You know those O.C. public employee pensions that are costing us a bundle? The pension spike that the O.C. Supervisors are suing to overturn because it was retroactive? Todd Spitzer voted for that when he was a Supervisor. And now apparently he has his heart set on becoming our next O.C. District Attorney. Uh oh!
Orange County’s biggest OC GOP shill, Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham, is predictably beating the drum for Spitzer already, even though he doesn’t plan to run until 2014. Here is what Jerbal had to say about this in a recent post over at the Red Klownty blog:
Todd has made no secret of his plans to run for District Attorney when T-Rack retires in 2014, and according to his report he already has a huge fundraising advantage over any potential rivals: a cash-on-hand balance of $1,097,131.09. This mountain of campaign do-re-mi was “cleaned” from his Assembly campaign committee.
Once Tony Rackauckas is re-elected in 2010 and Senior Deputy District Attorney Todd Spitzer has a clearance to fund raise, he will have amassed an truly intimidating war-chest by the time 2014 rolls around.
Why would Jerbal write this? O.C. Register opinion writer Steven Greenhut knows, as he wrote this in a recent post over at the Orange Punch blog, “One of the key strategies of anyone seeking public office is to amass a small fortune and then scare any opponents out of the race.”
Aha! So Jerbal is trying to scare off anyone who might be thinking of running against Spitzer in 2014.
And Greenhut agrees that backing Spitzer is a horrible idea:
Spitzer is very close to the deputies union, and a horrendous publicity seeker. Imagine the possibilities — a DA (who legally is required to pursue justice) who likes to grandstand is closely tied to an interest group. The million bucks is a big warchest, but perhaps the GOP ought to think closely before it lines up behind Spitzer, who is now a lowly prosecutor in the Rackauckas office
Spitzer also abstained when the Orange County project labor agreement came up for a vote, which allowed it to pass. This onerous measure banned non-union contractors from bidding on Orange County public works, until the PLA was allowed to expire by a later group of Supervisors who weren’t as spineless as Spitzer.
At the time Spitzer said he had too little time to evaluate whether the PLA was good for taxpayers. Well, it increased costs and delayed projects, which is exactly what critics of the PLA said would happen based on other PLAs. Spitzer had time – he just didn’t have the huevos to oppose the construction unions! And now he wants to be our next District Attorney. No bueno!
Spitzer has nothing to worry about. There is no viable DPOC candidate.