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Victorious Ada on left, withdrawing Beth on right. Overlooking them, the unpopular Lou Correa, who hurts those he means to help.
Well… THIS is funny. And good news, too!
Do you remember how we at the Orange Juice Blog were rooting for union firebrand Ada Briceño in the Jan 14 race to lead the DPOC (Democratic Party of OC?) And how we bit our tongue rather than say anything too harsh about her opponent Beth Krom? The good news is Beth has dropped out of the race, leaving it automatically to Ada, and you read it here first! (Unless you saw a couple of Facebook posts.) The Party should now be assured of going in a strong progressive direction, and this is one less thing for progressive Democrats to worry about this month.
And WHY did Beth drop out? Well, pretty simple, according to both her friends and critics, she realized she didn’t have the votes.
But WHY didn’t Beth have the votes? I’d had the impression the race would be very close. After all, I’d heard Beth was nailing down the votes of all the elected officials – Congress, assembly, state senate, including all our famous NEW Congresscritters – all at the urging of passionately anti-Ada Congressman Lou Correa! (Leaving Ada with only the activist grass-roots of the Party.)
“People don’t always notice when I exit stage right!”
Well… turns out that was precisely the problem. I actually heard from two former supporters of Beth that “Once I heard that Lou Correa was all in for Beth, I changed my mind and backed Ada.”
Bitter at being chastised by the DPOC and this blog for his (and Tom Daly’s) stubborn backing of the worst OC Republicans (Rackauckas, Barnes, Mitch Caldwell) – as well as many, many bad votes – Lou Correa rather than expressing contrition went on an anti-progressive lobbying rampage, telling all the new and impressionable electeds (Rouda, Cisneros, Porter, Levin) that “If Ada’s in charge the progressives will be up your ass all the time making you do what they want, but Beth will have your back.” [As paraphrased to this writer.]
Did this backfire? Well, apparently, yes. One by one, these electeds decided to either abstain or back Ada. After all, whatever “progressive” is supposed to mean, these politicians know that most of them were elected by folks who believed they were that, not the opposite.
Well, what about Loretta Sanchez, running for OC Supervisor in a couple months, and having agreed to endorse Beth when Beth got out of THAT race? Well (and I didn’t hear this from Loretta whom I never bothered about the issue) it sure looks like Lo kept her end of the bargain with Beth by writing up a nice little endorsement (dutifully printed by both the Liberal OC and the Anaheim Blog) and then did nothing else that could conceivably hurt Ada’s chances.
Losers today: Lou Correa, Larry Agran, and DPOC power broker Melahat Raifei. Winner: Democratic unity. Now we have to unify for the Supervisorial race. I speak perhaps prematurely as I have invited both Democrat Supervisor candidates, Loretta and Andy Thorburn, to our next Anaheim Democratic Club meeting Jan. 5. But really Andy has to start thinking about that Assembly District 68 in which he lives, which is ripe for a good Democrat’s plucking in 2020!
UPDATE Saturday night – Andy has just dropped out. Did you read this, Andy? Thank you!
Vern out.
Ada is a better candidate because the economic and demographic changes in Orange County are reflected in her candidacy.
Mitch Caldwell is a Democrat. You listed him among the Republicans.
Well Cyntha I guess Vern tried to give Mitch to you Republicans. Are you saying you Republicans Don’t want him either?
Yes I did list Mitch as a Republican since he was in the race to take out Jose Moreno for Pringle. I balanced that out by not mentioning their Tim Shaw endorsement which I didn’t disagree with (although I’m sure they had different reasons from me.)
I was confused for a moment because I couldn’t figure out which was more unlikely — that Lou would endorse Denise Barnes or that you would include her among “OC’s worst Republicans.” Then I remembered the new Sheriff’s last name.
Don’t presume quite yet that it’s “automatically Ada” — people need to keep their ears to the ground to listen for signs of support being drummed up for another alternative from the Brandman wing. Mostly, what this means is that Beth is no idiot. I don’t know who is planning on running for South OC Chair, but I would not be surpriseed to see her run for that position. Maybe we could do better, but we could certainly do worse.
That picture of Lo looks about 25 years old.
From her Republican days?
When Lou sends the INS to Anna Drive and Oakview, don’t ask why. Please don’t.
We got rid of Diamond, do you really want to be next.
Lou and others refer to Vern as “the new Rocco”. Well said.
Nice. This is really, we’re to believe, a friend of Lou’s? Telling us that he WOULD use Trump’s ICE for political revenge?
Nah, you’re just another drunken hater, fantasizing that you’re part of some “we.”
Use of the anachronistic term “INS” tells us that we’re probably dealing with someone less than on the ball.
P.S.: I ain’t been “gotten rid of” yet; I’m just waiting for my challenge to be heard and not blogging about it here … yet.
Beth decided to spend more time with her family.
Or maybe she realized she can’t win an election of any kind without Agran, Forde and Mollrich.
This morning I hear that Lou has become COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR for the Blue Dog Democrats and member of the New Democrat Coalition.
The Tennessee Tribune quotes him: “Partisan redistricting has made too many politicians beholden to their political party over the interests of the communities they represent,” said Rep. Lou Correa, coalition spokesman. “My state, California, has a nonpartisan redistricting committee. All Americans deserve no less.”
I agree that every state should have nonpartisan redistricting. But for Lou, he feels that frees him to act like a Republican, and he makes it clear that he thinks acting like a Republican is “in the interests of the community he represents.” (Which I don’t think is your average Santa Ana or Anaheim resident.)
In any case he sure hates and resents being a Democrat!
I just added a photo that I took at the posada when fate placed a certain toy between me and the Congressman. I don’t think we need to use it here in this post, but we should use it soon — like, when we announce the Orange Juice Primary election to determine who will run against Lou Correa in 2020.
Well… how do you like that? Andy has dropped out of the Supe race. Just Lo now, against at least Kris Murray and Don Wagner … who’s your money on?
I don’t like it — Thorburn would have been great — but it’s hardly a shock. Loretta will now win … and maybe she will rise to the occasion as a Supervisor. (No bet ventured on that.) The track record of there not having been an actually liberal Democratic OC Supervisor since perhaps as far back as Edison Miller will continue in force — which is just the way that the county’s Dem establishment likes it.
Wake up OCGOP.
Kleptocrats are going to split the vote and lose going forward.
Better get back to basics and quickly.
Yeah, but, really, who’s out there that isn’t shady? Both Wagner and Murray will be stumping for Smash N’ Grab Club® support.
I’m not sure which would be worse: Murray’s pseudo-jargon monologues or Lolita’s nails-on-chalkboard screeching.
So few choices, so little time.
Mark Newgent, an NPP, Army Captain, and citizen-journalist (who will be posting a story here on his videoed trip to Tijuana interviewing refugees), isn’t shady, goofy, or grating.
This is not an endorsement — I’d have to go with Loretta to keep Murray off of the Board, despite her anti-leftist streak — but for Republicans like Zenger or Ryan who aren’t likely to support Loretta (although none of us can vote in this race anyway), he’d probably be the most natural choice. If Republicans all decided not to support either of their horror-show candidates and rallied behind him — which won’t likely happen — he could probably win in this district.
If Lou Correa’s endorsement of Beth Krom is the reason anybody thinks that Ada Briceno is more progressive, that ignores the hotel union’s long-standing close relationship with Clinton Democrats, including Correa, going back decades. The hotel union sits on a potential powder keg for labor organizing, yet it can’t point to one substantial labor organizing (new hotel contracts, etc.) campaign victory in decades (or even the existence of such a campaign), which includes the time that Ada has been in power. That’s because nearly 20 years ago Ada and her trainers at HERE, including Maria Durazo, decided along with other OC Democrats like Bruce Broadwater and Mark Rosen, to abandon serious labor organizing, which let the Democrats–who didn’t want the union to organize Garden Grove hotels (whose owners gave them thousands of dollars in campaign contributions)– off the hook and allowed the National and Local HERE leaders to concentrate on consolidating their internal power by squashing reform efforts and grass-roots hotel organizing. With union leaders like Ada, Disney doesn’t need to hire professional union busters. How progressive is that? I suppose that my friend Vern and others will point to the hotel union’s campaign for districts and minimum wage improvements in Anaheim as proof of Ada’s progressive credentials. But I would suggest that both campaigns are nothing more than part of a calculated effort to divert attention away from the kind of serious grass-roots organizing that could revolutionize union power in OC, but which would also pose a serious threat to the ability of local union and national union leaders to hold on to their life-long positions of “leadership” in a traditionally highly-corrupt environment. Campaigning for districts makes the union look good while the union’s internal electoral process remains rigged. Nor does it really threaten the political status quo in Anaheim, as we have seen by recent election results (with a pro-Disney, pro-Poseidon mayor and city council firmly in place). Even the likely passing of a higher minimum wage is a pathetic alternative to what could be achieved through the kind of serious labor organizing throughout the Disney empire that can only occur when workers feel free to take matters into their own hands by pushing their corrupt sell-out leaders (and both political parties) out of the way–something that Ada and other local labor leaders will die to prevent.
I appreciate your historical perspective, John, but I think that the power of the Broadwater/Rosen faction (such as it still exists, and such as it even still includes Rosen) in the DPOC is pretty much nil by now. (Remember, DPOC came out hard for Bao Nguyen when he ran against Broadwater for GG Mayor.)
I guess that if Unite-HERE has really refused to organize Garden Grove hotels — I’m taking your word for that for purposes of this comment — it’s reasonable to ask Ada about it. But if this is a decades-long stance, it doesn’t seem to me that you can pin much of the responsibility on Ada herself (and it seems hard to argue that Maria Elena Durazo lacks commitment to labor organizing.) And if this is some diktat coming down from the national union, then it excuses all the more her personal responsibility for such a decision.
My understanding is that in a “company town” like Anaheim has been, different sorts of techniques may be used than elsewhere; I’m not going to second-guess her on that. To me, the likelier measure of how well she’s been doing in her job are the slashing and unhinged attacks made this past year by Ernesto Medrano of the Building Trades, which seem to point to her power and effectiveness.
But the broader question you raise about how labor can and should most effectively be organized in OC is worth much more discussion. As it doesn’t involve water policy, it may not suit your blog, so I hope that you might post a fleshed-out manifesto on the topic here. I suspect that the real question, here in “just make sure that I’m safe and prosperous and to hell with everything else!” OC, is how much belly workers have for the sorts of struggle you would promote. My experiences from Occupy OC to Brea to Anaheim to DPOC is that this has not been a county where people want to sacrifice much comfort, let alone risking arrest, to the extent one sees in places with more aggressive labor organizing. We can’t even get the public exercised about Poseidon vacuuming money out of their pocketbooks!
I expect that Ada will make sure that at least the DPOC is doing its part in fostering change, but just as the old saying goes that “the last capitalist left in the world will be living in the U.S.,” it’s likely that that last capitalist’s address will be in OC. I don’t blame any well-intentioned individual for failing to change our culture quickly, but I do credit those who do what they can to foster positive social change at what pace is possible.
John — I read your comments on FB (I won’t port them here, though you might want to, along with LeTourneau’s defenses of her for context) and better understand your position. I still don’t find that damning, though. You say that she was the President of (pre-UNITE) HERE twenty years ago at the time of some corrupt bargain over Garden Grove hotels. I don’t know Ada’s age, but I’d think she’d have been in her 20s then — and I think that she’s grown quite a bit since then. Correa’s “testament” about her certainly suggests as much, doesn’t it?
Greg, in short:
1) The fact that Broadwater is long gone doesn’t change the fact that Ada Torres made the decision to tank a major organizing campaign, much to the surprise of the AFL-CIO organizer who had been expecting a major ramp up in the campaign, which was to include, per request by Broadwater and Rose, a major disruption of the labor peace (such as occupying the hotel lobbies of the Crown Plaza and other hotels in that area) in order to provide legal (and political) cover for voting for a “labor peace” ordinance which would lead to card-check agreements rather than the usual management manipulated “elections.” The point is that organizing hotels in Orange County, under Ada, and with the blessing of the International, has been long dead.
2) As president of Local 681 it was Ada’s call to organize or not. Originally, the IU was reluctant to support the campaign but it couldn’t stop it. It then sent an organizer to help with the campaign, as did the AFL-CIO. Then, HERE IU decided to merge with UNITE, the needletrade workers’ union, which was part of a big merger movement among service unions that was justified as making unions stronger but only really served the purpose of consolidating power at the top. In that effort, local organizing was thrown aside and Ada went along with it whole-heartedly. Her cooperation was followed by being made co-president of the new Local 11 (from Los Angeles under Maria Durazo, who has since move on into politics like Ada probably wants to do) which engulfed Local 681 (Orange County). Reformers such as myself protested the power grab, but Ada and Durazo repeatedly lied to Local 681 members (who didn’t want to join Local 11) by denying the merger plans.
3) Maria Durazo, whatever her earlier history, was ultimately about gaining power for herself, same as Ada is about gaining power for herself. This is the way it is done in most private sector unions, period. All over America service union leaders like Ada were and still are often selling their union members by accepting weak labor contracts with their corporate counterparts–and this was the basis of a nationwide reform campaign at that time. Meanwhile, due to the top-down power structure of service unions (which discourages member participation, weakens labor contracts but keeps “leaders” in power by crushing union democracy), the percentage of union members in the private sector plummetted to about 7 percent, an all-time low.
4) You don’t want to challenge Ada, and she will be fine with that, but the argument about “different techniques” is code for union corruption. Orange County hotel workers, especially, are a potential godsend to grass-roots organizing that fire a shot heard around the world like we haven’t seen since the 1930s, which scares union leaders as much as it does hotel owners.
5) The Building Trades are always more conservative, but the trick traditionally played by the leaders of the Democratic Party here, there, and everywhere, has been to talk big, throw out a few bones, but keep the workers from getting too out of hand–which suits most top union officials just fine because it provides them with great job security and obscene salaries way out of proportion to what their union members make.
6) What you “expect” of Ada comes from blind faith, something that should NEVER be given to people with power, not just people who lust for it like Ada (whose hero is the late Argentinian fascist, Eva Peron) but people with “good intentions” as well.
7) I appreciate your willingness to look into the issues I have raised, it honorably separates you from Ada’s DP sycophants and cohorts, like apparently Mr. LeTourneau.
Lots to chew on here, and I hope that readers with longer memories and better understanding of these union issues than mine will step forward to speak their pieces. (I don’t expect Ada to comment here herself just before the election, nor do I blame her for that.) Here are my initial reactions:
Re (1): I don’t know enough about organizing hotels in OC outside of Anaheim to have an opinion. I’ll just note that we don’t know anything about WHY she made that decision decades ago. She may have had an understanding of “the lay of the land” that you didn’t and still don’t. There’s a tendency — usually of the right, but also sometimes of the left — to have too much confidence that “force always works”; true of generals thinking about invading Iran as well as labor activists who don’t factor in sufficiently well the cost and risks of a failed strike. (That may not apply to your critique, but it’s certainly been a common historical occurrence — and we can see it this week in fans of the Yellow Vest movement who are literally writing that if they just keep up the pressure it will lead to the downfall of capitalism.) I also don’t get what you mean by “per request by [Gardeb Grove Mayor] Broadwater and Rose” — as written, it suggests that they wanted her to breach the labor peace. (If so, that would presumably be because they thought that they could crush the strike ad the strikers.)
Re (2): I remember that merger; I was living in Queens at the time, where it was a big deal. I never felt qualified to come to a definite opinion on it, but I do know that many admirable people had far less cynical views of it. Regardless, if you’re right about the purpose of the merger then Ada would not have had much choice about the matter: the President of the union was going to go along with it, and her only decision would have been whether she wanted to be that President or derail her career in protest. You seem to think that this was bad enough a development to require that sort of noble sacrifice; I don’t recall thinking that it was that clear. I’m sure that Ada would (rightly or wrongly) dispute your contention that she lied to members to accomplish the institutional goal.
Re (3): this paragraph reminds me why hopes for a “red-green” coalition regularly come a cropper. You’re very cynical about service unions, and I can’t argue that there isn’t what social scientists call an “agency problem” where the higher-ups serve their own interests more than those of the people whose agents they are. But: that this happens is the first time I’ve ever personally encountered such an accusation being made about Ada; just because she has been in a position to be self-serving doesn’t mean that she has been. Frankly, she doesn’t have the trappings of a corrupt union boss; I’m not incapable of being fooled, but she seems like quite a sincere person, irrespective of what she may have done (or not done) decades ago. I don’t think that the type of union leadership I’ve seen her practicing is the reason why union membership is so low — and I think that we can agree that that has had a lot more to do with actual corruption, automation, changes in industrialization (due largely to globalization of capital transfer), and policies that came into start relief under Reagan. You paint with too broad a brush here to tar Ada specifically. Now if she has political ambitions — well, pretty much all politicians once did. The question here to is whether there is an “agency problem” — is she letting her own ambitions getting in the way of serving the public. It seems to me that — except for calling for major labor strife — they’re pretty well aligned.
Re (4): for reasons already stated, I don’t see a basis to charge her with corruption at all. One could even imagine that her leading the local party is a way of trying to bring the larger public around to supporting worker interests — and literally everything I have seen about her suggests that to be so. Having the power of a strong Democratic Party behind such grassroots organizing could be key to that success, right?
Re (5): I too used to think that Building Trades were always more conservative, but I’ve been told by reliable sources that it ain’t so. My experience in the Democratic Party has been that they’re more conservative on “post-materialist” issues — gay rights, the environment, international human rights, etc. — but less so on “materialist” issues such as worker welfare. Here, they’re pretty much simply mercantilist, wanting public money to be put up for projects, and damn the consequences for anything other than their own members right now. It doesn’t have to be that way and often isn’t. You identify another agency problem (“obscene salaries,” etc.) and again, while I don’t know what she makes, I just haven’t seen any indicators I’d expect of it. (By the way: anonymous troll commentators who will be ready to accuse her of the worst based on your own poisonous fever dreams: if you don’t have evidence and a real name, don’t bother.)
Re (6): It’s not blind faith. I’ve both run crosswise of Ada (on the specific maps used in Anaheim districting) and worked in concert with her. I’m perfectly prepared to believe the best or worst of her, if I had good reason. I simply — lacking your past personal experience with her — don’t have reason to think that she’ll be anything but a boon to the party, or that she’ll put personal interest ahead of trying to foster productive change — change that I’d expect even you to favor. I could be wrong and I’ll speak up if I think I need to — but, again, the fact that she COULD be an Eva Peron does not constitute evidence that she is at all likely to be. And again: I just don’t see the “lust for power” tendency that you do; a few months ago, there was no reason for me to think that she was going to run for Chair (although Vice-Chair was fairly likely.)
Re (7): I’ve seen Jeff give better arguments elsewhere than he did with you on Facebook, although I think that he’s right that you undervalue her accomplishments in Anaheim particularly. (I’ve also seen him do much worse. ‘Nuff said on that for now.) While I hope I don’t seem like a sycophant, if I do to you then so be it. What I see is a Chair — first one in my experience here — why will not be automatically and viscerally antagonistic to at least the “Near Left”: the beyond merely and ambigiously “progressive” supporters of the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and so on. You’re I think a bit beyond that, and that’s fine, but you’re not likely to see a Democratic Party of Orange County leader who will really want to “smash capitalism” (or choose your similar slogan) in approximately “ever.” For the issues we’re likely to face in the near future — and for me that absolutely includes political honesty and integrity — I think it would be hard for us to do better.
Maybe you’ll get to say that “you told me so.” I hope not. I expect not.
Greg, I know exactly “why” because I WAS THERE and it was obvious. It wasn’t hidden at all even though Ada and Maria Durazo absolutely and obviously did lie about the merger. Everyone still knew it who was there who bothered to look. It was part of the openly stated national organizing strategy, PERIOD. And of course, Ada could have opposed it even if forced to go along with it eventually, could have and SHOULD have been honest about it. She went along with it because she was being groomed by Maria Durazo and the IU and wanted to climb up the same ladder to near-eternal power that Durazo and other union officials did. It is absolute bullshit to say we “don’t know anything.” Yes, we do, because it was all there to see.
Greg, a union that tanks organizing campaigns is by definition corrupt. THE PURPOSE OF UNIONS IS TO ORGANIZE, for Christ sake! LOL. Not only that, but I haven’t even mentioned yet the bullying of reformers and members, the illegal attempts to shut them up (including me), stealing an election, giving financial favors (preferred jobs) to cronies, etc., which I made a full report of at the time.
There is no grassroots approach here. It is all a carefully orchestrated top-down approach to running a union and community organizing that is designed to gain political power for those at the top–both in the union and in the Democratic Party (the chosen ones). Grassroots organizing is TOTALLY different in that it is from the bottom up—the type of organizing and union management that is rare but that you can see much more in a union like the United Electrical Union. Greg, you are simply unaware of these issues.
Greg, your adulatory approach to Ada and easy dismissal of any idea that she could be anything but an angel gives me the gag response as a journalist. I know this and most other blogs don’t profess to adhere to basic standards of good journalism–like healthy skepticism and independent research before making conclusions one way or the other (it’s mostly shoot from the hip commentary), but therein is my problem with political blogs.
WOW. I’d totally forgotten this. Glad I’m taking a few days off reading our old pieces.
https://voiceofoc.org/2016/06/briceno-correcting-correa/
The bitterness between Ada and Lou goes way back I see.
He may be resentful but she was absolutely right.
And I should have included our own piece that linked to this.
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2016/06/most-outrageous-correa-mailer-yet-anaheims-voting-rights-champion/
By the way, I almost forgot to bring up the…er…elephant in the room, the fundamental question for the past and future of labor organizing: who does Ada (or any union) represent, the Democratic Party or the Workers? You CANNOT have it both ways because the two have entirely different functions.
One of the big reasons for the demise of most labor unions over the past half-century–Taft-Hartly et. al notwithstanding–has been the symbiotic (unhealthy) relationship between the Democratic Party and labor leaders (I can assure you from personal experience that in Ada’s own union there is far less enthusiasm for party politics than you probably think and it breeds resentment among many union members).
Her newly selected position is a blatant conflict of interest that is iconic of the problem of both labor union leaders and the Democratic Party (since after FDR) betraying workers and selling them out. Orange County is a perfect example of that, as I pointed out before. How interesting that all those Dems who fawn over Ada and the Democratic Party, in general, cast aside all their abilities to reason so they can indulge their fantasies like followers of Billy Graham.
Good comment. Labor is for labor. Period. Forget good government. That’s why the unions have been for poison projects like Poseidon and the 405 widening, and why the housekeeping union was perfectly willing to sell the people of Anaheim down the river just as long as they got their members deals with the subsidized hotels.
She is now solely co-Chair (or co-President, whatever) of Local 11, and my guess is that with this new responsibility she’ll have handed off most of the operational role.
UNITE-HERE has not been one of the major culprits in sucking value out of the commonweal simply to line its pockets. Ada has been a stalwart figure, for example, in checking Disney’s stranglehold over Anaheim — which will rightfully be one of DPOC’s main concerns in the next two years. So while this is certainly a theoretical concern, everyone has multiple interests — especially that of personal power and authority — and I have no reason to think that Ada will be any worse in that respect than her predecessors Frank Barbaro, Henry Vandermeir, and Fran Sdao. In fact, I think that she’ll be a lot better — especially on economic disparity issues, as the first three were devotees of Melahat Rafiei’s version of “progressivism,” which focuses mainly on domestic social issues (women’s rights, LGBT rights, gun control, and high-level immigration issues) and virtually not at all on anything that might piss off any corporate donors. It’s not that those issues aren’t important; it’s just that they are not the sole issues with which those on (or towards) the left should be concerned, and they are too easily overlooked.
As for the ad hominem attack on those of us who like Ada — thanks for the big kumbaya!
“Ada has been a stalwart figure, for example, in checking Disney’s stranglehold over Anaheim — which will rightfully be one of DPOC’s main concerns in the next two years.”
Only so long as her union couldn’t squeeze something out it. Then it was adios, people of Anaheim, we’re getting ours. No different than the hardhats supporting the hotels. The DPOC has no interest in the people of Anaheim – as we will very soon see. John Earl is right on the money.
The DPOC supported pro-Tait/pro-Dr. Moreno policies for years, even censuring Brandman. You either don’t know what you’re talking about or don’t care.
The better unions in the county promote both social reform and their workers’ self-interest. When they can get the latter but not both, thry’ll take it — as would most interest groups. Republicans have been at the forefront of despoiling Anaheim — Brandman is notable as an aberration — so maybe you should focus your analytical powers on noting hoe screwed up your own people have been.
Ada winning the Chair’s race is pretty much the only good need for reform for the past half-year. You’re jus too prejudiced against worker solidarity to recognize it.
It’s nice that you and John can agree on the value of pissing on Democrats. Any actual policies in common, though?