“Hold our beers, Republicans – we’ll take out these establishment Dems ourselves!”

Oh, me of little faith. I was skeptical – wary of false hope – that some of the primary races where the progressive or the Democrat was 5 or 6 points behind last week would change meaningfully by now. I was right that Steyer barely budged and the Governor race will be Hilton v. Becerra; I was right that Katrina barely budged and will have to face Grandma Dixon again in November; Ada barely budged in AD 67 against Mark Pulido, and Cody barely budged in the Equalization race.

But check it out: Two progressives we’re watching closely DID rocket past the Republican candidates this week to take on establishment Dems in the general! Making the national news and fueling MAGA fraud conspiracies is the quick late rise of Nythia Raman (LA’s Mamdani) overtaking Trump-beloved reality TV villain Spencer Pratt in the race to take on LA Mayor Karen Bass, whose tenure and record makes everyone sad. But what makes Orange County hearts beat with hope is seeing Santa Ana progressive Jessie Lopez surge past Republican Mayra Ruiz, to continue “the fight for the soul of the Democrat Party” against uber-vendido David Penaloza, continue it to November!

This is NOT what the crypto-billionaires, Meta and Google wanted to happen when they sank $5 MILLION into David’s PRIMARY. They wanted to crush Jessie from the start like a bug, and not have to worry again. This is not what the oil and insurance companies, the landlord and charter-school associations expected when they gambled so big against Comeback Jessie, they expected they’d be done with her by now. Pero no.

AND this is not what the State and County Democrat Parties wanted when they united in lockstep behind this empty NASCAR suit. “David will have all the funding he needs, let’s hope we can avoid a costly D-on-D election so we can spend our money elsewhere. UNITY!” they cried out. But the people, the Democrat People, weren’t having it. Because look, from today:

Last week, you could say she was a distant third. Now she’s not only a safe second, in the race thru November, but she’s actually closing in on David! (800 votes behind.) She could very well pass him this week, even tonight! (Thursday.) Jessie tends to do this. Or is it just that Jessie’s voters, who love her, tend to procrastinate (perhaps even smoking weed a few of them) and then SPRINT across the finish line with their ballots in their teeth?

In any case we now have five more months for Anaheim and Orange to get to know Jessie AND David as well as Santa Ana does, not the grotesque Jessie caricatures that David’s big funders splash on our TV’s, devices and mailboxes. Five months as well for Anaheim and Orange to get to know the real David P:

It’s Been Twenty Years…

It’s been twenty years now, since Joe Dunn left the state senate in 2006, that the heavily Democratic central county has had any kind of progressive representation in Sacramento. Twenty years since they’ve had anyone to fight for the people, for universal health care, for rent control, for police accountability. Twenty years under a chokehold of “business Democrats” since Senator Lou Correa and then Tom Umberg took over from Dunn, voting AGAINST all those things. MORE than twenty years under Assemblyman Jose Solorio, his handpicked successor Tom Daly, and HIS handpicked successor Avelino who is NOW going to bat for HIS hand-picked successor Penaloza while he moves on up to termed-out Umberg’s spot.

And during that time Santa Ana’s people elected their celebrated 2020 Progressive Sarmiento Council Majority which continues to this day, and passed rent control with a vote of the people, the support of Jessie and the resistance of David. In this historic 2012 Chris Prevatt article, Senator Correa (now Congressman-for-life) explains his opposition to universal healthcare: “Correa has said that his central Orange County district is a more conservative district where progressive ideas like universal single-payer health care are out of sync with the will of the voters.” Always that story, “we OC Democrats need to be conservative or we’ll lose!” As Prevatt countered (understatement alert):

“Correa’s predecessor in the Senate, Joe Dunn, had one of the most progressive voting records in the Senate during his two terms, easily winning reelection in 2002. If voter registration margins are any indication, the seat is not nearly as conservative as Correa would have us believe.”

We are trying to break that cycle now, the legacy that started with Tom Daly, the “whitest man in OC” representing the most Latino area, the guy who not only opposed universal healthcare and a minimum wage hike, but in 2016 called the cops on peaceful union protesters who came to his office to ask him to change those votes. (Actually it was Tom’s aide Avelino who called the cops on the unions.) THIS 2012 Voice of OC article captures some of the Democrat Civil War marking the grim beginning of the Tom Daly Dynasty.

When Jessie wins in November, we will be finally reclaiming Santa Ana, Anaheim, Orange, the vital progressive center of OC, from the Tom Daly Dynasty. And the Party will just have to wake up and smell the coffee.

That’s enough for now. Stay tuned for UPDATES of Jessie getting more votes than David!