(This is a fantastic look at how dramatically Orange County has changed in the last 40 years, from Democratic candidate for AD-70 Melissa Fox. - promoted by Robert Cruickshank)
I recently came across a fascinating - and very revealing - article about the political history of Orange County.
Dated July 7, 1974, and titled Orange County: The Right Wing Cradle, the article shows how dramatically Orange County, and in particular my own 70th Assembly District (Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Foothill Ranch, and most of the cities of Aliso Viejo, Newport Beach, and Tustin) has changed, both politically and demographically, in the past four decades.
The article describes Orange County as "a stronghold of the John Birch Society, a former stomping ground of the Klu Klux Klan, the fastest growing county in the United States, and the home of the first drive-in church."
Stormy, in that legislators were trying to reach a deal to pass a budget on a crazy July night. Amidst the mayhem and the deals, shadowy forces were planning a powerful land grab. They wanted the OC Fairgrounds and they were going to get it.
Sometime during that dark night, a deal was made, and language was inserted to budget bill AB4X22 that would allow the state to sell the Orange County Fairgounds, a public resource in the middle of Costa Mesa that actually makes money. It was said that the money from the sale would help the state balance the budget.
Most legislators had little knowledge of the deal and the public had no chance to cry foul. The bill passed on July 23rd and signed by the Governor on July 28th. Only former OC Supervisor Jim Silva (AD-67) voted against the sale.
Turns out that the shadowy group was led by Fair Board members and their consultants, who wanted to form a private foundation to buy the Fair so they could operate it without public oversight and for their own profit.
This past week, OC Legislators have learned more about the deal, and discovered that all was not right. At the same time they were receiving hundreds of letters, calls, and faxes opposing the sale and met with a group of OC community leaders.
Now, one by one, they've come around and most of them are opposing the sale.
Governor Schwarzenegger appears to be the only one whose still in favor of the sale, and sources say it could be because he's not getting the information and hasn't seen the hundreds of letters and faxes his office has received opposing the sale.
Wow, this guy is a piece of work. First he shows up to The Democratic Party of Orange County's Annual Truman Dinner to Protest the Keynote Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the couple of hundred of other protesters and allows one of them to pin a poster of Nancy Pelosi as Stalin to his back.
Dr. Choi is currently sitting on Irvine's City council and he proudly wore his Council badge to the event, representing the City where the vent took place. City Council seats are historically "non-partisan" by the way. And now he's using the publicity that he's receiving because of this photograph to raise money for his California Assembly race to out teabag his Republican primary opponents.
Those damnable, pesky public employee unions! If it weren't for them and their cushy, decadent benefits packages, California's sterling government would surely be nowhere near the level of crushing idiocy that currently pervades the hallowed halls of Sacramento. And now, now those ungrateful teachers and their annoying elitist union have the temerity to continue to take no shit from a district beset by its own rampant corrupt stupidity, and have chosen to express their collective feelings via three hundred middle fingers:
Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee voted twice against including a critical public option in the health care reform bill - even though poll after poll shows an overwhelming majority of Americans want this reform!
It's the final straw!
I'm frustrated and disappointed, just as I'm sure you are. But I refuse to take this lying down. Yesterday's results mean we need to fight harder for the beliefs we share, and we need someone who shares those beliefs to go to Washington to fight for them.
I've been thinking back to why I initially entered this race in 2007 -- my concern about the policies that were sending my son and daughters-in-law back to Iraq for a second tour of duty. Next week I'm going to Fort Benning, Georgia, to see my son and daughter-in-law off -- again. They will be starting their third tours of duty in Iraq.
The Stand up America PAC is going after Wilson, in addition to other Republican lightning rod Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Jean Schmidt (Ohio), John Campbell (Calif.) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor.
I think the Crazy Five has a better ring to it. And it's not shocking to find John Campbell on this list. He's my representative and sure, I'm used to the crazy here in Orange County but not only is his time up, but we have an amazing candidate to run against him.
Once again, Calvert's ethically-challenged behavior landed him on the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington most corrupt list:
Last night, President Obama addressed the nation on an issue we all know is critically important: making sure every American receives quality, affordable health care. Obama echoed the words of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy who wrote that accomplishing this goal will truly show the "character of our country."
Ken Calvert's response? Falsehoods, fabrication and fear mongering. Just read what he had to say:
"It's the pathway to nationalized health care." - Press-Enterprise
"The public option is an absolute deal killer." - Orange County Register
For over 70 years the Orange County Register was more than a local daily newspaper for the vast suburban sprawl that grew up around Santa Ana. It was also one of the key right-wing news outlets in California, espousing a version of libertarianism that was a thinly veiled intellectualization of anti-union, anti-worker, "profit is awesome" attitudes that made it rather clear that in the eyes of Freedom Communications, what was good for business was good for America.
Their editorials, especially over the last 30 years, consistently argued against government and for the private sector. Didn't matter if the private sector failed where government succeeded - the Register zealously followed its anti-public, anti-democratic imperatives no matter where it led them (except when they had to suspend those ideals to support this or that Republican).
Freedom Communications, owner of The Orange County Register and 30 other daily newspapers, is expected to file for bankruptcy this week under a plan that will hand its publications to its lenders, people briefed on the matter said on Sunday.
A filing by Freedom, which could be made as soon as Tuesday, would be the latest by a newspaper publisher, as the industry struggles to cope with declining advertising revenue and heavy debt loads.
Obviously this does not yet mean the end of the Register, although things have been looking grim at 625 N. Grand Avenue for some time. And any schadenfreude is tempered by the fact that it will likely be the workers and beat reporters at the Register, many of whom do not at all share the publishers' wingnuttery, who will suffer the most.
And yet it is hard to resist pointing out the incredible irony of a publication dedicated to the exaltation of the free market so completely and utterly failing to actually survive in that free market. Especially when, as the Wall Street Journal notes, the folks who would be wiped out by a bankruptcy filing are the wealthy members of the Hoiles family:
The Hoiles family has been divided for years about what to do with the Irvine, Calif., company. Family members representing about one half of the Hoiles clan sold their stake in the company as part of the recapitalization more than five years ago. The stake of the remaining half likely would be wiped out by a bankruptcy filing....
Struggling with its debt, Freedom about a year ago suspended its dividend, which was the primary source of income for members of the family's fourth generation, many of whom don't have jobs....
"Nobody is going to be destitute," said one family member. But the filing is bound to force some family members to work, said people close to the situation.
Unless you spent the first 20 years of your life reading their editorials about how people who don't work and collect welfare are cheats suckling off the teat of the hard-working middle-class man, you may not quite realize just how stunningly hypocritical - and therefore entirely unsurprising - it is that the Hoiles family is now going to have to work for a living.
Not cheering on the death of newspapers, cheering on the death of newspapers owned by glibertarian assholes.
At least the Register had the decency to survive long enough to devote an entire lead editorial to attacking me, which was one of the most important pieces of validation I have ever received.
Besides, who needs the Register when you have the OC Progressive?!
• Great news that Californians Euna Lee and Laura Ling will be released from a North Korean prison camp after an intervention by former President Clinton. I (Dave) know Euna from working with her briefly back in San Francisco, and am very pleased by this news, both for the women, their families and friends, and the tireless activists who worked for their release. Maybe Current TV, Lee and Ling's employers, will bother to mention their absence now, for the first time in the four-plus months since they were captured at the North Korean/Chinese border.
• Two ships from California will be heading to the Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean over the next few weeks. The Patch kills thousands of sea birds and scores of other wildlife each year as the plastic is ingested. Once swallowed, it either blocks a digestive tract or poisons the animal, and can never be digested in any meaningful form.
• CA-10 News: Anthony Woods has picked up the endorsements of Richard Clarke, the former White House Counterterrorism czar, Gino Van Gundy, a former candidate in the CA-10 race, and Suisun City Mayor Pete Sanchez. The endorsements of Sanchez and Clarke are quite a boon. Along with his national appearances, Woods has been making quite the waves recently.
• News on the money race in the Democratic primary in AD-21. Openly gay supervisor Rich Gordon holds a very slender lead over his competitors Yoriko Kishimoto, a Palo Alto City council member, Marc Berman, an attorney, and friend of Calitics, Kai Stinchcombe. Calitics has not made an endorsement in this race.
• Lots of money in the Anthony Adams recall campaign, on both sides. Recall proponents have previously said that they are on track to recall Adams, and now have $81K to play around with. It's not a huge sum, but likely enough to ensure that the recall will get on the ballot. And once it's on the ballot you have the other candidates to push it forward. One rumored candidate is CaveMan Supreme Dick Mountjoy (ya, the guy who ran for Senate in 2006). He served in that seat as it went to term limits, and still has at least one term left. He's said he's considering it a long time ago, but I've not heard anything definite.
Adams himself has raised $46K in a recall account, and another 200K+ in his own campaign account. That should give him a decent shot of defeating the recall.
• The OC Board of Supes will look at whether to appeal in the pension case involving the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. Pension increases were granted in 2001, but Sup. John Moorlach argued that the County should sue to rescind those increases. Needless to say, as there was no basis for such a change outside of the contract process, the County lost. Moorlach wants to take it all the way to the Supreme Court. His argument to do so? Most of the costs of litigation are out of the way, let's keep appealing. Uuhhh, not so much, appellate litigation ain't cheap. Moorlach wants to keep spending taxpayers money to make his point against the unions though. Who knows how this will turn out.
• A couple days late on this, but here's an appreciation of California's pride and joy and the hardest-working legislator in show business, Henry Waxman.
• If only it were this easy with the governor: Pacific Grove mayor Dan Cort is going to resign in order to avoid a recall threatened by a longtime local activist. Word is that Cort, a progressive Democrat, had grown tired of spending all his time as mayor dealing with the city's ongoing financial crisis. The backers of the recall, angry that the city is giving raises to police while cutting other services, are targeting other progressive councilmembers. I [Robert] don't approve of this, but it makes for interesting theater in the town a few blocks to the west.
First off, a pleasure to meet you folks at Calitics. Just a guy from North Orange County, pretty liberal and pretty friendly. I'll be doing weekly or daily (depends on the OC coverage/importance) Open Topic threads on the OC.
Dems gaining (small) ground in Orange County, Repubs. losing it.
Just this week the OC Registrar of Voters updated its voter regs., with Democrats at 512,089 (Up from 511,811) with Republicans at 698,893 (Down from 699,678).
By percentages:
GOP: 42.7%
DEM: 32.0%
DTS: 20.3%
Oh, the "most Conservative county in America", ain't so conservative anymore.
Chuck DeVore touts his "Pro-Family" views:
Just when you think this guy is already radical..
Chuck DeVore receives a perfect pro-family score
March 18, 2009
Chuck DeVore was one of 18 lawmakers who received a perfect pro-family score from the Capitol Resource Family Impact for voting in 2007-08. Capitol Resource Family Impact runs California's only pro-family state lawmaker ranking.
Thank god i'm not being represented by this loon (I'm in the 72nd AD), but this guy still makes us OC residents look like narrow-minded, bible-thumping, wing-nuts. Hell, i'll take the HP chick over this guy..
Arianna Huffington coming to Anaheim!
The dazzling woman who founded the awesome Huffington Post will be at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim on August 6th, hurry and get tickets soon! Details can be found on the Orange County Democratic Party's website.
Have Dinner with Judy Chu
Tomorrow at the Villa Roma Restaurant in Laguna Hills, you can sit down and have dinner with CD-32 candidate Judy Chu (At the cost of $45.00). Details can be found on the Orange County Democratic Party's website.
(This is our top Congressional challenge in 2010. If you have a few bucks to spare, consider making a donation. - promoted by David Dayen)
Last year, thanks to the grassroots, we came closer to beating Ken Calvert in California's 44th District than anyone thought possible.
With that near upset, people from across the country took note of this seat - especially the Republicans!
National Republicans have already begun raising money hand over fist from their big business, special interest contributors to keep Ken Calvert in office.
In fact, later today, Ken Calvert is set to receive $100,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee as part of their "Patriot Program." They're doing everything they can to hold on to the seat!
According to the NRCC, these Patriots will be provided with the resources they need to build strong campaigns to help Republicans fight their way back to the Majority. We can't let this happen!
Last week, the Rothenberg Political Report http://rothenbergpoliticalrepo... came out and listed our race as having moved from last year's "Solid Republican" ranking to now "Leaning Republican".
With that new ranking, we've been told we're one of the three top races in the country to watch.
As encouraging as that is, I am also being told that I now need to immediately raise huge sums of money if I want to remain competitive.
I didn't get within 2% last cycle by raising millions of dollars and sending out flashy ads. Instead, I did it the old fashioned way. I walked the district and I actually talked to voters one-on-one. I was able to connect with thousands of families who have watched their jobs disappear and their homes lost to foreclosure - even though they always played by the rules. In 2008, I did what I do best: connect with voters one-on-one and discuss issues to explain exactly how I would be different than their current representative. At the heart of each issue (the economy, health care, the environment), we all share the same basic beliefs that we want our children to grow up in a safe, secure, thriving community and to do better than we did.
Unfortunately, I know that this race will be different and that strategy alone won't work in 2010 because the other side is so desperate to retain the seat.
The NRCC now realizes this seat is vulnerable and have made it clear they don't want to lose it. They've already set up a donation page for Calvert and Newt Gingrich is hosting a fundraiser tonight to help raise money for him.
The Yacht Party continues to desperately search for any reason to devour itself. The Secretary of State's office has confirmed that there is now an effort going forward to recall Sen. Bob Huff [R-Diamond Bar] because he voted in favor of putting prop 1A on the ballot. He, like the rest of the Church of Reaganomics, signed a pledge to vote down any tax increases and apparently this violates it.
Huff won about 54% of the vote in 2008, but the Democrat only carried 38% and the remainder went to an unusually strong Libertarian candidate. Does anyone have a better idea of how well we'd be able to run candidates in this district if the recall is successful (and for that matter, Anthony Adams' district?)
Ok, so no one is exactly shocked to hear that today I've made it official but I wanted to come here to this blog to post it myself since the folks at Calitics have always been good to me.
I also wanted to post a little more about myself so that you understand why I'm running and why you should care about this race.
Oh how the tables have turned for "America's Sheriff" Mike Carona. He'll be just another prisoner in our messed up prison system soon enough:
Mike Carona's fall from "America's Sheriff" to convicted felon reached bottom Monday as a federal judge gave Orange County's former top law enforcement officer a half-hour lecture about honesty before sentencing him to 5 1/2 years in prison for attempting to obstruct a grand jury investigation.
"I need a sheriff I can trust," U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford told Carona. "Lying will not be tolerated in this courtroom, especially by the county's highest-ranking law enforcement officer." (LAT 4/28/09)
The bluster and pomposity that was the Mike Carona experience has now been replaced by former LA County deputy sheriff and FBI Academy GraduateSheriff-Coroner Sandra Hutchens.
Orange County is better off with Ms. Hutchens as Sheriff, although I imagine these will be some hard days for Carona. He does not have a lot of fans in the prisons.
(The D-Trip is really taking an interest in CA-44. - promoted by David Dayen)
I'm excited to announce that my district is one of only six nationwide being targeted by the DCCC in a series of radio ads being rolled out next week.
The ads will target Republican members of Congress who opposed the middle class tax cut in President Obama's economic recovery act. These ads are the DCCC's way of taking the message of middle class tax cuts and economic recovery directly to the public in radio ads called "Tax Man" that will run in the lead up to April 15th (tax day).
My opponent Ken Calvert is one of the six Republicans being targeted for his vote against the middle class tax cut.
This is the DCCC's fourth phase of the "Putting Families First" campaign and we've been fortunate enough to be included in the other phases as well.
Representative Calvert is back in usual form - putting politics rather than families first. He released a newsletter this week touting the fact the he's once again defied the new administration.
Of particular interest was his slam against what he calls the "Mortgage Cram-Down Bill" (H.R. 1106), saying it would allow judges to "cram down" the principle amount on home mortgages.
Has Mr. Calvert somehow forgotten that the largest city in his district (Riverside) now has the fourth largest foreclosure rate in the country?
We waited, many waited a lot longer than I did and I was lucky to be there in line, waiting and waiting. It gave us a lot of time to talk, I'm sure the overnighter on Monday was difficult and still enjoyable, except for those who didn't get tickets.
As I sat and President Obama came in and people chanted, "Obama, Obama, Obama" we knew it, we knew that Orange County was hungry, not for just change but for Democrats to be heard and seen in our County and for our values to be taken seriously by the media. That 500,000 plus Democrats in "The OC" are not an anomaly but a force to be reckoned with. And that we had found a voice for those values, a voice that was clear and proud of those values. Orange County had arrived and was not longer just "red" anymore.
Open thread for the event. You can watch it live here, and the stream looks pretty robust. Twittering from friend of Calitics Todd Beeton here. OC Progressive also has coverage.
...well, Obama missed an opportunity there. Asked about state governors who have rejected portions of the stimulus, he made an excellent summary of the bogus argument put forth by those who want to refuse unemployment expansion because they fear employers having to pay marginally higher taxes in a couple years. He was clearly not briefed that the California legislature rejected just such a proposal YESTERDAY, and that the Governor's staff inclined to reject changes in eligibility, and the Governor has taken no position at all. That could have put a lot of pressure on the legislature, but alas.
I recently came across a fascinating - and very revealing - article about the political history of Orange County.
