Larry’s Agran‘s faux newspaper has the announcement.
Long time Larry Agran-ally Mary Ann Gaido is trying again to be Mayor of Irvine. She lost to Steven Choi in the 2014 election, 43.0% to 45.4%. She joins Gang Chen, who may or may not be pals with the Great Park developers, as an announced candidate for the fall election.
The timing of this announcement is a bit odd — both sides tend to wait until closer to the fall filing deadlines to define their slates. My best guess is that Larry is trying to pitch the Democrat’s slate as “Mary’s” rather than “Larry’s.” However, given how much the Great Park developers are likely to spend on attack mailers, I am certain all of Irvine’s voters will know by election day that seventy-year old Ms. Gaido has worked alongside the seventy-one year old Larry Agran for over four decades.
Larry Agran’s slate has a long row to hoe to take back the council. The current council is 4-1, with Beth Krom being the lone dissenter from the Choi, Christina Shea, Lynn Schott, and Jeff Lalloway majority. The two council seats up for re-election are currently occupied by Beth Krom and Christina Shea, both long term fixtures of Irvine politics that will be tough to beat.
The only way Larry himself returns to the city council in 2016 is if he runs directly against Christina Shea — something they both would relish. (Unless Christina opts to run against Mary for the two-year Mayoral seat.)
The Republican side is obviously waiting to see how Steven Choi’s bid for 68th Assembly seat fairs before deciding their lineup. Assuming Steven gets stomped in the 68th primary, like Irvine council-critters usually do when they run for the higher office, I would guess that Mr. Choi will be happy to beat Mary, again.
If she disassociates herself from the completely corrupt Agran and the comically incompetent Krom she might have a shot.
Interesting article….Larry Agran won’t run for Council, but I have seen stranger things happen. Fivepoints has supported the Agran team every election year since the mid 2000’s. They never supported me. One point to check, Mrs. Gaido votes for every Irvine Company project that comes before her. Probably many players in this upcoming cycle. But always good to personally check the record.
Thank you for dropping by, Councilwoman Shea.
For the Record:
(1) I agree that entities associated with the Great Park development _heavily_ supported the Agran faction in the 2006, 2008, and 2010 elections.
(2) I agree you have received little help from those and related entities. Your recent treatment at the hands of your council “allies” supports this.
(3) For a long, dark period during the 2010s, you fought almost alone against the Agran/Great Park financial/electoral juggernaut. Irvine is a better place for your courage.
Starting in 2012, however, the story shifts.
The campaign finance filings suggest Jeff Lalloway has been a steady and substantial beneficiary of Great Park affiliated money, such as Steve Gilliard’s political money laundering operation, California HOA.
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/11/what-money-bought-dave-gilliard/
Steven Choi’s mayoral victory over Larry Agran in 2012 was substantially funded by a mysterious but Republican-affiliated out-of-state source. A lot of folks are under the impression that was Great Park developer money, too.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/council-595090-fleischman-citizens.html
Of course, as we both know, the real key is to track who the Strader family (especially Patrick) and Starpointe Ventures are chummy with, but that only sporadically appears in campaign filings. I believe Patrick’s mom turned up on one of Steven’s more obscure filings, but I would have to check my old notes to be sure.
The story of the filings, then, is that Great Park developers funded the Agran machine until all the Great Park money was spent on “planning.” When the money to build the park was gone, the developers then switched their support to Lalloway and Choi, who would subsequently support selling off more land to fund actually building a park on what was left. Almost sounds like a business plan…
I am not knowledgeable about Ms Gaidos public record. While I have lived in Irvine for over two decades, Ms. Gaido was “before my time.” Please feel free to post here or to contact me directly to give your view of her record.
That’s what we’re here for: to provide a forum for discussion of local politics.
Thank you again for joining our conversation.