OC Board of Education Will Apparently Return to Sanity as Gomez Blasts Past Hammond

By
Greg Diamond
– June 17, 2016Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

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Beckie Gomez squashes Robert Hammond

That was quick!

After several days of slowly creeping up on incumbent Robert Hammond, hoping to stay in a range where the provisional ballots could push her over the top, my prediction having been by Monday’s report, Beckie Gomez ended the suspense early today, coming from 146 votes behind to more than 1100 up.  That does not look like the sort of trend that will be reversed in next week; her margin is more likely to hit 4,000 than it is to drop back below zero.

To read more about Beckie Gomez, one of the 2/3 successful slate of Taxpayers for OC Great Public Schools, click the link.  She will join incumbent slate-mate Jack Bedell on the board.  Only Michael Parham didn’t get elected from the slate, after a surprisingly strong effort from Margaret Brown split the vote against incumbent Ken Williams, who is winning with under 40%.

More on this as time permits; as this was one of only two undecided major races, it seems like people should know about it quickly.

 

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.)