Phu Nguyen Victory Party
VERN final insomniac 2AM update of the races that were too close to call before:
70AD is gonna be Don Wagner vs. Melissa Fox. BIG contrast there. GAME ON!
Props 16 & 17 (Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote For Them) are DOWN by bigger margins – thank GOD! So good to see PG&E and Mercury Insurance waste so much money, and just barely enough Californians not fall for their BS. Whew! Skin of the teeth.
Shawn Nelson will face Harry Sidhu in 4th-supe runoff, guaranteeing six hundred more Bushala posts. (I kid Bushala.)
Does anybody know how the statewide, non-partisan Superintendent of Public Instruction race works – will there be a runoff between Aceves who got 19% and my guy Torlakson who got 18%? Or does Aceves take it? I’ll find out tomorrow.
And finally, blissfully, gay-bashing piano teacher Alexandria Coronado has her clock cleaned by new Area 2 Trustee David Boyd! YAY! Good night.
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Vern, 12:20 AM: Just got back from the Memphis Voice of OC party – fraternized with Melissa & hubby; Amezcua, Michelle M & Sarmiento; Katrina, Joe Shaw, Solorio, etc. Couldn’t blog there, finally home…
Too close to call:
Propositions 16 and 17 were passing for a while – no doubt from early-voting Republicans and people who hadn’t yet had time to figure out which side their bread was buttered on. But right now they look like they are just BARELY going down… thank God, hope they stay that way!
Also too close to call: Who will face Fabulous Ms. Fox – Choi or Wagner?
Which carpetbagger will face Shawn Nelson in the supervisorial runoff – Harry or Lorri?
Superintendent of Public Instruction – Aceves or Torlakson?
One race of interest to this blog – Education Trustee Area 2, David Boyd just BARELY ahead of gay-bashing piano teacher Alexandria Coronado.
Biggest Losers
BILL HUNT had his ass handed to him by our red-headed Sheriff. ( 🙂 by the way.) Tan Nguyen, another candidate who defined himself by his opposition to Latino immigrants, also nose-dove. Immigrant-bashing failed to save the Little Poisoner’s bacon. Does this mean xenophobia’s not cutting it, even in GOP primaries? Does this augur badly for Mansoor in November, who has nothing else? (Of course he pulled it out today, but Dr. Long Pham was really not much of a candidate.)
Oh yeah, and also, DEMOCRACY. As in Prop 15 failing (Fair Elections) and Prop 14 passing (top-2 primary for centrist corporatist candidates.) Damn stupid Californians.
November’s races
Governor: Jerry Brown vs. Queen Meg Whitman.
Senator: Barbara Boxer vs. Carly Fiorina. [I’m telling you right now, these two races are great news for the new anonymous OJ blogger “The Royaliste.” And tomorrow’s “hostile takeover” protest in Anaheim.]
Lite Guv: Gavin vs. Abel! That’ll be fun.
Attorney General: Kamala vs. Cooley
Insurance Commiss: Dave Jones vs. Villines
Sec of State: Bowen vs. Dunn (yes, Orly way to crazy for even the CalGOP)
Controller: Chiang vs. Strickland
46th CD: Ken Arnold will get to face Dana Rohrabacher.
47th CD: Van Tran will get to face Loretta Sanchez.
68th AD: No surprise, Phu Nguyen vs. Allan Mansoor.
OC Treasurer runoff: Rodenhuis vs. Freidenrich in which name would you rather have to spell?
Two depressing, all-too-familiar stories of inept, wasteful, career politicians getting to stay in office despite bold challenges from worthy, competent opponents. Bipartisan version:
TOM DALY wipes floor with Hugh Nguyen. JOHN WILLIAMS does same with Callahan and Vann. Four more years of mediocrity in both offices.
Vern signing off for now, but not sure he can sleep while Props 16 & 17, and Choi v. Wagner, still up in air………..
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Art, 12:01 am: Don Wagner has pulled ahead of Steven Choi, likely due to the sympathy vote after his son died. He isn’t up by much, but this trend could continue. At least Amante is still mired in third place!
Lorri Galloway is not far behind Sidhu. She may still pull up over him and end up in a run-off with Shawn Nelson.
It looks like Rocco finished off Vann, but the big winner in that race is John Williams, who will continue as Public Administrator.
And Hutchens has finished off Hunt! Maybe Hunt can move to Arizona and live with his pal Joe Arpaio?
Congratulations to Orange Juice blogger Duane Roberts, who won the Green Party nomination and will face off against Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate, in November.
And Van Tran ran away with the 47th. He now faces Loretta Sanchez in the general.
Ruh roh! Correa still has less votes than Kring in the 34th Senate District.
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Art, 11:39 p.m. – Steven Choi is still on top, but barely, over Wagner in the 70th A.D. Janet Nguyen is still sixth in her Central Committee race. Lorri Galloway has finally vaulted over Art “Stinky Pete” Brown, but Shawn Nelson is still leading in the 4th Supervisorial District, with Sidhu behind him. Sidhu is still losing his Central Committee race.
Webster Guillory appears to be beating Claude Parrish, the GOP candidate for O.C. Assessor. And huge news – Alexandria Coronado is losing to David Boyd, in Area 2 of the O.C. Board of Education!
Coronado’s fellow hater, Bill Hunt, is getting trashed by Sandra Hutchens, in the Sheriff’s race.
Rocco is still beating Vann over in the race for O.C. Public Administrator, but John Williams appears to be the winner!
Measure D is losing over in Mission Viejo.
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Art, 11:19 pm – Uh oh. Lucille Kring has more votes than Lou Correa, in the 34th State Senate District. That is a surprise. Janet Nguyen is still in sixth place in the 68th A.D. GOP Central Committee race, and her former right hand, Andrew Do, is still in last place. Over in the 69th A.D., Harry Sidhu is still losing. And he is also losing to Shawn Nelson over in the 4th Supervisorial District. And my pick for the 70th A.D., Steven Choi, is still ahead, but not by much. Don Wagner is right there behind him. Jerry Amante looks like a big loser in third place.
How about Keith Rodenhuis pulling it out in the O.C. Treasuer-Tax Collector race? The Liberal OC pick, Pat Desmond, is in last place. Rodenhuis may face a run-0ff with Shari Freidenrich.
And Liberal OC darling Lorri Galloway is still losing to Art “Stinky Pete” Brown, even after their editor, Dan Chmielienski predicted she would win. Wrong again Dan!
And Liberal OC pick Kevin Vann is still losing to Steve Rocco over in the O.C. Public Administrator’s race. Bad night all around for the Liberal OC!
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Vern, 9:58 – too much fun at Phu’s place, heading off to Santa Ana with victorious Ken Arnold – will fill in everything there…
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Shawn Nelson is all smiles at his victory party
Art, 9:08 pm – Very happy to hear that Shawn Nelson is dominating in the 4th Supervisorial District race. Can’t believe that Lorri Galloway is way behind and losing to Art “Stinky Pete” Brown! Sad that Hugh Nguyen is losing to Tom Daly. It is obvious that Daly prevailed because of the GOP slate mail he bought. He fooled the voters into thinking he was a Republican.
I am ecstatic that Supervisor Janet Nguyen is near losing in the 68th District GOP Central Committee race. Her former Chief of Staff, Andrew Do, is in last place! Curse of Black April!
Over in the 69th District GOP Central Committee race, Harry Sidhu is losing – and so is Lupe Moreno. I guess Republicans hate Latinos so much that they even hate Moreno now!
Kevin Vann is behind Steve Rocco in the race for OC Public Administrator. Didn’t the Lib OC guys back Vann? [Vern: I don’t know if they did or not; I backed Vann and also Callahan, they were both good.]
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Dr. Steven Choi and his supporters enjoy the early election results
Art, 8:59 pm – Just visited Dr. Steven Choi’s Election Night Party in Irvine. Congratulated him on being on top, by 1%, over Don Wagner. Amante is in third. These are the early results. I expect that Choi will hold on to his lead as Wagner and Amante split the hard-core base. Also drove by Jose Solorio’s party at Ruben Martinez’ bookstore. Lots of nice people there. When I passec by the DPOC party it was still in the set-up stage.
Alex Vega, Jose Solorio, and Ruben Martinez
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Vern, 8:20 – Trying to get to Phu’s party, but for now:
Republican absentee results (because Republicans are such good absentee voters!)
AD70 is really close! Choi, Wagner and Amante, in that order, each hanging around 28%.
County Supe 4th District – Shawn a solid 28, Sidhu 21, the Dem girls trailing Art Brown even.
Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is kicking ass! 56% to Hunt’s 24 and Hunter’s 19.
CD 47- Van Tran WHALING on Smith and Tan, with 57%
I also note that in the Rep. AG race, homeboy Tom Harman isn’t getting much love in the OC, with Cooley at a cool 41 (Eastman 31, Harman 27)
Statewide
Whitman and Fiorina are creaming their less-wealthy rivals just as predicted, allowing us Dems to paint Reeps as a party of aristocratic privilege.
Aanestad is a little ahead of Maldonado right now. The propositions are looking grim, the bad ones ahead and Prop 15 behind. Of course, early voting is heavily Republican. That’s why we’ll wait a little while to look at Dem races. Gotta run!
Thanks for the updates O.J. Blog.
Hunt is cooked – it’s time he and his supporters started a militia in Idaho. Good riddance to bad trash.
Alex Coronado is in trouble.
Seems Lou is in trouble in November when considering things are getting any better with the economy.
I think(hope) Katherine Smith will catch Van Tran. Either way, Loretta takes on and will dominate anybody.
So much money wasted in the Supervisoral district, sidu and Lorri. Both had no chance. Terrible polling(let me guess the polling company was financial related to the consultants who had to tell the unions that Sidhu or Lori had a chance.
Very surprised about Art Brown performance. While my wife and I don’t share the same party with Lori, my wife received mail from her and we didn’t received anything from art Brown
“that was things aren’t getting better” so Lou in trouble
Just looked at the Red county site and read over a consultant by the name of Chris E. who ripped the mailers of Alexandria Coronado’ challengers as poorly done.
He went on to state why she will prevail but mentioned some stupid school issue.
However as of now the incumbent Alex C. is losing.
Does this mean that even in the face of terrible campaing consulting mailer, a sitting incumbent can still lose because:
1. the incumbents consulting work was worse than the opponents
2.the incumbent consultant went to a better school
3. the incumbent consultant has a color copier versus the challengers black and white
4. the incumbent consultants knows nothing
5. All of the above
How sad that the Juice would play the “Wagner is only winning because his son died” card. I thought common sense and civility would prevail, but I was wrong. CONGRATULATIONS DON – the great knuckledragger in the 70th! Can’t wait for him to destroy Vern’s beloved Melissa in November. And Art, I guess Steve should ask for his money back from his pollsters. I love it when reality destroys all of your fantasy-filled drivel. Don has no chance … Don finished a distant third to Chuck last time … Steve will win easily … Ah, victory is so sweet.
Newbie,
As I wrote in my post this morning, Don had a great campaign manager in Scott Voigts. They worked the grassroots and it paid off. This is the end for Amante and I take great pleasure in that.
Choi worked hard and has nothing to hang his head about. He will back Wagner and Republicans in Irvine will be happy to keep him on the Irvine City Council.
I don’t agree with Don’s nutter brand of politics but I am happy that he took out Amante!
Newbie, I had to take a sentence out of this comment of yours because it was so offensive to me.
If you look at what I wrote in this post, and what Art wrote, I NEVER said anything about Don’s son. And nothing about any “sympathy vote.”
It wasn’t me. Not my style.
All I said was there is a great contrast between Don and Melissa.
Last time I co-author a piece.
Folks.
I just spoke to Don Wagner’s campaign manager Scott Voigts. As you can imagine he is exhausted. Don made an appearance at the former Holiday Inn hotel in Laguna Hills just to thank his supporters. I did not pursue this further.
Vern. Among other races we also agreed on Prop 16 and Prop 17. Close only counts in horse shoes. Readers. You need to follow the money and ask questions.
Sorry I didn’t join the live debate but we were at a volunteer appreciation dinner at Teen Challenge in Santa Ana. It was nice to have a break after all that has been on our plate.
Vern,
I’ll respond here to both this post and the other one on Don. You are correct that it was apparently Art who made the comment about Don getting the sympathy vote. I also gave him credit for noting Scott’s tireless efforts to get out the grassroots support. If I remember correctly, the knuckledragger comment is attributed to you – and I’m proud to be a fellow knuckledragger myself (I know, you’re shocked, right?) – so I couldn’t resist. It was just my chance to gloat at all of the negative comments made about Don over the past several months. I know it’s all part of the political fun, and you should know by now that, while we disagree on almost everything (except the OC Fair), I’m glad we have this forum to make such mischief. To that end, I will give the credit to all of the bloggers on here (love em’ or hate em’) for providing an open forum to discuss OC politics. And I’ll be sure to gloat again in November after Don trounces Melissa in the general election.