It’s not just that Jessie Lopez has been so much better on the Santa Ana Council than David Peñaloza, and will certainly be better in the Assembly, and I guess I’ll have to get around to defining what I mean by “better.” But it’s not just THAT, that makes her victory over him that epic and stirring, there are other things. Like, to wit:

1. The People Defeat BIG MONEY. (Again.)

As long as we can remember, the most highly-funded candidates have won their elections – if they have a LOT of money behind em, don’t even bother trying! Especially if they’re incumbents. Especially if they’re in Anaheim. We still can’t lose sight of the goal of overturning Citizens United, and meanwhile passing whatever other (recusal-based) campaign finance reform we can.

BUT we have been seeing, more and more in recent years, a sea change in this regard. Sometimes the money billionaires and big corporations and police unions, and AIPAC, throw at a candidate seems to actually backfire.

And more this year than ever. The 2026 Blue Tsunami was among other things a National Repudiation of Money in Politics. Every Republican was pumped full of dark money (I.E.’s.) and nearly every one, the bigger they were the harder they fell. One of our favorites, Abdul El-Sayed, triumphed pretty handily against an over 2:1 funding gap. And most beautifully, ELON MUSK set nearly half a billion on fire trying to get his favored sleazy candidates elected in TEXAS, and lost em every single one!

Here in California, our friend Jane Kim, who plans to fundamentally reshape our insurance industry in the people’s favor, triumphed triumphally over status-quo-candidate Ben Allen DESPITE BEING OUTFUNDED FIVE TO ONE. Here, enjoy momentarily:

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When Jane and her people came down to our Anaheim Democrats fundraiser in Little Arabia, they were hoping to meet Jessie Lopez. Somehow, she was already some kind of legend to them. (Unfortunately she was doing something else that night.)

Readers of this blog may remember that three years ago, when Santa Ana’s Police Union tried to recall Councilwoman Jessie, she beat that recall pretty easily, while being OUTSPENT EIGHT TO ONE. (And lied about a lot. Somehow, big campaign spending and shameless untruthfulness usually seem to go hand in hand.)

And in this race for the assembly, after the special interests failed to crush her in the primary, they shoveled $12.5 MILLION into propping up David and smearing Jessie. An unheard-of amount for an Assembly race that made everyone wonder, why do they want David SO MUCH MORE than Jessie? They being:

• Google and Meta (Facebook/Instagram), whose overriding interest right now is in Artificial Intelligence and Data Centers, gambled almost $3 million trying to get David in office.
• Billionaires Christian Larsen and Timothy Draper, whose business is Cryptocurrency, dumped over 4 million on the race – at least 3 million to help David and another $1.5 million to try and crush Jessie.
• Chevron and other big oil companies chipped in another cool MILLION to try to defeat Jessie.
• Real estate and developer interests, remembering Jessie as a champion of rent control and David as a foe (though he tried to lie about it later) ponied up another MILLION to trash Jessie and “uplift” David.
• For other big contributors to David’s campaign, consult his NASCAR suit, to the right.

Well yeah, you can beat big money, but you need at least SOME money to get your message out, so thank God for the union SEIU which was Jessie’s main contributor at about $2.5 million. Like I said, she was outspent at least 4 to 1, and it may have been more once we see all the late spending.

David was able to pay his canvassers a whopping $30 an hour – sad thing though, they didn’t really know much about David or Jessie or the issues. One of them spent his time filming Jessie volunteers as they fed the homeless at Pearson Park, probably thinking that made them look pathetic.

Folks who canvassed for Jessie were mostly volunteers who really believed in her, and some who were paid $20 an hour. I spent most of late October and early November wearing my Jessie shirt about town when I wasn’t knocking doors, and I got SO much positive reaction – “Yeah, JESSIE! We’ve seen all those ads – that guy running against her seems creepy, I don’t trust him.”

In his lengthy, lachrymose, concession post, LOL, David PUZZLED OVER and DECRIED all the “unprecedented amount of outside money poured into our district… that unfortunately overshadowed and drowned what this campaign was always about,”… and then SCRATCHED HIS HEAD over putative “Billionaires hiding behind names like ‘Working Families Party.'” ROTFLMAO. So THAT’S why David lost. Billionaires – maybe even Soros – disguising themselves as humble little WFP and … spending ONE-FIFTEENTH as much as David’s Special Interests spent on him! (less than 800k.)

But enough of the gaping spending difference. I think it’s important to ask:

2. What did They WANT from an Assemblyman Peñaloza?

You know all these Special Interests didn’t spend a record $12.5 MILLION to get David into the Assembly, and to keep Jessie off, just because David was more dashing or charming. They were expecting certain things from him as an assemblyman that they didn’t think they would get from Jessie. So it’s important for us to determine what those things were… if only so that Jessie, respecting the will of the voters, can do the exact opposite!

1. What did the Crypto PAC “Grow California” expect from Assemblyman David in return for the $4 MILLION they dumped into his race? The PAC’s explicitly stated goals are to “serve as a counterforce to labor unions” in Sacramento, to “defeat proposed wealth taxes, and to push back against regulations on tech, crypto, [duh] and enterprise.” Well, The People picked Jessie over that. She must do the opposite, and pass strong regulations on tech & crypto, don’t you think? (And the labor unions who backed David because of SOME dumb conservative reason or other should have their heads examined.)

2. How about the Meta/Google PAC named “California Leads,” what were they hoping to get, from Assemblyman “Data Center Dave,” in return for their $3 MILLION? You know what, I’ll take A.I.’s word on this one: “Meta and Google have invested tens of millions of dollars to support candidates who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry and to beat back restrictive A.I. and data privacy bills. …They are heavily focused on state and local races to shape policies surrounding massive data centers, energy demands, and tax breaks.” Jessie, you’ve got your assignment. We voted for you to hold the line on AI, data centers (throughout California), and DATA PRIVACY. We’ve seen David’s love of Flock Cameras, and we’ve seen who funds him, and we don’t trust him.

A lot of what David P does, when he speaks or writes, is feigned ignorance, strawmen, disingenuousness. Like when, suddenly realizing that Data Centers are now political poison, he whined, “my opponent acts like I’m gonna put up data centers everywhere, there are NOT GOING TO BE ANY DATA CENTERS IN OUR DISTRICT.” Duh. There’s nowhere to put them in Central OC. They’ll be all over the state though, sucking up our resources and invading our privacy, if people like Dave get into power. We care about California, we care about the world. So we elected Jessie Lopez!

3. Let’s wrap this up. What did all the other special interests – big oil, charter schools, developers & real estate and more – want from the millions THEY sunk into David? They want to make more money and get regulated less. Big Oil wants to be allowed to pollute more – just another year, and another year, and another! Charter schools want to make more billions with less oversight, realtors want someone who will stand firm against rent control, as they trusted Dave to do. Just as “business Democrats” or “moderate Democrats” always have. Jessie, we elected you, and you have your assignment!

But wait – there’s more…

3. For The Soul of the Democratic Party

What does it mean to be a Democrat? The Victory of Jessie Lopez over David Peñaloza is a resounding answer to that.

It is a repudiation of the canard that an Orange County Democrat must be conservative to win, and it is an end to the self-perpetuating (till now) Dynasty of Tom Daly. Daly ruled the roost for decades, and then in preparation for his golden years as a lobbyist, he groomed and anointed Avelino. Then as Avelino prepared to ascend to Higher Office, he groomed and anointed Peñaloza, and Peñaloza in turn groomed and anointed the childlike Gio Chavez. But the runts of the litter could not thrive. The People said ENOUGH.

It is a repudiation of David’s whole clique of arrogant Central-County sell-outs nourished and reared on the rotten milk of the police union and landlords – a newly awakened and energized electorate rejected them every one.

It is an instructive and stinging slap in the face to the County and State Democratic Parties who never seem to learn, who never stop imposing Republicans dressed up as Democrats upon us. And then when we real Democrats win they pretend to celebrate and take credit for it.

It’s a FACEPLANT of the ADEM plot that started four years ago, hatched by the conservative Labor Fed and their reactionary consultant Claudio, to spend thousands taking over the Party from inside so that “business Dems” will be guaranteed party endorsements and money… but the people on the street don’t give a fuck who the Party insiders endorse! We want someone we trust to FIGHT for our interests!

And it’s a shame on all the local Democrats who endorsed the Republican in Democrat clothes (cuz he seemed more electable?) These Pendejo Politicians for Peñaloza should have to wear a P on their foreheads for at least a year, and this is only a Partial List:

• Lou Correa
• Dave Min
• Katie Porter
• Fiona Ma (intimate of Gerry Serrano)
• Blanca Pacheco
• Cottie Petrie-Norris
• Natalie Rubalcava
• Connor Traut
• Susan Sonne
• John Stephens
• Thai Viet Phan
• Thu-Ha Nguyen
• Phil Bacerra
• Stephanie Oddo
• Dan Slater
• Valerie Amezcua
• Miguel Pulido
• Tina Arias Miller
• Zeke Hernandez.

Jessie is coming to our next Anaheim Dems meeting.

We endorsed her, and she will be coming to our next meeting, Thursday Nov. 19, 7pm, at the Anaheim Unitarian Church, 511 South Harbor. Also coming: our OTHER brand new Anaheim Assemblyman, Mark Pulido. MAYBE coming: ANOTHER new Assemblyman, who’s been to our Club a couple times before, the great Chris Kluwe! See you there!