Weekend Open Thread: Political Potpourri from Kitty, Jerry, and Loretta:

By
Greg Diamond
– August 15, 2014Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

Just time for some listiness today:

[1] Former City Council candidate Kitty Jaramillo files suit to impose districting on Fullerton.

The suit filed by Vivian Jaramillo, 60, alleges that Fullerton’s at-large voting “impairs the ability of certain races to elect candidates of their choice or influence the outcome of elections conducted in the city of Fullerton.”

…

Under Fullerton’s at-large system, voters anywhere in the city can vote for any council candidate. In district-based elections, a city is divided into subdivisions. A candidate must be elected by voters who live in the same subdivision.

…

An Orange County Register article in January listed Fullerton as one of eight O.C. cities vulnerable to lawsuits alleging illegal limitations on Latinos’ ability to be elected.

Since 1994, 7 percent of the winners of the city’s council races have been Latino. According to the O.C. registrar of voters, 23 percent of Fullerton citizens of voting age are Latino.

Sounds pretty compelling.  City Manager Joe Felz says that he’ll brief the Council on it.  Anaheim, take note.

[2] Let’s start arguing about the newly proposed (and significantly downsized) water bond:

California voters will be asked to authorize $7.5 billion to bolster the state’s water supply, infrastructure and ecosystems in November, as lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday struck a long-sought deal to move a new water bond to the ballot.

An extraordinary drought that has strained California’s water supply spurred a concerted push for a new water bond. Lawmakers moved to replace an $11.1 billion previously slated for the ballot, convinced that voters would reject it.

Instead, voters will see a $7.5 billion measure that contains significantly less money for Delta restoration. The final sum represents a compromise both from Republicans, who called for $3 billion for surface storage projects, and from Brown, who sought an overall total closer to $6 billion.

…

In the end, the vote tally masked the twisting and divisive debate that preceded Wednesday’s deal. Assembly members voted 77-2 in favor of the measure and then broke into applause. In the Senate, the margin was 37-0.

It’s hard to argue with a vote of that margin — but it’s not impossible.  As a candidate for Water Board — whoops, haven’t really written about that; maybe next week! — I want to hear from the public.  So speak!  (Hint as to my position: I think that repair of leaky subsurface infrastructure, promoting conservation, and keeping reprobate corporations like Nestle from drinking Southern California’s milkshake by tapping into aquifers north of here need to be among our very high priorities.)

[3] And finally, Loretta Sanchez in a clingy wet blouse:

It doesn’t look like you can embed the video, but this appears to be a link.

Post by Loretta Sanchez Campaign.

And here’s a photo:

Loretta on Ice

And no one was arrested for this assault on a Congresswoman? What is the world coming to?

Say what you will about Loretta — and no doubt you will — but the lady has panache. Poor woman had no idea what was coming — and you know that she HATES being shown in public in a clingy dress! But since she was a good sport, she gets her message promoted anyway:

I took the ALS #IceBucketChallenge! Michael Motherway, an inspirational resident fighting Lou Gehrig’s disease who I met earlier this year, challenged me.

Now I’m passing it along to my some of my colleagues in Orange County: Ed R. Royce, Congressman Darrell E. Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, Alan Lowenthal, and my sister, Linda T. Sanchez – you have 24 hours!

If you want to help join the cause and find a cure for ALS, visit http://www.alsa.org/

If they would just raffle off the opportunity to throw buckets of ice at Ed Royce, Dana Rohrabacher, and Darrell Issa, we could retire the federal debt.  I’d say Mimi Walters and Diane Harkey, too — but they deserve to be on ice rather than ice being on them.

This is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that, or whatever else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of decency and decorum.

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.)