ATTN DPOC – Matt Cunningham isn’t your friend. Stand up to him like Sean Mill did!
A commenter criticized me today for having said that the Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) was lame. Well, I have indeed said that. But that doesn’t mean I have any particular enmity for the DPOC. What it means is that, in my opinion, the DPOC has been generally rather dysfunctional and not all that successful.
Let’s look at the scoreboard for a moment:
The Republican Party of Orange County holds ALL the congressional seats, with the exception of the the seat held by Loretta Sanchez. Her seat is in Orange County’s blue donut hole – primarily in Santa Ana and Anaheim with a bit of Little Saigon tossed in for good measure.
The Democrats hold only one Assembly seat and one State Senate seat. Both are in the blue donut hole. They have no seats on the O.C. Board of Supervisors.
There are a lot of local elected Democrats, but not as many as there could be. Too often the Democrats simply fail to mount challenges. Or they run too many candidates and split their vote.
Case in point, the Garden Grove City Council elections in 2008. The Democrats had several good candidates, but too many as it turned out. Republican Supervisor was able to get her carpet-bagging then-Chief of Staff, Andrew Do, elected.
The Liberal OC helped reelect Carlos Bustamante. Now he is campaigning for his fellow Republican Van Tran, against Loretta Sanchez
Look at the Santa Ana City Council elections in 2008. The Democrats failed to recruit a candidate to run against the only Republican on the Santa Ana City Council, Carlos Bustamante. I ran against him as an indepedent, only to have the Liberal OC bloggers join forces with Red County editor Matt Cunningham and evil GOP consultant Mike Schroeder, as they ran hit pieces in the mail against me. Bustamante won and now he is openly campaigning for Republican Van Tran, who is now challenging Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.
How about this year? The Democrats had too many candidates running against Republican Shawn Nelson for the 4th Supervisorial District. And the unions got behind Republican Harry Sidhu, to make matters worse. Nelson easily won in June.
And the Democrats failed to mount any challenge against Supervisors Pat Bates and John Moorlach. Nor did they challenge O.C. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
So how can the DPOC get its groove back?
- Never leave a seat uncontested. Run someone. Anyone. Don’t let the GOP get any free passes. Force them to spend money!
- Local offices matter, due to term limits in the State Legislature. As legislators term out, local elected officials have to step up. Don’t let the Republicans intimidate you! Run for every local office!
- Don’t run too many candidates and end up splitting the vote. One strong Democrat might have given Shawn Nelson a hard time this June. But three weak Democrats just killed each other.
- NEVER endorse Republicans. Ever. Don’t recruit lame Republicans to run against entrenched machine Republicans. It was highly stupid for labor to get behind Mexican-bashing Dave Shawver a few years ago, against Moorlach. I am offended to see labor get behind Republican John Leos in Anaheim, when there are good Democrats in the race. Recruit a Democrat or stay out!
- Remember that the Republicans are not your pals. Don’t Facebook friend them. Don’t give them any softballs. They are the enemy, pure and simple. Take aim and finish them off, don’t get chummy with them. Stand up to rats like Matt Cunningham, as my colleague Sean Mill did a few months ago, for which he was vilified over at the Liberal OC. The Republicans are the enemy. Cut them no slack!
- As far as I can tell the DPOC doesn’t offer translation on their website. Take a look. I didn’t see any such widget. The Google Language tool widget is FREE. I use it on all my blogs. It is inexcusable not to add this widget to the DPOC website, right away. Minority voters can figure out lip service when they see it. Be real. Be sincere. Make it easier, not harder for minority voters to support your party and candidates.
- The DPOC website is hard to navigate. It badly needs to be redesigned. It should include some sort of “OC GOP Watch” feature where the hatred and ridiculousness of the OC GOP is visited on a daily basis.
- Don’t antagonize independent voters. That is a stupid idea. You cannot win legislative seats without them! Allowing the psychos at the Liberal OC to sue me, when I consistently rip Republicans, is beyond moronic. Don’t attack independents. Get them on your side! You already let them vote in your primaries. Reach out to them, you need them more than they need you.
- Run more young people for your Central Committee! Only one candidate ran in the 69th A.D. in June. That is inexcusable! You guys should have packed that committee with college kids!
- Do not tolerate greedy, corrupt Democrats in your midst. The double dipper Coast Community College District Trustee Armando Ruiz should have been taken out a long time ago. Instead the DPOC was content to leave him in power. No! Take out politicians who don’t serve the people! Bad Dems are no better than the Republicans!
May I suggest that the DPOC also adopt as their motto these stirring words by Winston Churchill, an admitted Imperialist who nonetheless helped take out the evil Nazi empire during WWII:
Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Make no mistake about it- the Republican Party of Orange County is the enemy. They hate Mexicans. They hate homosexuals. They hate the poor. They are corrupt, for the most part. Stop kissing up to these people!
I would like to end this post on a high note. Have you been watching what Misha Houser has been doing with the Phu Nguyen campaign? I have had my issues with Misha, but she is running a hell of a campaign, against the evil Republican Mexican-hater Allan Mansoor. This is how to do it folks. Never give in. Never surrender. Recruit great candidates, get behind them, and take out the enemy. I hope Phu prevails! If he loses, it won’t be for lack of trying.
Matt Cunningham outed sex-abuse victims.
Dan and Chris were at the VADPAC luncheon. He’s not dropping the lawsuit. No Democratic official can make him do it. DPOC won’t intervene. He says the case if headed towards a default judgment. Your best option was the settlement. These guys aren’t going to blink Art.
spoke with Dan,
What they are doing is evil and ridiculous. I won’t bend knee to these psychos.
FLAWED LOGIC:
You are presuming that the LIBERAL OC is supportive of Democrats!
Trust me, Dan and Mr. & Mrs Cunningham are knee deep in conversation about the “new media.” Note Matt’s new Twitter feed. FACEBOOK will be passe in 16 months and Jubal will be looking to sell the next flavor of snake oil. but, he has realizied (to his credit) it does’nt matter if it’s right or left, Blue or Red.
There is a lot of money to be made out there in these campaigns. Matt and Dan will do anything to get a piece of it.
Art,
You offer sage advice to the DPOC. There is no valid reason the people of this county should have to put up with the self serving rotten republicans supported by wealthy donors.
Isn’t Hoagy “Torta” Holguin a Mexican hating Republican? And yet here he is with a free ad on your site………………..
I think Hoagy paid for that ad. And I know there’s some discomfort with his being close to racist Harald Martin a few years ago. Weren’t we gonna have our Anaheim reporter Gabriel look into that?
Funny thing is, the time I heard him speak was a month or two ago at the Los Amigos breakfast, to a whole bunch of liberal Latino activists. He didn’t have to go there, he stood and answered all their questions very respectfully. After he left one old lady grumbled about Hoagy and Harald, but others seemed satisfied and impressed by him. I don’t know the whole story and hope someone else fills it in. It’s just interesting that that’s where I saw him.
Vern,
Indeed. He did pay for the ad and he is a longtime member of Los Amigos.
The guy who did replace Martin has not turned out to be very pro-Latino either. Clearly there is a need to elect more Latinos to the School Board in question.
It should be noted that Hoagy is a Latino himself.
Looked like he could be. You know who he mostly looks like – Nathan Arizona, the furniture salesman from “Raising Arizona.”
Vern,
And I look like a total guero!
Ah, and who would guess, you are El Rey de Aztlan.
haha, “Torta” got an endorsement from Ed Royce recently. Whatever one thinks of the Harald Martin thing (and yes, we can clear that up) Rep. Royce is no bueno when it comes to immigrants!
Referring to Hoagy as “Torta” is somewhat funny, given that there is a sandwich called a “Hoagie” and Torta means sandwich in Spanish, but this comment could also be construed to be a dig at his race. Just saying.
Art,
Your 10 points make a lot of sense. Unfortunately some of the most prominent Dems in OC don’t get it.
Example, #4 Endorsements; in the current race for Anaheim City Council, both Tom Daly and Lou Correa are endorsing conservative Republican Gail Eastman. There at least 2 dems (of 14 candidates) running in this race, one which is very viable, and those pendejos sin verquenza decided to openly endorse a conservative Rep.
Their motives have nothing to do with ensuring good representation in Anaheim, but everything to do with ensuring they appeal to white, conservative, republican “Colony” voters in downtown Anaheim for their own re-elections. Basically, they’re dumping on the other dems, so that they get re-elected.