.

.

.

Here we go!  Remember, Democrats or NPPs voting on the Democratic line: unless you are voting for a candidate whom you KNOW will be viable as of March 3 — and as I write, I’m reasonably  certain only about Bernie, though Warren and Buttigieg also seem probable — DO NOT VOTE TOO EARLY this time.  Wait and see how things develop.  That is almost never good advice, but this time — with new information coming in through the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29, and the ability to get a new ballot at a vote center if you happen to replace yours — is the rare exception.  I know that I may earn Neal Kelley’s wrath for saying so, but that’s preferable to your voting for Warren or Biden if they get smashed in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina and suspend their operations.  Remember, we all have a common goal here: denying the nomination to Mike Bloomberg!  (Okay, maybe “all” overstates it.)

Partisan elections are in red or blue; the rest are in black (or orange when I feel like it), except the most important races, which are in eye-burning magenta.

My 2020 primary endorsees include, clockwise from Bernie Sanders: Ashleigh Aitken and Kim Bernice Nguyen for Supervisor. Diedre Nguyen for Assembly, Andy Thorburn for OC Board of Education — and NO, please, on County “Bankruptcy Again?” Measure A.

Vern has done his own endorsements post which largely, but not entirely, overlaps with mine here.  If a candidate or cause has been endorsed by both of us, they can fairly claim to have been “endorsed by Orange Juice Blog.”  If only one, they can fairly claim to have been endorsed by “Vern [or Greg] of Orange Juice Blog.”  Frankly, I doubt that we’ll tongue-lash people for misuse of these endorsements — but ya never know!

PRESIDENT

REPUBLICAN

As we argued here to our Republican readers: If you’re a Trumpublican, Joe Walsh is like Trump policywise, but without the narcissistic personality disorder. If you’re a Taitpublican, you’ll want to vote for Bill Weld.  If you want to hasten the time of Tribulations, you can vote for Trump — but if you consult your religious leader you’ll probably be told that you’re really not supposed to do that.

DEMOCRATIC

Come on, haven’t you been paying attention?  BERNIE!  If you can’t vote for Bernie because you took a vow never to vote for any candidate who can bring out the largest number of voters, including NPPs and disaffected Dems, to vote Dem, then by all means Warren is a good second choice, with Steyer not far below.  Really, even our third choice is one whom we could support enthusiastically!  (But: BERNIE! BERNIE-BERNIE-BERNIE-BERNIE!)

I endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for President!

(Don’t worry, doubters: before November, Reps. Harley Rouda and Lou Correa will explain why you have to vote for him for the sake of party unity and beating Trump.  That will be sweeeeeet.)

COUNTY OFFICES

Because County Offices have most of the most important races in this primary, we’re putting them up here before going on to Congress and State Legislature.

SUPERVISOR SEAT 1

VERY IMPORTANT TO VOTE FOR SERGIO CONTRERAS Kim Bernice Nguyen. (Or if not her, then Sergio Contreras.)  Contreras is a Westminster Councilman with a decent reputation.  But the other male Latino Democrat in the race is Santa Ana strongman Miguel Pulido.

THE THOUGHT OF CORRUPT CON ARTIST MIGUEL PULIDO HAVING ANY CONTROL OVER THE PLUMP COUNTY BUDGET SHOULD BE EVERY DECENT PERSON’S WORST NIGHTMARE!

This race does go to a runoff if no one exceeds 50% — and that seems unlikely — so EVEN REPUBLICANS should vote for Contreras to keep Pulido out of the runoff.  Incumbent Andrew Do will probably make the runoff anyway — and the worst possible outcome would be a PulidoDo runoff.   So that means picking one candidate to go against them.

Kim Bernice Nguyen of Garden Grove impresses me a lot more since a commenter corrected my misapprehension that she was Westminster’s Kimberly Ho.  KBN seems to have some good endorsements from female electeds, and I love the sign she was carrying at a Planned Parenthood event, so maybe she can do more than just take votes from Do.  Suddenly I’m torn — enough so that I can’t blame people for wanting to vote for KBN!  But why are people telling me that Contreras  is the only decent alternative to PulidoDo who can win.  I’m going to have to take a drastic step and look at their campaign finance filings for the latter half of 2019.

Contreras: $144K raised, $105K left.
KB Nguyen $28K raised, $20.5K left

OK, I get it now.  Ms. Nguyen, you look like you have a great future in politics.  You’re probably the candidate closest to my ideology.  But even with the advantage of being the only woman in the race, you’re not going to be able to win with $28K raised two months before the election against two heavyweights like Pulido and Do. I’ll stick with endorsing Contreras — and will look forward to a time when I can endorse Nguyen.

UPDATE! Vern’s comments on his own recommendation page written  after he heard them speak at a forum have convinced me to change my mind — especially his discovery that he was significantly pro-Poseidon. (Vern says that Pulido spoke against it at the forum. Of course he said that: Poseidon is unpopular and he is a shameless liar. If he opposed it, Tinajero rather than Sarmiento would have been Santa Ana’s appointee to the OCWD.)

SUPERVISOR SEAT 3

Ashleigh Aitken is BY FAR the better choice over Dull Donald Wagner.  Wagner doesn’t even seem to care about the jobs assigned to Supervisors.  Aitken is whip-smart and energetic and will quickly become the go-to Supervisor for people who really care about those issues.  (She also has the legal smarts to help decide for herself when the Supes are about to do something that will invite a justified lawsuit.  That would be nice.)

COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION AREA 1

Re-elect Beckie Gomez!  (Don’t vote for Steve Rocco, even as a joke.)

COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION AREA 3

This race features one of Orange County’s best candidates, Andy Thorburn, versus one of its worst, Herr Doktor Ken Williams.  Vern is conflicted out of this one, but I am not: former teacher Thorburn is perfect for this seat, and febrile bigot Williams is a disgrace to the board.  PLEASE support — and, if you can, volunteer for — Andy Thorburn!

COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION AREA 4

This would be marked a top race if it wasn’t ruined by too many Democrats, including one quasi-Democrat, splitting votes.  As it stands, Tim Shaw, the sole Republican on the ballot, is an almost sure bet to walk into office here.  (There’s no runoff — plurality wins.)  Shaw, even despite his charter school fervor, would be better than Slytherin house prefect Jordan Brandman, whose political career deserves no further oxygen. (I expect that Jordan would end up supporting almost as many charters as Shaw, so long as they donated to his next campaign.)  That leaves Paulette Chaffee and Vicki Calhoun.  I support Chaffee despite her ethical lapse in her going loco after campaign signs called her a carpetbagger and taking some of them down (aka sign stealing), because she has a better chance of winning.  (Her husband already beat Shaw for Supervisor.)  Vern prefers Calhoun.  I’d be fine with Calhoun winning — I would enjoy seeing her, as an African American woman who gives a good speech, causing Ken Williams (if he is unfortunately still there) to exhaust himself with conniption fits.  Before Jordan entered the race, you could sort of see a possible Calhoun win if you squinted; now, it looks to me like the only chance is Chaffee’s unleashing the same sort of expensive tsunami of advertising that put her husband in office.

CONGRESS

CA-38: Stay with Sanchez!

CA-39: Get going for Gil!

CA-45: Push for Porter! (If you’re an anti-Porter Republican, Rally for Raths.)

CA-46: Mark it for Mendiolea!  (Sorry, Lou C., but this district can do better.)

CA-47:  Complicated!  Alan Lowenthal deserves reelection — but three strong Republicans will be splitting the Republican vote, meaning that Democrats have the possibility of shutting out Republicans from the November elections.  Doing so would help them in AD-72, which I care about more than the infinitesimal chance of Lowenthal losing in march.  So personally, I’d vote for Peter Mathews in March, with the expectation that Lowenthal will make the runoff anyway.

CA-48: Rally for Rouda!  Republicans should choose whomever is not Michelle Steel.  There are three Republicans running (plus one AI); if any of our GOP readers have a preference, here let us know soon!

CA-49: Leave it on Levin!  (He’s been better than expected.)

STATE SENATE

SD-29: NO ONE BUT NEWMAN! (Look for his ice cream truck this summer!)

SD-37: Ah, hell — I had meant to ask Dave Min to respond to those assault accusation reported by Kia Hamadanchy and Octavia Tuohey in 2018 about their sister and son respectively, and one other from another candidate about his wife.  Oh well — he’s welcome to explain it all here, but as of today I’m firm for Katrina Foley.

Whoever it is will have a tough race against John Moorlach, who will out-poll them in March.  I’m not scared of Moorlach staying in the State Senate; but my hope is that Foley may push the Democrats to a point where over 2/3 of the Senate is neither Republicans or self-crippling DINOs — which is the As creal contest at issue in our legislature now.

As chronicled by Geoff West both in his blog and his Facebook page, corporate lobbyists from Edison, Farmers Insurance, CA Dental Assoc., and Chevron have come out with a vicious and lying attack flyer against Foley, supposedly on behalf of workers.  (Foley believes that the “Independent” Expenditure was ordered up by the GOP itself, and that Moorlach himself had nothing to do with it, though he’s take heat.)  We’ve seen this meddling in Democratic primaries time after time with Tom Daly, Lou Correa, and others — Chevron being a recidivist here — in which they put their money into trying to get a craven Democrat nominated instead of one with guts.  Well, if they want to get rid of Foley in the primary, that’s pretty much all I need to know.  She has my support.

STATE ASSEMBLY

AD-55: Respond with Rodriguez!

AD-65: Quite Satisfied with Quirk-Silva!

AD 68: Ah, crud: Melissa Fox is more likely to beat incumbent Steven Choi, but Eugene Fields seems to be further left.  Figure it out for yourself.  Go to votersedge.com and read about them. Vern says to support Fox.  Republicans should vote for Benjamin Yu, whose primary qualification is that he’s not Steven Choi.

AD-69: Write in Vern Nelson.  Both candidates on the ballot will go on to November anyway.  (Unless Vern wins his non-existent write in campaign.)

AD-72: Do or die for DIEDRE NGUYEN!  This is one of the most important races on your ballot, so we can avoid a soul-suckingly dismal Tyler Diep vs. Janet Nguyen  Republican run-off!

AD-73: Rally for Rhinehart.  Republicans have Laurie Davies and Ed Sachs, both of whom are not disgraced incumbent accused sexual harasser Bill Brough.  Then again, Vern says that Brough is good on opposing the toll road extension.  Republican readers, whom should we favor?

AD-74: Clearly it’s Cottie!  (Petrie-Norris, that is.)  Our Newport Beach correspondents “the Winships” will tell you Republicans whom to support between Kelly Ernby and Diane Dixon.

Judicial Office 4

Honestly, it doesn’t matter.  There’s no organized opposition.  I’d say: if you like Spitzer, who endorsed him, vote yes.  If you don’t, Vern says to write in Diane Wattles Goldstein of L.E.A.P. (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.)  I’m not sure that she’s eligible: if she is, great, if not. we will take nominations on the Comments Page!

PROP A

Vote NOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOO!  If I had not been working so much since September, I’d have but in my own ballot statement against this perversion of process.  That DPOC didn’t arrange one is one more example of how dunderheaded it now is.  (This is not merely a slam on Ada; there are dozens of people there I’d have expected to keep an eye out for something on the County ballot that might once again hurtle us towards bankruptcy.)

This would require a 2/3 vote of Supervisors — that is, 4 of 5 — to send a vote on new taxes to the voters.  Homelessness.  Drug addition.  Care for the mentally disabled.  So much more.  This all comes from the county.  Giving an effective veto to a minority of Supervisors over whether voters even get to decide what they want is just wrong.  Fight such fights at the ballot box. where they belong.

Prop A will end up meaning more court ordered-spending, more bonds rather than taxes, more fees, more fines, and more litigation over the fairness of those fees and fines.  Let’s instead make that of payment to the county something that, when Trump leaves office, you can once again deduct from your federal taxes.

One other thing that this will do is lead people to call for an expansion of the Board of Supervisors to 7 — or more likely 9 — seats.  A 4/5 majority means that two people out of 5 (40%) can block a vote on taxes to help the mentally ill, the homeless, etc.  With seven seats, it would take 3 of 7 (42.9%) to block.  With nine seats, it would take 4 of 9 (44.4%).  So you can see that on the horizon — or you can just leave well enough alone!  NOOOOOOOOOOO on A!

BONDS

Here’s the deal with bonds: if you think future income will cover the money, and that the bonds will provide benefits that will not only help in the short term but will be shared with future voters (usually 30 years worth) so amply that they will be glad that you paid your share of the investment, then vote yes.  If you don’t, then you either don’t spend the money or pay it out of the general fund.

PROP 13

VOTE YES!  This Prop 13 is for school repair, construction, and modernization.  Most elementary and secondary school spending of this sort is paid for within school districts, so it depends on the wealth of the voters therein — and poorer districts get the shaft.  This would help even this out.  The spending is justified and future generations will appreciate it.  It also helps some needed repair at colleges, which has less of an “economic fairness” justification, but I still think it’s ok.  One argument against is: “stop paying bloated salaries to administrators!”  Ok, but — without even going to the merits here — if you want to do that, go after the school trustees.  Don’t make the kids suffer.

SCHOOL BONDS

THIS IS THE PAGE where you can see the ballot arguments for all of the school bond measures.  You already know whether you favor school bonds, and we welcome discussion from people in affected areas on the merits of each of Measures.  These measures are:

B – Anaheim Union High School District Bond Measure Resolution

G – Brea Olinda Unified School District Resolution No. 19-42

H – Capistrano Unified School District School Facilities Improvement District No. 2 (SFID No. 2), Bond Measure Resolution No. 1920-29

I – Capistrano Unified School District School Facilities Improvement District No. 3 (SFID No. 3), Bond Measure Resolution No. 1920-30

J – Fullerton Elementary School District Resolution No. 19/20-10

L – Rancho Santiago Community College District Resolution No. 19-25

M – Saddleback Valley Unified School District Bond Measure

N – Tustin Unified School District Resolution No. 11-59-19 – School Facilities Improvement District No. 2020-1

O – Lowell Joint School District Resolution No. 767

Of these, I can only speak with first-hand knowledge about Measure G.  If you live in Brea, you should vote YES on MEASURE G.

The support for Measure G spreads far beyond the educational community itself.  It includes my old adversary Dwight Manley, who will be hit more than anyone by the tax, and his de facto publicist Rick Clark.  It includes sensible moderates like Christine Marick and Carrie Flanders and former Republican officials like Lynne Daucher and Bev Perry.  It includes Josh Newman.

I’ll say this: We’ve had children and grandchildren at three Brea elementary schools, and their teachers have been excellent.  (In the past few years, our grandson has attended two of them, and his three teachers there have given him the attention and support he needed to thrive after having bounced around a lot in his earlier grades like the Navy brat he is.  I won’t name the teachers only so as not to embarrass them.)  It’s a system that deserves support — including repair of its facilities.

To be a little provocative: we stay in Brea for its democratic socialism.  Its community center is fantastic — a collectivized enterprise that solves the problem after-school child care problem more inexpensively and effectively  than leaving parents to fend for themselves (or to leave kids at home alone.)  It’s still a non-trivial cost, but it comes with some reasonable discounts based on income –and its summer sports leagues are great.  This is doing the job right.

Public schools are a form of democratic socialism as well — the “nobody gets educated or thrown in camps type of socialism that we enjoy with social security,  medicare, and Medicaid — and I think that the Brea school district has shown that it will make good use of the funds, both for current taxpayers and those in the next three decades.

CENTRAL COMMITTEES

I’ve already offered one list for Democrats and one for Republicans, in each of which I’ve ranked candidates from 1 to N (with a lot of ties for people I don’t know.)  I’m just going to put the top 6 (+ 1 or 2) up here — and if you want to know more, including who you should definitely not vote for, click those links.

REPUBLICANS FOR RPOC

AD-55

1. Anthony Johnson (Legislative Field Rep.)
2. Tim Shaw (Councilmember)
3. Melissa Salinas (Lowell Jt. School District Bd.)
4. Rhonda Shader (Mayor, Businesswoman)
5. Gene Hernandez (City Council?)
6. Craig Young (Attorney)

• DO NOT VOTE FOR: Brett Barbre

AD-65

1. Amy Fremen (Rehabilitation Healthcare Pro)
2. Bobby Florentz (Handyman)
3. James Waters (Retired Postal Worker)
4. Dewayne Allen Normand (Small Business Owner)
5. Nicholas Dunlap (OC Businessman/Parent)
6. David John Shawver (Incumbent)

• DO NOT VOTE FOR:
• Baron Night*
• Steve Sarkis*

AD-68

1. Esther Koh
2. Austin Lumbard
3. Deborah Pauly
4. Robert Walters (Businessman)
5. Benjamin Yu (City Commissioner)

For your sixth choice: I don’t think that D.A. Spitzer should be running for this, for the same reason he has said he won’t endorse candidates for office other than judge.  If you disagree, vote for him; if you agree, vote for Voigts, but then always refer to him as nothing but “Rolling Thunder,” “Rolling,” or “Mr. Thunder.”

• Scott “Rolling Thunder” Voigts
• Todd Spitzer

DO NOT VOTE FOR:

• Fred Whitaker (DNOC Chair)
• Denis Bilodeau (Water Board, Pension Sponge)
• Mark William Bucher
• Trevor O’Neil

It has come to my attention that Trevor O’Neill, whom I had provisionally endorsed, has not acknowledged being helpful behind the scenes to reformers who are skeptical of Harry Sidhu, whom he could conceivably run to replace in the potential recall election.  Well, if that’s how he wants to play it, I do not endorse him.  Wink-wink!

AD-69

1. Karina Onofre (Small Business Owner)
2. Tim Whitacre*
3. Alberta Christy*
4. Lewis Adame (Retail Manager)
5. Gisela Contreras (Businesswoman)
6. Brian Harrington (Marketing Consultant)

DO NOT VOTE FOR:

• Thomas Anthony Gordon, an asshole who represents you poorly.  I mean, you can do it, but now when he pulls his asshole stunts on Facebook, and I write about it, I’ll be able to point to this and say that I told you not to do it!

AD-72

• Zack McCready (Business Owner/Attorney)
• Kermit Marsh*
• Jeffrey Barke*
• Eva Weisz (Community Volunteer)
• Russ Neal (Electrical Engineer)
• Patrick Harper (FV Councilman)

If you disqualify one of these and need a sixth vote, choose among your Small Entrepreneur Owners:

• Peter Amundson (Small Businessman)
• Austin Edsell (Small Businessman)
• Amy Phan West (Entrepreneur)
• Brian Burley (Business Owner)

Vern says to vote for Andrew Do.  If I thought it would drive Janet Nguyen out of the party, I’d agree, but … no.  That won’t happen.

AD-73

1. Greg Raths (Mission Viejo Mayor/Decorated Vet)
2. Laurie Davies (Laguna Hills Mayor)
3. Elaine Gennawey (City Councilmember)
4. Mike Munzing (Aliso Viejo Mayor)
5. Lisa Bartlett* (Supervisor)
6. Write in Orly Taitz, for old time’s sake

If you reject one or more of my recommendations — and yes, I do feel bad for endorsing Bartlett, but it’s South County Republicans so you have to expect pickings to be slim — and need a sixth vote, you have your choice of property managers and some others, though I’d prefer you write in Orly Taitz, although I’m not sure she lives within the district, which frankly makes doing so even better.  There’s only one that you really have to avoid:

• DO NOT VOTE FOR:

• Diane L. Harkey (“Businesswoman”)

Diane Harkey having the gall to call herself a “businesswoman,” after she either conspired with her husband to bilk investors out of huge amounts of money, or at best was negligent in monitoring her business or at least profiting from it, has got to be the most revolting ballot designation I’ve seen this year.  Republicans, free yourself from this woman.

AD-74

It’s sort of important that you do vote for these six recommendations, because we have two “don’t elect ’ems” in this group, and out-polling both will be tough.

1. Thomas “T.J.” Fuentes* (Famous Son)
2. Katherine Daigle (Small Business Owner)
3. Diane Dixon (Mayor)
4. Will O’Neill (Newport Beach Councilmember)
5. Kelly Ernby (Deputy DA)
6. Erik Wiegand

If you reject my advice above, consider:

• Mike Gasca (Restaurateur)
• Barbara George (Business Owner)
• Emily Sanford (Retired Navy Nurse)

And look, one of those might turn out to be an absolute freak, so I’m sorry if that turns out to be true.  We just really need people not to vote for:

• Scott Peotter (Architect) 
• Mike Posey (Councilman)

OKAY, DEMOCRATS NOW!

DEMOCRATS FOR DPOC

Reminder: the bolded names are on the “Party of the People” slate, which represents a lot of Bernie and Bernie-curious people who are not me, and most of whom, to be blunt, have much less experience in local Democratic politics than I do.

AD-55

1. Cynthia Aguirre
2. Natalie Estrada
3. Lourdes Cruz
4. Isabella Rubio
5. Gail Cain
6. Jeff LeTourneau

This is my district.  Please do as I say and do not vote for either of the other two.

AD-65

This district has 13 candidates, a wealth of whom are good and only two that would be really bad:

1. Marisol Ramirez
2. Ed Lopez
3. Jose Trinidad (“Trini”) Castaneda
4. Andy Lewandowski
5. Jose Paolo Magcalas
6. Mirvette Judeh
7. Ada Briceño
8. Patricia Tutor
9. Mike Rodriguez

I prefer the first 6, but one can make a case for any of the first 9.  I’d like to see votes concentrated within the first 6 (maybe 7) because there are others (not appearing here) whom I don’t want to see elected.

AD-68

This district has 18 candidates — one of whom is already an ex officio member of the DPOC and another one of whom will be.  I’m ranking them through 11.

1. Bill Honigman*
2. Nathaniel Fernandez Epstein*
3. Mani Kang*
4. Ted Perle*
5. Betty Valencia*
6. Naz Hamid*
7. Joe McLaughlin*
8. Tammy Kim
9. Laura Villa*
10. Melissa Fox**
11. Eugene Fields**

I have my occasional disagreements with Dr. Bill — he is a little too disposed to see the good in people and a little too unguarded enough to see the bad — but he is invaluable within DPOC given his statewide and even national presence.  Epstein is a real rising star within the party.  Kang and Perle are strong liberals who also advocate effectively for the Sikh and Disability communities.  Betty Valencia is a strong member of the DPOC leadership and should certainly be reelected.  But, given how much the supply of good candidates here exceeds available space, I’m less convinced that she needs her partner Villa to be elected rather than just naming her as her alternate. So I’ve moved Villa down to the ninth position.

I can make strong arguments for any of Naz Hamid, Joe McLaughlin, and Tammy Kim — I consider them effectively tied — and I hope that each will get onto the DPOC as an alternate to one of the candidates above, even if not a member.  One of Melissa Fox and Eugene Fields — I think very likely Fox — will be on DPOC as an ex officio member for AD-68 regardless of whether they beat Choi.  The other is also a likely candidate to become an alternate.

Florice Hoffman misled people about not running for Regional Director last time and I expect that will continue to run so long as its good for her business.  So she does not need this seat.  And, if she doesn’t get it, she should be kept as far off of DPOC as possible.

AD-69

1. Manny Escamilla
2. Dr. Jose Moreno
3. Martin Lopez
4. Juan Gabriel Alvarez
5. Jessie Lopez
6. Isuri Ramos

I’m largely deferring to the Party of the People here, except that I’m adding Martin Lopez, an ally of Ada’s whom I find very sharp.  (And I’ll just hope that he’s not quite as reflexively pro-union, even when a bad union is doing wrong.)

If you reject one of my choices and want another one, I consider all of these tied:

• Veronica Chavez
• Jannelle Welker
• Thai Viet Phan
• Ariana Arestegui

AD-72

1. Jaci Ianello
2. Victor Valladares
3. Oscar Rodriguez
4. Karen Hinks
5. Shayna Lathus
6. Mark Paredes*

I  consider Mark, Louise, and Sergio comparably good candidates, but Mark is that one I’m adding to the PoP slate.  Louise really belongs there as well; if you don’t like one of my choices, she’s the one to add (and both of these should be alternates in any event, if not elected.)  There are just too many deserving people here.

• Louise Larsen*
• Sergio Escobar*

AD-73

1. Emma Jenson
2. Alan Fenning
3. Lulu Hammad
4. Sudi Farokhnia
5. Jenna Beck
6. Ann Cameron – (I like her; I don’t like her likely alternate)

If you don’t like one of my choices, substitute in one of these two:

• Danna Lewis
• Laura Horgan

As with Florice Hoffman in AD-68, DO NOT vote for Deborah Cunningham-Skurnick — she’s not only awful, but she’s another Regional Director who already has a seat!

AD-74

This is truly an inconvenient amount of riches.

The PoP slate’s choices for the top 4 positions are all good.  Inada is an extremely valuable resource to the party.  Samila and Iyad are strong voices for the progressive Muslim community.  Gillespie is a longtime ally of Dr. Bill and it would be hard to imagine DPOC without her.  I don’t know why they didn’t support Mary Carter, but — despite my differences with her over the CDP Chair position — she certainly belongs, and Mohr has been a strong progressive in statewide politics.  All of #1-7 deserve to be on DPOC — and I expect that someone will appoint Adler even if he doesn’t make it on his own.  (He’s the Parliamentarian, so being an alternate doesn’t undercut him much.)

Here’s the problem: Michael Bloomberg supporter Rep. Harley Rouda has endorsed his own slate of Roudettes — who, so far as I can tell, he wants to make sure that DPOC doesn’t push him too far to the left or criticize him when he doesn’t go there.    I like Johnson-Norris, and I do want Rouda re-elected, but he has got to keep his cotton-picking hands off of the county party.  I can accept moderates in places like this district that would support no one to their left, but I cannot accept anti-leftists who want a suppliant party that won’t pressure them to do what’s right.  That just makes me want to push back harder.  So, I have to reject the whole Rouda slate altogether — especially given the strength of the people whole he’s trying to dump.  (I include Johnson-Norris as a second alternate choice, if you disagree with any of my choices.)  He can appoint one of them to the seat he’s allotted, and they can appoint a second Roudette as their alternate.

1. Dean Inada*
2. Samila Amanyraoufpour*
3. Iyad Afalqa*
4. Marleen Gillespie*
5. Mary Carter*
6. Anne Mohr*
7. Jonathan Adler*
8. Lauren Johnson-Norris ®

The top 6 here definitely need to be on DPOC.  So does the seventh, Adler — but if he’s not on, someone will appoint him.  (And since he’ll also be appointed as Parliamentarian, he generally doesn’t take part in debate anyway.)  The 8th spot goes to Johnson-Norris, who you notice has an “R” after her name.  That “R” stands for “Rouda,” whose state I’m opposing because while I’m glad to have him in Congress I’m not glad for him to choose people for DPOC who won’t push him to the left.

That’s it for OC — well, there’s the Green Party, but if you’re a green you should just vote for whomever Jane Rands and Matt Leslie (in that order) suggest — but I do have some out of county endorsements for some (mostly) neighboring districts, just for the record.

Here’s one for Whittier:

AD-57 (LA)

• Zenaida Huerta
• Henry Huerta
• Stephanie Marie Terrazos
• Roberto Alfredo Alvarez
• Cynthia Patino Talmich

Here’s one for Long Beach:

AD-70 (LA)

• Christopher Robson
• Christopher Duvali
• Carrie Scoville
• Pat Stanyo
• Anne Sullivan
• Andrew Swetland
• Naida Tushnet

More of these to come as time permits!