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Finally, let’s move on to party central committees.
Six people from each major party in each of OC’s seven assembly districts are elected to that party’s central committee, where they (among other things) select the Party Chair and endorse local candidates. In most cases, OJB has chosen to recommend only five people for the six seats so that readers can fill in their own favorite. Districts where no more than six candidates filed had their applicants elected without going to the ballot; this happened in four of the seven Democratic elections (the other three had seven candidates apiece) but none of the Republican ones.
Most of our Secret Recommendering Panel is more familiar with the Democratic candidates than the Republicans (making us almost unique in the country) and we feel quite confident about our Dem picks. For Republicans, we’re trying to do the party a favor by choosing a mix — of old and new; male and female; white and … occasionally not; conservative, moderate, Tea Party, Libertarian, and yaaaaagggghhhh!, what IS that? — but recommending only (so far as we can tell, and manage) people who are not corrupt (at least below the Supervisorial level, and don’t read anything specific into that) and not (with the exception of anti-corruption warrior Deborah Pauly) bigoted (yes, alas, there is that problem.) If these suggestions help to create a safer and saner Orange County Republican Party, we’re glad to help. (Note: in some cases, there were no obvious acceptable alternatives, so we had to sort of wing it.)
A brief argument in favor of each candidate follows their boldfaced name. Your comments are welcome, but: if you’re leave a comment bashing people anonymously, you had better take a screenshot of it quickly, while it’s still visible.
Democratic Party of Orange County
Tongue not in cheek here; this slate would contribute to a strong committee — and for more than the reasons stated for each (although those reasons stated are true). We’re picking only 5 in each district so that the other two left out can fight it out; in some cases, not mentioning any names here, perhaps to the death
68th District
Paul Lucas – a critical voice on drug policy and policing issues
Melissa Fox – a critical voice on women’s issues
Ted Perle – a critical voice on disability and foreign police issues
David Sonneborn – a critical, if long-winded, voice on legislative issues
Ken Wyant – a critical voice on being better than the remaining alternatives
69th District
Carina Franck-Pantone – a critical voice on women’s and labor issues
Art Hoffman – a critical voice on internal party dumb-assery issues
Rickk Montoya – a critical voice on election fairness issues
Jose F. Moreno – a critical voice on Latino and education issues
James Pantone – a critical voice on legal and policy issues
74th District
Jonathan Adler – a critical voice on justice and resolution issues
Janice Burstin – a critical voice on feminist and social justice issues
Marleen Gillespie – a critical voice on peace and poverty issues
Dean Inada – a critical (though quiet) voice on pretty much everything
Farrah Khan – a critical voice on faith and welfare issues
OC GOP Central Committee
55th District
Desare Ferraro – a badly needed fresh face
Susi Khan – a badly needed fresh face
Nadia White – a badly needed fresh face
Michael Patrick Withrow – a badly needed fresh face
Irene Yezbak – a badly needed fresh face
65th District
Sean Paden – a complete SOB, but our SOB! (Vern and Ryan like him a lot)
Jack Bedell – a critical voice on educational issues
Sou Moua – a critical source of vowels
Shawn Nelson – a critical voice on hey wasn’t he running for judge issues
Chris Norby – a critical voice on infuriating the party issues
68th District
Jon Fleischman – blogger solidarity! Plus — not a fan of Trump or crony capitalism
Jeff Lalloway – occasionally right, and used to come out to lead debates during Occupy Irvine [note – Tyler from Irvine strongly disagrees!]
Deborah Pauly – actually does provide an essential OCGOP function, no joke
Michael Parham – in appreciation of his not being Ken Williams
Karen Lee Schatzle – in case she doesn’t win the judgeship, or even if she does
Todd Spitzer – this takes us to 6, but we are afraid of the consequences of not endorsing him
69th District
Angie Cano – better than other unendorsed alternatives, such as anti-gay educator and Jordan Brandman’s longtime beard Alexandra Coronado in AD-65, and how DID that work for so long, anyway, anyone know?
Alberta Christy – reminds us of the song from Avenue Q
Thomas Anthony Gordon – friend of the blog! (Kiss of death there? TOO BAD!)
Maribel Marroquin – seriously, is she related to Art?
Steven Nguyen – OCGOP should have at least one Viet member, and Do may be a goner
Tim Whitacre – a methodical, cold-blooded, political assassin –but he has panache [and an original OJ blogger too, back in the early days!]
72nd District
John Briscoe – Vern gives THIS (somewhat eccentric) Briscoe a big thumbs up for his fight for justice in HB’s Oak View barrio.
John W. Briscoe – Cynthia gives THIS Briscoe a big thumbs up.
Andrew Do – to piss off Janet Nguyen (and in thanks for jaundiced view of Poseidon ratepayer ripoff)
Michael Gates – not nearly as bad of an HB City Attorney as feared, very good with openness and communication with the public.
P.J. Garcia – we can’t remember which, but
Pat Garcia – we think we like one of these guys, or gals, as the case may be
73rd District
Lisa Bartlett – our best sitting Supervisor, no joke
Cathy Schlicht – “because you’ll need her there in case Frank Ury ever shows up”
No One Else – but if y’all want, y’all can make your case in comments
74th District
David Boyd – a smart guy with some serious huevos to fight against harassment
Katherine Daigle – she’s one of us (unless that hurts her here, in which case she isn’t one of us)
Cari Swan – opposes HB uglification projects AND POSEIDON
Carol Woodworth – Cari’s teammate who also opposes HB high density and Poseidon.
Rhonda Rohrabacher – in case it becomes necessary to “take care of” — and we think that you know exactly what we mean — Scott Baugh
And now our watch is ended. For now.
Vern. We agree on the 73rd GOP Central Committee recommendations of Lisa and Cathy. Living in the district I have picked six but appreciate your choices.
Who are your other choices?
“Lisa Bartlett – our best sitting Supervisor, no joke”
Meaning that although she hasn’t really done anything, she hasn’t done anything bad?
She was fundraising from lobbyists before she was even sworn in.
Who’s your nominee for that honor, Zenger? I’d rather argue specifics than generalities.
And I’d rather not argue at all.
Lookin’ good, then!
*OK, the great 74th! Whew, had the pleasure of meeting Cari and Carol at the latest
CRA meeting in Newport Beach. Nice gals. Didn’t know that they were opposed to Poseidon but that doesn’t twist our cookies either way. We also support Rhonda of course!
The Irvine Valkryie…..we really didn’t consider her, but might make an decision based upon anyone else’s suggestion – either way. Noticed you only made five of the six choices…and wonder what you think of Tom Pollitt and Dave Whitley. We don’t know Boyd…is he really a revolutionary or just another nodding doggy in the window?
How many States Does Bernie sanders have to win before he comes to his senses and drops out?
Thanks for the endorsement. Henceforth, I’m making Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog” my official campaign song.
Love that song…
Thank you VERY MUCH for endorsement Team OC Juice and my apologies for not seeing this sooner Vern….yet ANOTHER benefit of attending your concert on Sat. night!! Bravo
Plus you got to meet everybody’s favorite mayor, Tom Tait! Thanks for coming… Next one July 2!