the County Party. A short list, but compelling enough for a unanimous vote from the Club membership.
And I know of no legitimate reason they should have withheld that.
Not saying much more because I don’t wanna come off as the Club’s spokesman when there’s a whole new Executive Board.
This Eric dude might have finally found his acorn. The OC Dem party is no better than their Repuglican counterparts.
It endorses non-DPOC members all of the time. The DPOC has well under 100 people.
It limits itself to endorsing Democrats, but that doesn’t seem to be your point.
You should really study up more before you publish.
Here’s a primer on statewide recounts: there are more district ones, but the margin where they overturn a result is still around 500 — and usually that is with better cause for suspicion than Marjorie Taylor Green’s say-so:
https://ballotpedia.org/Noteworthy_recounts_in_the_United_States
The dpoc don’t have ladp or Lincoln club money. They a broke as joke.
https://voiceofoc.org/2022/10/orange-county-and-los-angeles-democrat-parties-clash-in-irvine-city-council-race/
Josh (nasty name deleted) Newman has conceded.
And Derek Tran has declared victory. I’m writing a new story about that. But meanwhile I should update this one – the OC “Red Wave” got our county from 4 out of 6 Democratic Congressmembers to 5 out of 6.
If only the USA were more like Orange County, California!
This tweeter whom I’m assuming is a local Republican describes the red wave locally as more of a red wash.
https://x.com/cerulean626_/status/1862340605697040592?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Personally, I think it’s a political upgrade. cities like Westminster are dumpster fires. Irvine is the second largest city in the county.
This person writes “We broke Democratic trifectas in Irvine, Tustin, and Costa Mesa at the expense of losing Republican trifectas in Garden Grove, Westminster, and Fountain Valley.”
What does this person mean by “trifecta,” a word that’s become overused and misused? How did Republicans break a “trifecta” in Irvine? It looks to me like 5-2 Democrat. Did Democrats lose majorities in Tustin and Costa Mesa, Greg? I missed that if it’s true. All I was watching in Tustin was the victory of Lee Fink, the OC GOP’s enemy #1.
And Dems got majorities in Westminster & Fountain Valley? I did not know that either. Not that this “cerulean626” seems very dependable. Red wash sounds about right anyways.
Generally a “trifecta” means the Chief Executive of a governmental entity as well as its upper and lower legislative body. I don’t think it has an established meaning for municipalities. I’d e interested ink owing what this commenter meant by that. Maybe supermajorities? I don’t think that’s true either….
I first heard the word from President GW Bush, and I was all “how does this klutz know a fancy word that I don’t?” He used it in bad taste, after explaining shortly after 9/11 that the only valid reason he’d run budget deficits would be if the country experienced recession, war or national emergency. “Lucky me,” he concluded. “I hit the trifecta.” I assumed it was some golf term.
But I had to look it up. It’s “a bet in which the person betting forecasts the first three finishers in a race in the correct order. Or, a run of three wins or grand events.” You’re right that in politics these days it usually means having the executive & legislative down, and even the judiciary.
But this “cerulean” twitterer is just using it meaninglessly because he thinks it sounds smart. The question remains: DID Democrats lose their majorities in Tustin and Costa Mesa? And DID we GAIN majorities in Westminster & Fountain Valley? (I know he was wrong about Irvine, and right about Garden Grove.) Greg? Do I need to figure this out?
Don’t spend much time at the track?
Cerulean. Man, that’s a hue of blue.
I know what cerulean is. Peregrine too.
Never heard the word trifecta till 2002 though.
But the point is people are overusing and misusing it now.
Peregrine is a bird.
It’s a horse betting term for a three leg parlay. Eh.
I think he meant snail. Or maybe eggplant.
porphyra er periwinkle.
I’m tired of talking about this stupid tweet.