Both challengers of Sheriff Sandra Hutchens attacked the incumbent at a candidates forum tonight, but distinctions between all three were clear.
Former Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Hunt repeatedly emphasized the Second Amendment and his vow to make it easier to get concealed weapons permits, while Anaheim Deputy Police Chief Craig Hunter characterized Hutchens as a Los Angeles-style cop in a county where people expected more.
Click here to read the rest of my story on the forum.
Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park sent out an email Monday night, saying that perhaps his prayers had been answered with the death of Rep. John Murtha yesterday.
“Maybe God took him out,” Drake wrote. “Maybe God Answered our IMPRECATORY prayer that we prayed every 30 days.”
The Pennsylvania congressman, a decorated former Marine who fiercely opposed the Iraq war, died at the age of 77 after complications from gallbladder surgery.
I asked Drake if his statements weren’t distasteful, particularly coming immediately after Murtha’s death. He said that as a Christian, he didn’t buy into the sentiment of not speaking ill of the dead. Read the rest of this entry »
Voters’ recall of Mission Viejo Mayor Lance MacLean will undergo a recount, as MacLean today submitted his request for a second tally of the Feb. 2 vote in which he lost by 19 votes.
Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said the recount will begin Wednesday, and will take from a week to a week and a half if all 38 precincts are counted. MacLean has not yet said how many precincts he wants recounted, but candidates often ask for a portion of the total to be tallied and then decide whether to continue depending on whether the margin of loss grows or shrinks.
The minimum cost of the recall is $600 a day, Kelley said.
In the most dramatic county recount in recent history - and the last to suceed - Janet Nguyen overcame a seven-vote deficit to Trung Nguyen in a 2007 race for county supervisor, and was declared the winner by seven votes. A court later determined she won by four votes. Read the rest of this entry »
Republican eagerness to tap into the Tea Party phenomenon continues to grow, and county GOP Chairman Scott Baugh will continue his efforts to bring the two factions together with a rally on Saturday.
The road to this hybrid is slipperier than a 2010 Prius’ brakes, as Baugh discovered with the blowback from some fellow Republicans after his Jan. 18 speech calling for GOP officials and candidates to stop taking campaign contributions from public employee unions.
At the same time, he called for Republicans to unify in support of a proposed November ballot measure that would make it more difficult for those unions to collect dues to use for political purposes.
That proposed initiative is the purpose of Saturday’s grassroots-styled rally in Fullerton. Baugh’s working with activists to try to get 1,001 volunteers to show and vow to gather 100 signatures each for the ballot measure. Event details here.
And if the Red County blog’s assessment is correct, self-proclaimed “Citizen Power” initiative backers are going to need all the help they can get gathering signatures. Read the rest of this entry »
It sounded like nasty tomfoolery when the owner of the Orange Juice politics blog registered an internet domain name related to an owner of TheLiberalOC blog - then directed Web traffic from the newly purchased URL to the North American Man Boy Love Association. He later redirected that traffic to other sites, including a hemorrhoids site with graphic images of agitated hemorrhoids.
The nastiness is now headed to court, as TheLiberalOC and several related parties are filing a federal lawsuit alleging trademark infringement, cybersquatting and other damages against the Orange Juice blog and its owner, Art Pedroza.
The two sites have increasingly had political differences, but things escalated last year when TheLiberalOC co-owner Dan Chmielewski bought the domain name www.artpedroza.com from a former Pedroza ally - and redirected traffic from the one-time Santa Ana city council campaign site to TheLiberalOC site.
Pedroza responded by buying up six unclaimed domain names related to TheLiberalOC and its principals. Among those was www.madisonalexanderpublicrelations.com. Chmielewski’s pr firm is called Madison Alexander Public Relations, and uses the URL www.madisonalexanderpr.com.
A short video interview with Gingrich appears at the bottom of this entry.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said this morning that he would need the support of a broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents before he would consider a 2012 presidential bid.
Speaking to Orange County Register news and editorial board writers in the publisher’s conference room, Gingrich talked of building a “tripartisan movement.” Given his polarizing effect on core Democrats and his government-reform message, his specific target is likely Republicans, Tea Party followers, frustrated independents and Reagan Democrats.
“I spend time every day thinking about how to build that,” he said.
Gingrich has given no indication that he is actively pursuing a presidential bid, but he has not ruled it out. He continues to have many followers who’d like to see him run.
I asked him to name the three biggest things that would have to happen before he’d run for president. Read the rest of this entry »
Erratic behavior by immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools President Nativo Lopez led to proceedings being suspended in his voter-fraud hearing today.
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Kristi Lousteau ordered Lopez to return to court on Feb. 17 so a judge can determine whether he’s competent to stand trial, said Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman Jane Robison.
Doubts of Lopez’s ability to understand the charges against him arose “after he fired his attorney and kept repeating in court that he was not the defendant,” Robison said.
Lopez has repeatedly been the source of controversy in Orange County and was recalled from the Santa Ana school board in 2003. He had been scheduled to have a preliminary hearing today to determine whether prosecutors had a strong enough case to proceed to trial.
Register reporter Ronald Campbell writes:
Chriss Street created a strong business for the creditors who are now suing him, his attorney said this morning at the outset of the civil fraud trial of the Orange County treasurer.
Attorney Phillip Greer also said that the most politically embarrassing charges against Street — that he billed a bankrupt trust for personal travel, parking tickets and the like — “are petty, and they are stupid. … They’re not illegal, not immoral (and) they’re not a breach of anything.”
Street’s successor as trustee, Los Angeles money manager Dan Harrow, testified that Street obstructed him within days after he took over on Aug. 1, 2005. Just days after Street resigned under pressure from creditors, Harrow said, Street tried to fire him and ordered employees at the trust’s principal business, Mexican truck trailer manufacturer Fruehauf de Mexico, not to let him on the site.
Click here to read the rest of Campbell’s account of today’s hearing.
Signs continue to indicate that we could have a competitive November race for the Assembly seat being vacated by Van Tran, although there’s plenty of time for that to change.
Front runner Allan Mansoor, the conservative anti-illegal immigration mayor of Costa Mesa, is showing $191,000 raised in his year-end campaign-finance disclosures, including $100,000 he loaned the campaign. The Republican had $136,000 left, according to documents filed this week.
But Democrat Phu Nguyen is giving indications that he’ll make it competitive. While he lacks the name recognition of Mansoor, he’ll provide a clear alternative and he’s showing indications of being able to come up with campaign funds.
Nguyen did no fundraising last year, but lent his campaign $100,000 - and had $99,000 left at year’s end. On Jan. 29, he held his first big fundraiser, which attracted an impressive lineup of elected officials and which, I’m told, raised tens of thousands of dollars. Read the rest of this entry »
A lot of local politics and government news in this morning’s paper - here’s a roundup with links:
The recall of Mission Viejo Mayor Lance McLean remains uncertain. Recall advocates are ahead by 118 votes, with 1,140 to count, according to this online update. McLean has had his share of controversy, but recall proponents seem equally intent on breaking the council majority. Here’s the stated reason for the recall, here’s McClean’s rebuttal.
The ACLU has sued the city of Costa Mesa, challenging the city ordinance designed to keep day laborers from seeking employment on public streets. Story here.
The city of Anaheim is paying a $310,000 settlement to man beaten by Anaheim police officers. Story here.
Former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl filed a false tax return in an effort to recoup money spent on the criminal defense of his son, according to court records. Story here.
