You come to the Orange Juice Blog for the Straight Dope right? So here goes.
But before we get rolling with the ’24 Fullerton Council lowdown, let’s dispense with this one DEFINITE fake candidate, this Scott Markowitz. Till recently a Democrat but now registered Republican, Scott was put into this race by Democrat operatives in an obvious effort to bleed away conservative votes from Republican Linda Whitaker, and his candidate statement includes a call to “America First Patriots to step up!” and vote for him. (You can picture a few Democrats sitting around giggling when they came up with that.)
Nobody should be silly enough to vote for Scott, not even whatever Trumpies may live in Fullerton, although some of them are so dumb they probably will (if they bother to read his statement.) Scott has raised less than $1000 for this race and has no website or Facebook, and we’re sure that Scott himself and his family will be voting for establishment Democrat Kitty Jaramillo, whom his candidacy is intended to help.
The SAME Democrat operatives pulled this same trick two years ago to help establishment Democrat Ahmad Zahra, running one Tony Castro to pull Latino votes away from serious candidate Oscar Valadez in that majority-Latino district. And the trick worked. But things are even messier this time around.
Because, who is this Jamie Valencia, Latina Democrat supported by some of the same folks (you’d think would be) backing Whitaker? Is this not one more fake candidate balancing off Markowitz, to take votes from Kitty Jaramillo, for net-zero fake candidacies and max confusion? That was MY first impression, but we will have to look at this closer. Somebody told the Liberal OC’s Dan Chmielewksi a little bit about this, and Dan produced an illiterate miasma of words and documents that’ll leave any unfortunate reader more confused than before.
[Update: Ah, I shouldn’t “bury my lede” at the bottom of this story: Jamie is a legit, serious candidate and a good Democrat.]
But before proceeding, we need to lay some groundwork:
Fullerton’s Two Camps (these days)
Every city in the OC has its own breakdown during these interesting times, during these long death throes of the OC GOP. Things don’t usually break down simply between D vs. R, as they do in Huntington Beach. In Santa Ana the long-dominant Dems split into two fiercely opposed camps of progressives and corporatists. In Irvine sundry Democrats who loathe each other make confusing, awkward alliances with sundry Republicans. In Anaheim it doesn’t matter what Party you’re in, Disney tells you what to do. And this is how the two “camps” in Fullerton appear to me, excuse me if I simplify:
- BIPARTISAN PRAGMATISTS who are now a 3-member majority of Democrat Fred Jung and Republicans Bruce Whitaker and Nick Dunlap, funded by (but not always co-operative with) the Bushala family; and supported by the scabrous (and sometimes unfair) Friends For Fullerton’s Future (FFFF.)
- ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATS so called because they’re currently backed by the DPOC, led by controversial councilman Ahmad Zahra, and generally supported by the Kennedy family’s generally liberal (and arguably “yellowing”) Fullerton Observer. (I should mention I learn a lot from both these outlets.)
This season ALL THREE OF THE BIPARTISAN PRAGMATISTS ARE UP – Jung and Dunlap for re-election, and Whitaker termed out. So the Establishment Democrats are trying to knock off one-to-three of them, but they really only seem to be trying hard in Whitaker’s District 4.
But now, if you have a brain, you ask “What do these two camps STAND for? What do they want to change in Fullerton, what do they want to keep the same? Or are they just two implacable, power-hungry cliques that hate each other?” Good questions which we shall endeavor to answer below:
District 1: Fred Jung v. Matt Truxaw
The critics of Fred Jung are all establishment Democrats who think the world of Ahmad Zahra, and if you ask them, they’ll tell you Fred is a “shitty Democrat.” Except, their only example of Fred’s Democrat-shittiness is that he refuses to ever let Zahra be Mayor or Mayor Pro-Tem (ceremonial titles by the way; and Fred’s reason is his first-hand experience of Ahmad’s disqualifying behavior. But seriously read this 2020 classic from Dan. Comments section especially!)
“That is so stupid,” says Fred. “Actually, apart from the fact that I’ll never support him for a leadership position, Ahmad and I vote the same about 90% of the time.”
“Why ARE you a Democrat anyway?”
“Good question. You may not know it but I’m an Evangelical Christian…” (and as an aside he says the Democratic Party should not write off Evangelicals and assume they’re all gonna be right-wingers.) “I’ve been a Democrat since the Obama years. My Christianity leads me to believe in equality, in caring for the less fortunate, in supporting women’s right to choose, in people having the right to love who they choose, in we humans being stewards of the Earth.”
“Stewards of the Earth – is that why you are so passionate about the OCPA?” (OC Power Authority)
“Yes! And I’m really proud of how we’ve turned that around in less than a year – we can offer consumers energy for 3% less than SCE charges, and it’s 100% clean! We’ll be having more cities signing on in the coming year…”
“Is Fullerton’s membership in OCPA in jeopardy, if Ahmad wins the majority this year?” I asked, knowing that Ahmad was always railing against the agency in its first couple (incompetent, corrupt) years, and hanging it around Fred’s neck.
“No,” Fred laughed, “nobody is going to want to leave now.”
Fred’s biggest concern is Fullerton’s crumbling infrastructure, and HOW TO GET SOME REVENUE to fix that – and he and the Council have started an “ad-hoc committee” to look at various options including a sales tax, which many other OC cities are looking at. Hard to be enthusiastic about a sales tax in these trying times. I tell him, “FFFF seems to think the solution is in taxing the downtown bars more, as they’re so profitable and create such nuisance.” “Well, we’ll be looking at that along with everything else. But Downtown Fullerton is not what it used to be before COVID, not as profitable AND less of a nuisance.” Fred named, as his representative on this revenue committee, Tony Bushala, “because I trust his judgment.”
But Fred and his majority don’t always do what the Bushalas want, as in their unanimous vote for the Union Pacific Trail, which Bushala and FFFF regularly trashed as a pointless “Trail to Nowhere.” “That was a no-brainer, and it is NOT a ‘trail to nowhere,'” retorts Fred. “It was state-funded, and South Fullerton needs it and deserves it. That part of the town has always been neglected, and they should have a way to hike & bike to other parts of Fullerton.” So much for Ahmad’s myth that the majority voted “NO” on it, which Dan is still repeating – Fred just wanted to look at other options before committing.
Another long-time Democrat is the guy who filed to run against Fred this year, one Matt Truxaw… except he re-registered as a Republican, presumably to be a more credible opponent to Fred. According to SoCal Daily Pulse, none other than Ahmad Zahra has been trying to pull strings to get some institutional Republican support for Matt, but somehow Ahmad doesn’t have much cachet with that crowd – go figure!
Matt told me on Facebook “I really don’t want to get into tearing down my opponent. I want to focus on a positive message for what I can do for the City and the people of Fullerton.” But apparently he’s had second thoughts (as an opponent SHOULD) and has been “tearing down” Fred as best he can on his Facebook page, mostly criticizing him for how much of his funding comes from outside Fullerton.
Yeah, THAT. “Geez, Fred, $248K, what do you need that for? You could run in ANAHEIM with that amount.” It DWARFS all the other candidates – 4X more than Nick Dunlap, and over 10X more than any of the others. “Yeah, well, I started fundraising early, as soon as I got elected. And I’m glad I did, regular campaigning is hard for me right now.” (I haven’t mentioned, but Fred has been going through chemo and radiation for a cancerous tumor.)
“And,” I observe, “it’s almost all from Korean-Americans, from all over the southland. A full page in the Observer of Korean-American donors.” “Yeah, well, we Korean-Americans support each other.” Meanwhile Truxaw has yet to raise $1000, and has no endorsements listed on his website. I don’t think the Zahra camp is taking this race too seriously.
This one either:
District 2: Nick Dunlap vs. Jan Flory
I don’t know much about Nick. He’s a Republican so we probably disagree on some things; still, on Fullerton issues he mostly votes with Fred so how bad could he be? Nick has raised $63,403, and the lady Dems have put up against him has (like Truxaw and Markowitz) yet to raise $1000. That’s Jan Flory, an octogenarian who’s been in Fullerton politics longer than anyone remembers. She hasn’t bothered to get the DPOC endorsement. If you try to Google her it goes to a Facebook page for her 2012 Council race, and her ancient “FloryForFullerton.com” domain has been squatted on by “The Need To Get A Conveyancing Lawyer When Selling A Property In Brisbane, Queensland.” Seems Jan is coasting on name recognition.
(The re-emergence of Jan Flory, for the benefit of Zahra, reminds us of more hypocrisy from Zahra and his supporters – the unforgiveable sin of Jung passing Zahra over for Mayor in 2020 is exactly what Zahra did two years earlier to Bruce Whitaker for the benefit of … Jan Flory! She owes him.)
It seems the Zahra Democrats aren’t taking district 1 OR 2 too seriously. It seems they’re putting all their eggs into District 4, where if Kitty Jaramillo wins, they’ll have a majority. SO, without further ado…
DISTRICT 4
1. The Whitakers
Dumb Dan identifies Bruce Whitaker as “a termed-out District 4 council member.” Bruce Whitaker is a legend of OC politics. Back during the ’90’s bankruptcy he was part of a bipartisan group of troublemakers (along with my friends Steve White & Sandy Genis) to stop the move to TAX Orange County residents out of the bankruptcy, a move spearheaded by Sheriff Brad Gates. After one particularly successful debate against the Sheriff, the young Bruce was approached by Gates who embraced him and whispered, “Careful driving home tonight.” And sure enough Bruce crashed into some bushes – his brake lines had been cleanly cut. True story!
His many terms on Fullerton Council have been characterized by standing up to powerful special interests including the police union – he and Sharon Quirk-Silva were the only Councilmembers to demand the truth about the killing of Kelly Thomas in 2011, and during his times on the OC Water District he was a steadfast opponent of the Poseidon boondoggle (unlike most Republicans, and unlike Ahmad Zahra when he got his turn.)
On the other hand, sometimes he’s been TOO conservative – for example when he’s rejected state funds for Fullerton just because he doesn’t think the state should be spending that money. That’s called “Cutting off your conservative nose to spite your town’s face.”
But long story short Bruce is termed out this year, and his wife Linda is running to take his place. They are both really nice people, and my friends, and nearly as old as Biden or Jan Flory. This blog (as well as the FFFF) has a long tradition of ridiculing politicians who try running to take their termed-out spouse’s place, especially the Ackermans but there are many other examples (I’ve recently learned handing off a termed-out seat to a family member is practically the rule in Laguna Niguel.) Let’s see, what did I write in 2014’s “The Troubling Case of the Ackerwoman?”
“Another thing we see is… when a politician is so self-enamored that, not only do they project their deep self-love onto the voting public, but they tell themselves, ‘My voters love them some Ackerman (Harman/Galloway/Lopez-Maddox) SO much that, deprived of me as they are by the cruelty of term limits, they’ll JUMP at the chance to get the next best thing in office – my SPOUSE!’”
This doesn’t REALLY apply to Bruce and Linda, if you know them – she is just as smart as him, and has always been his top advisor. Still, though, she told a friend of mine (will update this story when I can get a hold of Linda) that she only jumped into the race to stop Kitty Jaramillo from getting on Council. Wow – what is so bad about Kitty Jaramillo?
I call Kitty Jaramillo.
Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo came to my Democrats Club’s fundraiser for Derek Tran and Frances Marquez (who I think are the two most important candidates in the OC this year) and I appreciate that she came. Shana Charles, the Councilmember not mentioned yet who is generally considered an ally of Zahra, also came to that fundraiser (and later to some of our Club meetings.) Fred says that Shana is very “earnest” and “serious” and “always tries to do what’s best for Fullerton,” even if she does have a soft spot for his nemesis.
So I called Kitty. Her political opponents warned me that she’s “abrasive” and “overly partisan,” but she’s fun to talk to. She’s totally driven by the ghetto conditions of the Southwest Fullerton district she lives in, which looks like it hasn’t been improved since the 1950’s. There are no supermarkets in the whole district – the 99-Cent Store on Orangethorpe closed down recently, and now the Stater Brothers on Euclid & Chapman is closing too. “And none of these knuckleheads in the Council majority care about South Fullerton.”
“We were so excited when a Democrat, Fred Jung, got elected, we thought we FINALLY had a Democrat majority, but that knucklehead votes right down the line with the Republicans.” “I know you guys are mad that they won’t let Ahmad be Mayor or Pro Tem, but what other votes of Fred make you mad?” “That UP Trail, for example, they voted NO on it for TWO YEARS, until the state funding was about to disappear, THEN they finally gave in. And all because Bushala has some commercial property adjoining that trail, and he wanted to make an alley there instead. Well, if I get elected, Ahmad will finally have a majority and we can get to work improving South Fullerton.” Yes, she likes Ahmad – she can only think of one thing she disagrees with him on, and that is, as a renter, she and Shana want overnight parking allowed and Ahmad doesn’t.
“Bruce lives down here, but he acts like he lives up north. When he was opposing the trail, he said, ‘Why can’t south Fullertonians just go up north and enjoy the trails there?’ I told him, ‘I don’t know if you’re ignorant, or racist!'” (I guess that’s why FFFF says that she “allegedly accused him of racism.”) “I ran once in 2012 and promised my husband I’d never run again, but when I heard Linda was running to take his place, I knew I had to run to stop her!” Hmmm, what did come first here?
Here’s something I didn’t know: Fullerton has district elections because Kitty and a young Korean guy called Jonathan Paik sued for it. It probably would’ve eventually happened anyway, but still – Kitty’s the Jose Moreno of Fullerton! FFFF likes to ridicule her once having been a “metermaid,” but most of her professional life was in Code Enforcement in Santa Ana. Kitty is especially emphatic about the need for a full-time city employee specializing in Economic Development.
“If you had a majority would you push for Santa Ana-style rent control, and an inclusionary housing ordinance for affordable housing – like, 15% or at least 10% of any new development?” (Those are things I’m pushing for in Anaheim – hey, I’m progressive!) Kitty says those are great ideas, although Fred says nobody’s brought up either of them since he’s been on Council. (Jesus once mentioned an inclusionary ordinance in passing.)
When I mentioned Jamie Valencia, Kitty did NOT call her a “fake candidate” or a “fake Democrat,” although she did say she never heard of her before she started running. Well, here’s what you’ve all been waiting for:
I Call Jamie Valencia.
You know PROJECTION, that thing Trump does all the time, when you claim your enemy is doing the same thing you’ve been doing, because, you probably figure, why wouldn’t they? That’s how it must be for Establishment Dems after running Castro, Markowitz & Truxal. Heh, I don’t think they’ve even seen this, the final paragraph of the April FFFF piece announcing Linda’s candidacy:
“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the OC Democrats try the same ploy they rolled out in District 5 in 2022; namely, creating a fake candidate to draw votes away from Mrs. Whitaker. On the other hand, this is a heavily Latino district and a Latino candidate or two would certainly have the same effect on Jaramillo.”
Pero no, Jamie is for real. A registered nurse for 18 years, who works at UCLA and at schools in Orange (specializing in “critical care”) she was put onto the Infrastructure and Natural Resources Board by Fred Jung a couple years ago. She’s also on the OCTA citizens advisory board, and some water bill dispute board. And she decided to run for Council a year ago, and started putting things in motion, before she even knew Linda or Kitty were running.
And just like Kitty she complains about the neglect of her area and how there are no supermarkets. But once Kitty jumped in Jamie started getting calls from the DPOC asking her to drop out because they’d already endorsed a candidate. (Shades of Kim Nguyen and Derek Tran, shades of Sukhee Kang and Josh Newman.) Folks and businesses that have endorsed her started getting yelled at and harassed. She is getting really turned off by the Democratic Party.
“It’s just the County Party, don’t give up on the Democrats! The Party needs independent people like you and me and Fred! How long have you been a Democrat?” Jamie has been a Democrat as long as she’s been voting. “Why are you a Democrat?” “Because I care about the people, I want to help people, that’s why I became a nurse too, and the things Republicans say are just…. off the wall, they don’t make sense to me. Plus I care a lot about the environment. I grew up in the mountains, in Mammoth.”
No, nothing fake about Jamie. I mean, there’s no way she’s there to take votes from Kitty so that Linda can win. She’s just piling up the endorsements – the police union, the Carpenters’ Union, and she expects the Fire Union endorsement this week. A lot of folks you woulda thought were backing Linda are with Jamie. Fred likes that she’s “in the workforce, raising a kid, and much closer to the median age of Fullerton which is 35.”
Like her mentor Fred, she rates improving Fullerton’s infrastructure as her top priority. Her Committee has just put in a motion or recommendation to Council for updating and improving the roads near Harbor & Commonwealth. Her other big priority is helping small businesses, finding out what they need from the city to help them thrive and add to the city’s tax base.
A red flag is the large contributions to both Jamie and Fred from Rancho La Paz slumlord John Saunders. Makes one worry. Is he buying up more property in Fullerton? Does he have a development planned? Is he worried that some of the other candidates could make rent control permanent? Jamie and Fred both tell me they met with him and he was impressed with their “pro-business philosophies.” Hmmm. I should mention that, despite all my problems with Zahra, he’s been the only member to help the poor rent-gouged Seniors of Rancho La Paz.
Well, that’s long enough for now! I made fun of Dan’s story for “leaving readers confused,” mine probably will too. But at least it’s all true! Let’s close with a Fullerton song:
“We were so excited when a Democrat, Fred Jung, got elected, we thought we FINALLY had a Democrat majority, but that knucklehead votes right down the line with the Republicans.”
Fullerton City Council in 2019:
Jesus Silva (Democrat)
Ahmad Zahra (Democrat)
Jan Flory (Democrat)
Jennifer Fitzgerald (Republican)
Bruce Whitaker (Republican)
Now I know it’s hard to count to 3, but that sure looks like a Democratic majority to me.
Vern– is Kitty just not paying attention or can’t she count to three?
Fitzgerald – a Pringle lackey – was a classic repuglican. Not a conservative at all, just a public/private partnership parasite – like Lucetta Dunn.
Kittys “facts” have always been adjustable. She used to haunt the Nextdoor app with the same nonsense. (All scrubbed now)
She couldn’t count back then and seems like she still can’t.
As for the racism comment, your readers can see it for themselves at the City of Fullerton city council site. The video is there. 12/19/23
2 hour and 5 minute mark.
The dems have big plans for cannabis Kitty. Fullerton watch out!
Shit, I’m pretty sure that’s what she said, I was taking notes fast. That’s how I remember the conversation, but apologies if I got that wrong. Maybe she didn’t really say “FINALLY.”
I’ll write it again, Ranked Choice Voting would get rid of spoilers. Get it in your town.
I like Ranked Choice Voting in theory; I despise New York City Mayor Eric Adams. who used it to get elected, in fact. So we seem to need to work some of the bugs out.
What bugs? Does RCV not work properly unless you or I happen to like the results? Adams got elected. I don’t like him, but I’m not an NYC voter.
The justification for ranked voting is that it is supposed to reflect people’s preferences. It didn’t do that. A progressive candidate would have won if people had been using it correctly.
The main bug is that people either don’t know how to use it or don’t care to use it properly. If the three main opponents to Adams, all more progressive, had been willing to cross-endorse each other for lower rankings — which is how the system is supposed to work — then one of them would have won. But complimenting your opponent even in a sort of backhanded way seems unnatural to people locked in a battle with them; losing the race is supposed to be unthinkable, so why prepare for that possibility? It just seems to manifest the prospect of defeat.
Hopefully people will learn from the Adams debacle — or outside interests will start to lump candidates into categories and tell people to vote for an entire tier 1, however they prefer it, then tier 2, tier 3, and all the way down to Tier N.
All true except the part about the OCPA. Lol!!
Vern, you obviously know little about Irvine politics. The Irvine Company is to Irvine as Disney is to Anaheim. […]
Wait wait wait, what??? Democratic Party engaging in dirty tricks and divisive tactics right here in Orange County?? I thought we were better that. […]
Ada has got to go. And Hoffman and Johnson-Norris too. [slur] Ajay.
I might know more about Irvine than you think. As an Agranista you should know that Irvine Company is balanced off pretty evenly by FivePoint and its erstwhile principal Schraeder (sp?) There’s not a company there with the unitary executive power Disney has in Anaheim.
PS. You can respond once if you want but this thread shall not get hijacked by Irvine. There is a new OPEN thread.
“THEN they finally gave in. And all because Bushala has some commercial property adjoining that trail, and he wanted to make an alley there instead.”
Jaramillo is a liar. She knows nothing about the Rail District plan except what she’d been told by that creep Zahra. The idea was for a multi-modal facility, not an alley, that would accommodate commercial development on the INSIDE of the block like so many other Class 2 bike lanes adjacent to auto traffic.
“,,,when I heard Linda was running to take his place, I knew I had to run to stop her!”
Jaramillo is a liar, Part Deux. Linda announced her candidacy a week and a half after Jaramillo’s firs fundraiser. She ran because her lawsuit created a district she might be able to win.
And finally, I guess Fred wasn’t paying any attention at to the Trail to Nowhere:
“It was state-funded, and South Fullerton needs it and deserves it. That part of the town has always been neglected, but they should have a way to hike & bike to other parts of Fullerton.”
South Fullerton does NOT need a useless waste of $2,000,000 plus whatever it costs to remove the trichlorethylene. That stupid right-of-way does not connect to “other parts of Fullerton.” It connects one dead end to another IN THE SAME DAMN NEIGBORHOOD. It’s sad to see the rationale of “state-funded” to do something stupid.
And Fred says it wasn’t “two years” but less than a year, that the Council looked at options before approving it.
What happened was that the Council told staff to go away and come back with a multi-modal option, and option that their staff ignored. Instead they cooked up an Astroturf group of flunkies directed by the Zahra and the Fullerton Observer, while producing a half-baked all asphalt alternative that NOBODY had asked for but that the proponents jumped on.
I don’t remember the overall time frame but there was a year or more when staff did nothing and nothing was returned to the Council.
The three opponents on the council finally caved in to the relentless, 6 month annoyance of Zahra’s little claque, instead of telling them to eff off.
The rail district is a complete failure; marketing department, led by Davem thinks all they need is embroided hats. No wonder Zenger has limited employment options.
Must be Chimpanzeeski.
Fivepoint and the Straders are living off Irvine company scraps. The family goes way back. But they are in Bren’s domain.
https://www.ocregister.com/2012/01/31/old-irvine-hand-has-seen-it-all/amp/
Hello orangejuiceblog.com owner, Thanks for the well-researched post!
Vern – your blog is always an interesting read.
I read about Markowitz on the FFFF blog but noticed they only printed two lines of his registration history as proof. Wouldn’t you like to see the whole page? Did he only switch for the primary? But the rest – if true – is very fishy.
About Valencia – seems nice but hard to support someone backed by Saunders. Though Bruce, Nick and Jung also have his blessing.
Sorry to hear about Jung’s troubles.
Markowitz changed his registration from Democrat to Republican when he submitted his MAGA ballot statement. What the hell else even matters? Not even a competent sleight of hand.
Fishy? That’s the understatement of the year. You could actually look into it and find out why your fellow “Observer,” a woman named Diane Vena signed the guy’s papers AFTER endorsing his opponent, Vivian Jaramillo.
Does Vena know Markowitz? Was she in on the scam? Does she just go around signing stuff for the hell of it? This matters. She may very well be that stupid. Or, she is complicit in this fraud.
Zenger – I would like to see the whole registration history page instead of the two lines you guys printed before I conclude anything. Why don’t you print the whole page or send it to me? Looks like he definitely switched parties for the primary which is all that the two lines show.
About Vena. She was approached by a friend who asked her to sign and she did. I am acquainted with her and she is a very nice gentle person.
BTW who is the creep on FFFF making threats to visit Markowitz home? Seems like that is a step too far.
“You guys?” Taking some liberties there, toots.
Why don’t YOU visit the Markowitz home and ask him all the questions you are terrified to ask. Then report back.
I don’t have the “the full page” or even a small part of it. You could get his registration history , but who cares?
Whether Diane Vena is a “nice gentle person” is neither here nor there. She signed the nominating papers of a MAGA ballot statement writing poseur. She either knew what she was doing or she’s a complete nice gentle idiot. Let’s get the name of the friend. Whoever it that person is, was evidently in on the fraud. Name names, instead of deflecting why don’t you answer some questions coherently. I know it must be hard for you, but give it a go.
Zenger – the difference between reliable journalism and hogwash is proof. Printing two lines of Markowitz registration history instead of the whole page is not proof it’s suspicious and puts the veracity of the rest of the “report” in question. Good propaganda ploy though. I am surprised Vern would not notice that.
We generally don’t edit comments other than for extreme offensiveness or someone trying to foul our environment enough to make the comments unreadable.
You’re in the middle of a spirited debate. I’m staying out of it for now, because I have other fish to fry, but it’s actually something worth having here.
Sharon,
Your coverage regarding the blatantly false allegations made by the City of Fullerton against two of its citizens accusing them of theft included you manufacturing an opinion from a paid expert based on information hand delivered to your office by the city. That, by definition, was a propaganda play.
Your opinion of what qualifies as journalistic integrity isn’t relevant. People have seen through you for some time.
I’ll leave it at that, but if you’re going to poke your head into this blog with hypocrisy, don’t expect the audience here to swallow it.
Kennedy – You and your crazy daughter have your own little deluded reality going. The truth is not in either one of you. No wonder Zahra the habitual liar found it so easy to hogwash you.
Ryan – the paper did consult a cyber security expert about that case. He examined records and said that despite the use of secret addresses that there was a clear path from the photography business computer to the downloading of city files. Even though that was done the Observer crew thought going to court over it was a waste of money and time. And that anyone given the password to the drop box and finding their name on a city file would naturally download it. Those opinions were part of the coverage the paper printed. Josh was invited to tell his story in the paper but he declined.
Here you go, Sharon. Your memory seems to be a little selective:
“I consider the evidence that Ferguson and his associates were attempting to access City files while attempting to hide their tracks incontrovertible and damning. It would be incomprehensibly difficult to fake or otherwise fabricate the connections logged by the City’s Dropbox account in such a way that would associate Mr. Ferguson so clearly with this illegal activity.”
This is propaganda and you’re lucky you didn’t get sued as it clearly crosses the line into libel.
Again, you’re gonna get called out. I can go as many rounds as you’d like.
The daughter is even worse than the mother. They’re both so dumb that it’s hard to pick out the intentional lies from the plain stupidity. Notice how the mother demanded that I produce some document that:
1. I don’t have.
2. Is completely irrelevant in any case.
3. Is just a lame diversion, a pathetic cavil to divert attention from the real issue – WHO created the phony candidacy of Scott Markowitz?
I don’t think either of them got past high school.
Very suspicious that FFFF printed only two lines of the registration history. Refusing requests to see the entire history shows it would refute the claim that Markowitz did anything other than switch to vote in democratic primary which some republicans and others do. Also puts the rest of the “facts” in question.
About the quote from the cyber expert’s opinion- that was part of his conclusion about whether the download could be traced – the same password was used on the VPN account.
Whatever – it was the city employee’s error in giving out the password to the entire city dropbox as the Observer detailed in the story. And stupid for the city to pursue it in court. However – that was the only way the city could be reimbursed through insurance for any employees who might have sued since some of the files contained confidential information.
That last sentence (about suing to invoke insurance coverage) is interesting. Ryan and Zenger, what’s your response? It seems plausible to me. And I recognize that it is only a small part of the dispute you’re having here.
Zenger, you’re a good debater, but calling people dumb and uneducated is not your best tactic. Show rather than tell.
I don’t argue with the crazy bastard in front of the 7-eleven and I’m not wasting any more effort on the Krazy Kennedy Sisters.
None of Cuckoo’s crap has anything to do with the Scott Markowitz sham candidate conspiracy.
Printing the full page of Markowitz registration history instead of just two lines showing he switched in the primary seems very relevant to me. I can’t understand why you don’t print the whole page. I suspect it is because it would show that he is a longtime Republican who switched democrat to vote in primary as some do and that would mess up your theory. Why not print the whole thing?
This is a secondary distraction to the fact that Ajay Mohan, Democrat operative who did the same thing two years ago, set up the appointment for this “America First Patriot” with the city clerk. https://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2024/election-fraud-again/ It doesn’t matter if the guy has a history of changing his registration back and forth, or not. Just stop it.
I don’t argue with the crazy bastard in front of the 7-eleven and I’m not wasting any more effort on the Krazy Kennedy Sisters.
Greg, Sharon’s claim is total bullshit. There is no connection between insurance coverage and defaming two residents with accusation of theft.
Oh c’mon, man, were you expecting something coherent?
BTW, missed you at Grover. I didn’t break anything, either.
One can’t focus on everything and I’m not focusing on this. I just wanted to suggest to Zenger, whose writing here I generally appreciate, that calling local people stupid probably doesn’t fly with our readership. This isn’t FFFF; ideally one adjusts for the audience one is trying to reach. But was not that big of a deal.
Apparently Bushala has filed a complaint with the DA, requesting the Grand Jury investigate Ajay Mohan, Diane Vena, Ahmad Zahra and Scott Markowitz, the fake candidate.
Yeah I saw that. He doesn’t think he’s just spinning his wheels?
He has lots of wheels, so he’s probably not too worried.
Seems like a pretty good use of his time…
On her wretched blog Sharon Kennedy still steadfastly refuses to address any of this, clinging to the life jacket of Markowitz’s full registration history – that in her buzzing bee-filled brain is somehow relevant.
This goes to show the moral decrepitude of the Fullerton Observer and the folks who believe it is a relevant source of objective information.
You’d think they could find the whole history if FFFF did. Maybe the guy does change his registration habitually. (And I don’t think you need to register Democrat to vote in the Dem primary in California anyway, and what was there in this last Dem primary that’d compel somebody to vote in it?)
It still wouldn’t negate that Democrat operative Ajay Mohan helped him get in the race.
You’d think, if they wanted to help Kitty, they’d be trying harder to discredit Valencia, rather than try to prove Markowitz is a bonafide Trumpy.
The key to the conspiracy (that’s what it is) is to find out:
1) Why Diane Vena signed Markowitz’s nominating papers after she had already endorsed Jaramillo. Kennedy the Elder says it was some unnamed “conservative” friend, a tale that reeks of insincerity.
2) Markowitz signed the nominations form. Didhe even collect the signatures, or did somebody else? If he wasn’t physically there, he committed a crime, the same thing that Pringles young uns got busted doing in 1995 by then DA Capezzi.
That last bit is what Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Carol Gamble is in trouble for right now as she runs for re-election onto Council. And it also helped defeat Webster Guillory a few years ago – County Auditor was it?
I don’t understand how these people can be too lazy to get their own signatures, it’s not that much work.
I don’t know if Markowitz was actually there when (nice & gentle) Diane Vena signed his papers, but she knows. And Sharon Kennedy knows she knows, but is determined to make Markowitz registration history the real issue.
This could be a ploy – wear people down with your own evident, intransigent stupidity. But even a ploy takes some brains, so it’s hard to tell.
P.S. The Kennedys have never been journalists in any sense of the word. That explains the partisan looktheotherwayism we are currently seeing with Sharon. Her daughter is just as bad and at the end, so was her father. They are incapable of objectivity and are too dense or dishonest to see that.
Not sure if this is still the case, but in Presidential primaries independents — but not those registered with another political party (whether Republicans, Greens, or anything else recognized by the state) can vote in the Democratic election. Republicans do not extend independents the same courtesy — which is probably smart of them given how many people would vote against MAGA.
Apparently Spitzer is investigating this scam. I suspect the legal issue is whether or not this Markowitz circulated his own petition because he signed it.
Legal issue aside, if I were one of the Democrats who signed his papers – like poor, gentle Diane Vena – I would be:
1) Outraged that I was lied to, or;
2) Ashamed that I was caught as part of the fraud.
I’m hearing that Zahra was the mastermind of this. He knows if Linda Whitaker were to win it would be another 4 years without advertising himself as the first Gay, Muslim Mayor of an American city, something he lusts after a lot more than his (female) wife in Arkansas.
Now I’m hearing the mastermind is Zahra’s pal Aaurni Thakur who is trying to play Dem boss of north OC. I’ve heard he’s friends with Ajay Mohan, the guy who guided Markowitz to the City Clerk’s office.
Matt Truxaw Is Being Deceptive He Continues To Attack Trump And Republicans On His Facebook Page
I Took Screenshots For Proof In Case He Deletes Them
He Still Supports Biden &Harris Hes Trying To Split The Vote
In His Oc Register Interview He Doesn’t Explain Why He Switched Parties
Matt Truxaw Is Being Dishonest Trying To Trick Republicans To Vote For Him . He Continues To Attack Trump On His Personal Facebook Page
He Doesn’t Even Explain Why He Switched Parties
I Know Another Guy Who Capitalizes Every Word Like He Was Writing A Title, I Wonder If You Two Went To The Same School. Anyway, You’re Right, Truxaw Is A Fake Candidate Like Markowitz.