.
.
.
Recently I posted that Jeff Lalloway‘s temperament made him unsuitable for the OC Republican 68th District Central Committee. Jeff posted two dozen comments to illustrate my point.
Lake Forest Speaks
Jeff has been on the right on many important issues. He served alongside Christina Shea on the Great Park Audit Committee. He successfully fought to recover funds from shoddy city contractors. I vote for Jeff.
Jeff’s fiscal vigilance extends beyond Irvine. He rightly points out:
Mayor Tait and I have consistently tried to kill the Anaheim Streetcar. Perhaps one of the greatest wastes of public funds I have ever seen.
Right On, Jeff! Keep up the fight!
Jeff has earned the right to be called a “fiscal conservative.” But this isn’t about Jeff’s record. It’s about Jeff’s suitability to coordinate Orange County Republicans and help smooth our internal frictions and problems.
When I wrote:
Jeff’s controlling personality [creates] frictions within the Irvine Republican community … If Jeff had had a report card for his first term in office, the “works and plays well with others” line would have been marked “needs improvement.” …. The Central Committee will work more smoothly if we all encourage Jeff to spend more time with his wonderful family. … Please withhold your vote from Jeff Lalloway
a blogstorm erupted in our comment section.
Councilwoman Christina Shea dropped by. Two Shea supporters (Allan Bartlett and Lt Par) joined the fray, while three other commenters (WK, Joy, and Irvine Resident) also took Jeff to task. Many commenters supported Jeff’s efforts to stop the Anaheim streetcar, but
No one defended Jeff’s character.
Jeff did defend himself with his inimical style. He called Allan Bartlett a “hypocrite.” He called his fellow council member “corrupt” twenty-one times. He went after Lt Par and Irvine Resident. Fun stuff! But what did Jeff’s oeuvre say about his temperament?
The well-informed Rick Nielsen said it best:
I remember if you criticized the Almighty Saint of Master Planned Communities, Larry Agran, during his decades long reign of error, Chemical Lewinsky [Dan Chmielewski] would throw a temper tantrum of epic proportions….His meltdowns are just as epic as what I am seeing here from Lalloway.
I just don’t see the shame in his defending himself.
Seriously, I’d rather listen to him argue aggressively (or whatever the core sin here is) than to Steven Choi arguing insipidly. De gustibus, I guess.
First time I kinda thought I liked him a little is when he started coming out to the Occupy Irvine encampment to debate us. Even though, as he said, he disagreed with us on 90% of things.
Oh yeah, he also did “spirit fingers” up on the dais.
That was nice. His support for the cemetery (despite our current disagreement on policies) and his work against the street car and, if memory serves, the toll lanes are what sealed it for me. We’re never going to be buddies, but to me he does represent an intelligent and honest “political foe” — which is about the best that a Democrat can hope for out of the OCGOP.
There are probably other candidates with whom I’d agree with more on policy, but to me our mucking around in the OCGOP Central Committee isn’t about trying to slip moderates into the leadership — Lalloway is no moderate — but for them to have people who represent their benighted views honestly (rather than as servants of contributors) and have the capacity to work towards “plus-sum” solutions. One can try to brainstorm with someone whose position is based on actual strong personal belief; you can’t do much to someone whose decision making ability has been outsourced to a donor.
I’d like to think that Republicans would feel the same way about the DPOC — but they may prefer it just the way that it is.
Anyway, I’m confident that Tyler’s opposition to Lalloway for this position is sincere — I just don’t quite get it. (But then Vern and I aren’t exactly shrinking violets ourselves….)
How’d that Occupy thing work out for you Vern? Productive use of time?
We got some things done, we had fun, we raised a lot of people’s consciousness as to what’s possible, we made a lot of great connections and friends we otherwise wouldn’t have; Bernie Sanders and his message of political revolution now appeals to half the Democratic Party and a lot of independents.
Yeah, I’d say I’m glad we did it. Hope something similar starts up again soon.
Without Occupy, I don’t think that you have a broadly successful Sanders campaign this year. Occupy broke up the dirt in which he has planted his movement. So I feel great about the time that I put into Occupy — this is what it feels like to be on the right side of history!