Jan. 2006 OC political campaign update!

Just a few tidbits of interest…the race for the 68th Assembly District is already getting ugly. Stephen Frank, a conservative Republican activist, emailed out a column today noting that the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce endorsed a Democrat for Mayor against two Republican candidates. Janet Nguyen works for the Chamber, so of course Frank blamed her for the endorsement. What, their board had no input? Hard to believe. Seems like a stretch to me. Nguyen fought hard against a PLA in Long Beach. That makes her a winner in my book.

Meanwhile, in the campaign for the 34th State Senate District, a Democrat friend of mine mentioned today that there are secret poll numbers out that indicate that Lou Correa would trump everyone, and sure enough the Orange County Register revealed today that he is running against serial adulterer Tom Umberg. Apparently the Democrats feel that Lynn Daucher is a stronger candidate than Van Tran, but Dick Ackerman is the only Republican in the O.C., besides the RINO herd over at New Majority, who believes that.

Now that Correa has announced his campaign for the State Senate, you have to figure we’ll be hearing from a bunch of folks who will be running for his supervisorial seat, which has swung back towards the GOP in terms of voter demographics. Of course Martin Wisckol is reporting that many of the voters who were registered with New Majority money were tricked into filing as Republicans. Democrat insiders have confirmed that in several conversations I have had with them this year. Apparently many of them made a lot of money fooling their Republican masters. However, Van Tran may be able to recoup some of the lost registrations by bringing new Vietnamese voters to the GOP. He has done that before.

As for the First Supervisorial District, my sources indicate that Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante thinks he is the man, but he has also antagonized GOP activists by not doing much to distinguish himself as a Republican. Conservative insiders say they prefer Kermit Marsh, the witty and conservative council member in Westminster. Maybe Dr. Alexandria Coronado, the Orange County Board of Education Member and past congressional candidate, might have an interest in the Board of Supervisors, but will the ongoing disaster at her old board, at the Anaheim Union High School District, tarnish her too? Liberal activists are reportedly going to try to connect her to the scandal which has resulted in the waste of millions of dollars of bond money that were supposed to be spent on school construction projects.

One Democrat who might have just shot himself in the foot before he could announce for the Board of Supervisors is Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido. Martin Wisckol has reported that Pulido went to visit Evo Morales, the new President of Bolivia, before Morales won the election, so as to wish him well. Memo to Pulido: not a good idea to get chummy with a socialist who supports cocaine farmers and is friendly with bad guys Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. What was Pulido thinking? It sounds like he has been drinking the same stuff that Dick Ackerman is apparently swilling.

And last but not least, over in the 67th Assembly District, my sources indicate that Tom Harman’s wife, Dianne, is getting a lot of support from Democrats who serve in various non-partisan offices. Check out her endorsers at http://dianneharman.com/endorsements2.shtml and see for yourself. The real Democrat who is vying for the 67th, Richard Lara, can’t be too happy about that. However, this should be good news for Republicans Jim Silva and Mike McGill. It is further proof that Harman is a RINO. Now Silva and McGill can concentrate on each other. However, many sources are reporting that McGill is winning the ground war, in the precincts, and Silva is going to rely on direct mail and other advertisements. I sure would love to see a flier from McGill explaining how Silva voted for the Orange County PLA and for the stupid Orange County public employees pension expansion/swindle. Worm your way out of that one Silva!

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