This is our third post this year addressed to Orange County Democrats who want to have some influence on their local and state Party by voting in California’s biennial “ADEM” elections. If you’re a registered Democrat in OC, and

• you missed the Dec 31 deadline to register to vote by mail;
• you prefer to vote in person anyway;
• or the state party screwed up again and didn’t get you your mail-in ballot by now (btw you can complain/inquire with them at adem@cadem.org and you still have till around the 26th to vote by mail and get it to ’em by the 31st)…

… then you can vote in person this weekend at ANY of these locations (doesn’t matter what district you’re from, you can vote at any of these places) :

• SATURDAY JAN 21, 10am to 2pm, Oasis Senior Center, 801 Narcissus, Newport Beach;
• SATURDAY JAN 21, 10am to 2pm, Santiago Canyon College Gym Foyer, 8045 E Chapman, Orange;
• SATURDAY JAN 21, 11am to 3pm, Carpenters Hall, 7111 Firestone Blvd, Buena Park;
• SATURDAY JAN 21, noon to 4pm, Laborers Hall, 1532 Chestnut Ave, Santa Ana;
• SATURDAY JAN 21, noon to 4pm, Coast College Le-Jao Campus, 14120 All American Way, Westminster;
• AND SUNDAY JAN 22, 10am to 2pm, San Juan Capistrano Community Center, 25925 Camino de Avion, SJC!  

It might help to have your 10-digit PIN on hand, which you can get HERE.

Well, I guess that’s all you need to know about THAT! And if you come to Laborers’ Hall around noon to 1, we might see you there!

So, Who Should You Vote For?

So glad you asked! Of course, this is just us, and as always YOU DO YOU, but we HAVE put a lotta thought into it. I should also mention that many of the candidates have provided candidate statements which you can get to through these candidate links:

• AD 59 candidates (Brea, Yorba Linda, Placentia, some Fullerton, An. Hills, some Orange, Villa Park, North Tustin)
• AD 64 candidates (La Habra and parts of LA County)
• AD 67 candidates (west Anaheim, most Fullerton, Buena Park, La Palma, Cypress)
• AD 68 candidates (Santa Ana, central Anaheim, some Orange & Garden Grove)
• AD 70 candidates (Westminster, Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos, Midway City, most Garden Grove)
• AD 71 candidates (Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, unincorporated OC, parts of Riverside County)
• AD 72 candidates (Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport, Lagunas, Lake Forest)
• AD 73 candidates (Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin)
• AD 74 candidates (Laguna Niguel, SJC, Dana Point, San Clemente, parts of SD County)

I’m-a start with my own district, Central County District 68, because it seems most important and dramatic, with two VERY contrasting slates competing with each other. There’s the establishment, corporatist, labor union slate, backed by Lou Correa and the Party establishment, calling themselves ironically the “Progressive-Labor Alliance.” And then there’s the actual grassroots progressive folks who are calling themselves “People Over Profits Progressive Slate.” I’m supporting the latter.

(add VALERIA RENDON to the above.)

And to save you some work, if I have you convinced, the numbers on your ballot corresponding to those candidates are 1, 2, 3, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21 & 22! Mira nomas, homies…

Let’s get the other two Anaheim districts out of the way next:

In this West Anaheim / Buena Park / Fullerton district, the Quirk-Silvas have created a “Unity Slate” – out of people they know, mainly in Fullerton. Most of them are probably okay, and I’m sure they’ll do fine in the election. Problem is, the Quirk-Silvas left out a few REALLY GOOD people that they happened not to know, so this blog is urging AD 67 voters to “BULLET-VOTE” for Fred Sigala, Tahir Farukhi and Jamey Flynn, and help them elbow their way past a couple of insiders! Thanks.

That’s, as mentioned above, #2, 7, and 25!

Our good Anaheim Hills friend Ery De Jong was ALL OVER putting together a slate up in this northeastern district, it includes our friends Lourdes Cruz, the ineffable Hari Lal and his ineffable daughter Mili, so we’re going with Ery’s judgment, but still by all means … go ahead and see who else is running, and read their statements!

Okay, the other districts in order:

We only include this mostly-LA-county district because it includes our dear “La Harbra.” There are 22 candidates here and we don’t know any of them, but if you live in La Habra and are so inclined, you could read their candidate statements or maybe you know some of em…

The Little Saigon district. I see a couple names of good people I know – David Johnson, Megan Irvine – but… the thing is, there are exactly 14 candidates, evenly split between male and female, so no matter what you do, those are the exact 14 that will win. So… I’m having trouble figuring out how to inspire you to vote in this one…

Just so, this “East County” district – there are exactly 14 candidates here too, except in this case there are 6 men and 8 woman, so ONE WOMAN’S GONNA LOSE! And wouldn’t you like to be part of deciding who THAT unfortunate woman is?

Nah, like I wrote earlier, “here’s a district where the Party is in its infancy, and AD 71 Democrats SHOULD participate in such events together, get to know one another, start growing the Party, and maybe not be stuck with Congresswoman Young Kim forever!“

On the other hand, there are 24 people running in this Huntington/Newport-centered district – how did these particular 14 get to be on the Porter-Min-blessed “Blue Crew?”

Some of these I know are great – like Bethany, Natalie, and Laura Oatman, but look at some of the ten people that got left off –

• Fiery progressive fighter Gina Clayton-Tarvin.
• Fine HB Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton.
• Our favorite County Assessor candidate Rick Foster.
• Hardin campaign manager Avery Counts.

I wonder what led to these and others being left off the island. In any case I’d put some thought into who I was gonna vote for here, before just checking off the Porter-Min-blest Blue Crew.

And this Irvine-centered district has 27 people running. And a lot of them are really good. And 14 of them got together and made a slate. And then eight of em who were left out made their own damn slate. And then Katie Porter and Dave Min strolled by like they were plucking fruit and picked their favorite 14 out of those (and surely now expect loyalty in the Porter Senate race and the Min vs Newman race.) And then my colleague Greg Diamond, who knows most of these folks, looked at the Porter-Min list and changed it a bit, adding in the inexplicably omitted Kev. So this blog is suggesting:

• Mohr, Johnson-Norris, Treseder, Wright (that’s 4 women we know, leaving 3 of your choice);
• Abazajian, Crane, Dack, Elliott, Gomez, Stephens, Varasteh.
• (Greg apologetically ran out of room for Gamboa.)

(By the way our very enthusiastic and not-rich friend Luis Huang could have at least provided a candidate statement.)

(GD, 1/19): Note that a reader below suggests Hannah Jodat, Patti Oh, and Iris Wu as the other three. Jodat is a good choice, whom I left off because she didn’t file a candidate statement; the other two seem like decent choices, unless you want to bullet vote for the four (or five) we’ve mentioned. Yes, this list does become more Katie/Min-heavy, though….)

Finally South County, with 23 candidates and I only know two of ’em I can vouch for: Great Dana Point Equalizer candidate Dave Dodson, and new San Clemente Councilman Mark Enmeier! I am waiting to hear from either of them who else is good…