OC GOP Resorts to Gay-bashing for Special Election

Tips? Flames? Suggestions? (8.00 / 1)

As always, this is cross-posted at my own blog...

Oh yeah, and why do you think that the Republicans would resort to such crap for a stinkin' local election?

Had enough of the "red county" right-wing crazy-talk bulls***? Well, then come and visit us at The Liberal OC! Yes, there ARE liberals in The OC! : )

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by: Andrew Davey (atdleft) @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 16:21:19 PM UTC

some background/context? (8.00 / 1)

Can you perhaps give us a little more info on this race, ie the date of the election, why a special election was called, the current make-up of the board, etc.?

thanks!

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by: Todd Beeton @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 18:55:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sorry about that! (8.00 / 1)

The election is on February 6th. Basically, it's to fill the Orange County Supervisorial seat being vacated by Lou Correa, you is now our State Senator in Sacramento. Right now, four out of the five seats on the OC BoS are held by Repuiblicans. Specifically two of them are kinda pragmatic conservatives who are willing to vote for semi-reasonable budgets and negotiate with the unions, while the other two are complete wingnuts! This is why it's really important that we elect a Dem that will fight for working families on the BoS...

'Cause two of them are already rabidly anti-working-people, while the other two won't pro-actively do anything to help working people in the OC.

There, I hope that was helpful!

: )

Had enough of the "red county" right-wing crazy-talk bulls***? Well, then come and visit us at The Liberal OC! Yes, there ARE liberals in The OC! : )

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by: Andrew Davey (atdleft) @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 19:08:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That Orange Juice Blog post was ridiculous (8.00 / 1)

I couldn't believe they were saying this stuff.  I know, I've become too SF-minded, but here's just a sample:

Supervisorial candidate Janet Nguyen was also there tonight, as was the Trannie candidate Trung Nguyen. Carlos Bustamante showed up, in a bomber jacket no less, but he left sans endorsement. No se puede Carlos!

That is offensive in so many ways.  First of all, is "trannie candidate" really the best way to talk about a serious candidate.  I don't know if there's some backstory there, but Trung Nguyen is a serious candidate.  Heck, Lynn Daucher is supporting him, so I'm guessing that he has a reasonable base of support.  ANd then the "No se puede Carlos"? Are you just trying to piss people off?

WTF is going on down there?

I think?

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 17:16:17 PM UTC

"Trannie" is supposed to be a joke... (8.00 / 1)

Here's the backstory:

Pedroza and the O-J Republicans came up with "Trannie" as a derogatory term to describe all the lackies behind Assemblymember Van Tran (R-68th AD)...
They think it's funny.

However, they don't realize that to many "outside" the OC GOP, it's an offensive slam on transgendered people. We all know that Trung Nguyen is Van Tran's proxy candidate in the 1st Supe special. We all have a feeling that Van is running Trung because:

1. His relationship with Janet Nguyen has gone sour.

2. He wants to test his strength before he runs against Loretta Sanchez for the 47th Congressional seat.

It's just sad that Art and the other O-Jers don't recognize that the term "trannie" has some very offensive connotations, especially to us in the LGBT community.

I hope that was a thorough enough explanation behind the slur.

: )

Had enough of the "red county" right-wing crazy-talk bulls***? Well, then come and visit us at The Liberal OC! Yes, there ARE liberals in The OC! : )

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by: Andrew Davey (atdleft) @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 18:06:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Give them a little credit (8.00 / 1)

I'm sure they know full well what the implications are and simply think it adds to the fun.

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 18:09:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well, to be fair... (0.00 / 0)

I personally know Art Pedroza and Ryan Gene Williams (DISCLAIMER!), and I don't think they're bigots. However, I know that they're not stupid either. Yes, I'm sure that they know what the term means, and they think it adds to the "fun"...

I just don't think they get how we in the LGBT community see that term as very offensive. And yes, I agree with you and Brian that it's better that they not use that term to describe Van Tran's lackies.

: )

Had enough of the "red county" right-wing crazy-talk bulls***? Well, then come and visit us at The Liberal OC! Yes, there ARE liberals in The OC! : )

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by: Andrew Davey (atdleft) @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 18:16:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Wading into the OC political waters (8.00 / 2)

Things are indeed different here in OC. Quite a few of our prominent Latino officeholders are Republicans, for one thing. Also, to a large extent, there are two different GOPs in OC. The dominant one is controlled by our own version of Karl Rove, a guy named Mike Schroeder; while the second consists of people who fight Schroeder's control.

Van Tran and Carlos Bustamante are tools of Mike Schroeder's wing of the GOP. The people who use the term "Trannie" and "No se puede, Carlos" are Republicans who oppose Schroeder. For the most part they're slightly more moderate than the Schroeder camp. They occasionally support a Democrat for a non-partisan office.

We OC Dems may not like some of the vocabulary the anti-Schroeder folks use, but they're speaking to their fellow Republicans when they talk this way and I'm inclined to think they know how best to do that.

The leading candidates in this race are 1)Tom Umberg, 2)Carlos Bustamente, and 3)Janet Nguyen. That's the order in which they'll finish. Mark Rosen and Trung Nguyen will be in 4th and 5 place.

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by: gjones @ Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 23:37:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Is there IRV? (8.00 / 1)

Or are we going to have to do a runoff?

I think?

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Fri Jan 19, 2007 at 15:21:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's winner-take-all. (0.00 / 0)

For regular supe elections, there's a runoff...
But because this is a special election (and the County Charter was never amended for specials), this election is winner-take-all. Whoever gets the most votes on Feb. 6 wins.

: )

Had enough of the "red county" right-wing crazy-talk bulls***? Well, then come and visit us at The Liberal OC! Yes, there ARE liberals in The OC! : )

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by: Andrew Davey (atdleft) @ Fri Jan 19, 2007 at 16:35:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Fight the Good Fight ATD!! (8.00 / 1)

Your Gay Progressive buds in San Fran will be rooting for a Gop Failure!!
Best of Luck.
BTW, do the Supes run At-Large or by District?

(-8.50/-7.44) Progressive Blue, An Oasis

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by: Predictor @ Sat Jan 20, 2007 at 01:34:28 AM UTC

By District (8.00 / 1)

This race is in OC Supervisorial District 1, which is the center of OC. For the most part SD 1 is Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Westminster. Here's a map.

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by: gjones @ Sat Jan 20, 2007 at 02:27:42 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks very much! (8.00 / 1)

usually I'm more than adept at tracking down/providing this kind of info, but had a busy day.

Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Westminster:
I see Kerry lost those cities by approx. 15,000 votes. carrying only Santa Ana.
(State BOE site does not have municipality breakdowns yet for the 2006 elections, which I'd rather use as a basis of results analysis).

(-8.50/-7.44) Progressive Blue, An Oasis

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by: Predictor @ Sat Jan 20, 2007 at 03:54:27 AM UTC

Statement of Votes (8.00 / 1)

You can look at OC city breakdowns here.

I don't think you can use city results in a past election, though, to figure out what will happen in this race. The cities in question have large ethnic groups which are often more loyal to candidates sharing their ethnicity than those sharing their party.

According to Wikipedia, in 2000 Westminster was 38% Asian [mostly Vietnamese] and 22% Latino. Santa Ana was 9% Asian and  76% Latino. Garden Grove was 31% Asian and 32% Latino.

I didn't mention it in my last comment, but an unincorporated part of the county called "Midway City" is also part of SD 1. Wikipedia doesn't have democraphics for Midway City, but another site puts them at 37% Asian and 23% Latino. (Of course all these numbers are for residents, not voters, and voter registration in SD 1 is pretty low.)

There are also city loyalties. Candidates Mark Rosen, Janet Nguyen, Benny Diaz, and Trung Nguyen are all from Garden Grove, with the former two being members of the GG city council and the latter being a member of the Garden Grove Unified school board. Kermit Marsh, who has withdrawn but whose name will still appear on the ballot, is a city council member in Westminster. Carlos Bustamente is a Santa Ana city councilmember. Tom Umberg, the OC Democratic Party's endorsed candidate, represented most of SD 1 when he was a member of the California State Assembly.

Furthermore, as in all specials, there will be an extremely low turnout in this election.

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by: gjones @ Sat Jan 20, 2007 at 14:32:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]