There is much discussion and speculation as to what Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu will do in the November election for the Orange County Board of Supervisor’s 4th District.   Because Shawn Nelson came short of the required 50% +1 vote to avoid a November run-off with the 1st runner up, the 2nd place finisher is entitled to a run-off.   Nelson beat Sidhu by 12 percentage points on June 8th, but because there were 6 candidates on the ballot he did not receive 50% of the vote.

As I blogged about before, Nelson was the official candidate of the Republican Party of Orange County, receiving more than 85% of the vote from the Central Committee for the endorsement.  The race quickly became Nelson and the GOP versus the public employee unions.  The local unions abandoned their officially endorsed candidate for Sheriff, Bill Hunt, and shifted their focus to Sidhu pouring in well over a million dollars of independent expenditures puffing him up.  Going into November, speculation is that the unions will direct their funds elsewhere with many more races  to be involved in.  Without the support of Harry’s biggest cheerleaders, it begs the question, will he run a hard race alone?

The Orange County Register reported that Sidhu intends to keep running, commenting to the Total Buzz that “money is not an object” in his vow to continue his race.   For readers who may not know, Harry is a wealthy entrepreneur who owns multiple Burger King and El Pollo Loco franchises.  He resides in a large house in the Yorba Estate in Anaheim Hills (ironically outside the 4th Supervisorial District.)  So without union financial support, Harry could still use personal funds to continue his campaign.  Going forward Nelson will have the clear advantage of incumbency and the ability to raise much more money from that position.  That advantage puts Harry in a difficult and expensive position to be in.

The Total Buzz article mentioned was published on June 9th, the day after Harry lost the special election.  He also commented to the Buzz that “I’m a fighter…I’ve always been a good fighter, and I believe that this is so close – 5,000 votes short – that it’s absolutely winnable. I truly believe I will win in November.”  The only problem is that Nelson’s lead has grown to well over 7,000 votes now that all the ballots have been counted.   Harry’s campaign staff has departed from his operation, and his campaign headquarters has been closed down.  So, he claims he will keep fighting…but really WWHD: What Will Harry Do?

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With only $14,733 raised, and $2,558 cash on hand as of the last financial disclosure statement, congressional challenger Christopher Scott Riggs doesn’t pose much of a threat to Congressman Ken Calvert, the eight term incumbent.  But the Democrats know that offering a primary challenge is a good way to get Republican incumbents to waste money in the primary, and put a dent in their war-chest for the general election.

Take Riggs’ situation for example.  At the end of the 2009 filing period, he had only raised $2,000 for his congressional campaign against Calvert, and with the candidate filing deadline quickly approaching, he needed $8,758 to pay his filing fees and candidate statement fee.  According to my estimates, Riggs may have had $4,875 on hand at the time, and still needed $3,883.  So how did he do it?

In step Nancy Pelosi’s business partners, Warren and Nancie Mitchell, to save the campaign.

At the last minute (on 3/8/2010, just before Riggs drops a total of $7,018 on 3/8 and 3/9/2010 for filing fees), Warren and Nancie Mitchell each contributed $2,400, the maximum allowed contribution, to Riggs’ primary campaign.  The contributions make up 38% of Riggs’ total contributions.  Warren Mitchell is the Chairman of Clean Energy Fuels Corp, Which is funded in part by Paul and Nancy Pelosi.  Unrelated, Clean Energy Fuels corp was also awarded $34 Million of DOE stimulus money, or 11% of the total funding by the DOE.

Warren and Nancie have also contributed to:

Sen Diane Feinstein (D-CA) -  $1,000
Rep John B. Larson (D-Conn) – $500
Sen Harry Reid (D-Nev) – $1,000
Sen Chris Dodd (D-Conn) – $500

So the question I have, is what interest does Nancy and Paul Pelosi’s business partners have in this race?

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If you’re a reader of the Red County blog, and follow especially the Orange County page, you’ve seen plenty of banter today about the results of last night’s OC GOP Central Committee.   Obviously the three most talked about endorsements were also the most contested.   The committee made endorsements without objection on the Clerk Recorder, Assessor, OC School Board and judge race that was considered.   The real fireworks came with the contested endorsement considerations of the 4th Supervisorial District, the Treasurer/Tax Collector and the Sheriff’s race.

After a guest speaker from LA County the meeting got started off with a debate between the two main GOP candidates vying to replace Chris Norby on the Board of Supervisors.  Fullerton Councilman Shawn Nelson and Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu debated for approximately a half hour.  The debate included no personal attacks and was moderated by Chairman Scott Baugh.  The debate went very smoothly and included thoughtful questions relevant to the issues the incoming Supervisor will have to face.   Sidhu focused on his story of succeeding in business as an immigrant and his desire to see changes made in government.  Nelson had a more homey message, outlining his life in the district and really hit a home run when driving home the point that he has taken on member of his own party to deliver responsible policies those who elected him.   Sidhu seemed to get tripped up on the question poised about his position on defined contribution vs. defined benefit contributions for union employees.  His answer was not clear and confused members of the committee.

Following the debate the committee took up a motion for an endorsement of Nelson.    Each side of the motion was allowed 3 speakers.  The Pro-Nelson side featured Chris Norby aide Bruce Whitaker, Long-time Central Committee member and activist Marcia Gilchrist and activist Tim Whitacre.  Those speaking against the endorsement only featured two members willing to speak.  Chairman Baugh then called for a voice vote on the motion and from what it sounded Nelson had the endorsement.  However, opposition to the motion had a right to see a standing vote.  Once the vote took place, it was very clear, the committee overwhelming supported Nelson.  The final tally was reported being 47-8 in favor of the endorsement.

The anti-Nelson movement has been active in their comments in the blogsphere the past 24 hours.  Several commenters have griped that 8 new alternates were sworn-in before the meeting.  What they fail to mention is that when committee members can’t make a meeting, especially a meeting including major endorsement votes, the members routinely appoint an alternate in order for their vote to be counted.  An interesting note was that Harry Sidhu was in the front of the room when the new members were being sworn in.  This makes me if Harry himself was being sworn in, and now his people are complaining that new members were being sworn in!   Another interesting side-note from my observation was that almost, if not every, member of the 60th and 72nd Assembly Districts on the committee seemed to be voting for Nelson.  Those two districts overlap the 4th Supervisorial District more than any other, clearly Nelson was not only the committee favorite, but also the local favorite.   Later in the meeting, it appeared that many voting members of the committee had either left the room or were standing in the back, once this had occurred there was an attempt to revisit the endorsement.  That motion was called out of order and dismissed.   Once the dust settled it was clear, Nelson was endorsed by an overwhelming majority.

Following that endorsement the party took up votes for two more local races.  The consensus in the room could be made that there wasn’t much support for Sandra Hutchens, so with that in mind Craig Hunter rolled the dice to try to garner an endorsement.  Failing to get even a majority, Hunter’s endorsement push was then dismissed.  The Bill Hunt loyalist in the room clearly did not want to have Hunter be the standard bearer for the OC GOP pick for Sheriff.  One thing does remain clear though, the committee members do not particularly like Hutchens either.  Expect to see a resolution debated on next month expressing lack of support for Sandra Hutchens.

The last endorsement considered was for Shari Freidenrich, running for Treasurer/Tax Collector.  In a four-way race an endorsement was unlikely even if she was the only person being considered.   I spotted three of the candidates, Freidenrich, Rodenhuis and Lang, at the meeting working the room.  Ultimately no candidate was endorsed at all.

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This just dropped in my In box from Tom Harman for Attorney General Campaign. If viewed widely this video should destroy any chance Cooley has at winning the Republican nomination for Attorney General.

From Tom Harman for Attorney General:

Sacramento, CA – In a new video posted on Vimeo this week by USC law professor Jody Armour, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley spends much of a 63-minute interview attacking California’s Three-Strikes law, as well as “Jessica’s Law.” The video of an interview at the Univeristy of Southern California’s Unruh Institute of Politics on October 23, 2009 captures Cooley railing against Jessica’s law, blaming on “Republican ideologues.” He then advises the audience if they want to pass a law in California to “name it after a female.”

The event was titled: Crime, Punishment & Rehabilitation: The Politics & Policy of California’s Prisons and featured Cooley, former Assemblyman Pat Nolan and Armour.

“Earlier this week a Cooley spokesperson tried to tell a leading news agency that he never took a position on Jessica’s Law. Well this certainly sounds like a clear position to me,” noted Harman campaign strategist Tim Rosales.

Steve Cooley has continually shown contempt for Republican voters and tough-on-crime laws like Jessica’s Law and Three Strikes. As this video makes abundantly clear, “his liberal positions on the issues put him far out of the mainstream, not only of Republican Primary voters, but of the 70% majority of all Californians who voted for Jessica’s Law,” said Rosales. Jessica’s Law protects Californians from violent sexual predators.

“Californians have a better choice for Attorney General,” concluded Rosales. Tom Harman brings over 40 years of legal experience to the job, supports Three Strikes and Jessica’s Law and is the author of legislation to streamline the death penalty.” In February, 2010 Harman was named Crime Victim United’s “Legislator of the Year.”

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Patrick Ruffini, noted and syndicated conservative blogger, had a quite entertaining tweet yesterday, it read:

“Carly Fiorina’s Facebook page is still defaulting to show “fan” posts. Not the best move, in her case. http://bit.ly/bvSOsG”

Apparently Carly doesn’t have as many “fans” as she would like.  On the page, if you subtract Carly’s own posts, the majority of the comments on her wall are calling her a RINO and are people disgusted with her.  It seems everyone is ready to put the failed presidential candidate, John McCain, and his cronies out to pasture and move forward with a real brand of conservatism.  Let’s see how long her wall on facebook is “public”….her overpaid media consultants are probably flipping coins on deciding whether to make her page private or not…either way, they will be hit.  In the spirit of baseball season, all I can say is.: “SWING and a miss Carly.”  Lets just hope she continues to vote after she’s defeated.  That is a tough task for her.

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The California Republican Assembly (CRA) has earned the reputation of being the premiere grassroots conservative apparatus of the California Republican Party.  As an officially sanctioned organization by the Republican Party the CRA endorsement is something highly sought after, especially in solid conservative seats.  Endorsement meetings often pit two or three candidates against each other to try to convince delegates who deserves their votes for an endorsement.  If no candidate receives an endorsement after round one, they continue into two more rounds of voting, often creating vote whipping exercises in between.

Even in more difficult seats for a Republican candidate the CRA endorsement is important, and highly sought after.  Thus was the case two weeks ago when Assemblyman Van Tran won the CRA endorsement in Orange County, causing his GOP opponent to cry foul.  However CRA Statewide President Ken Mettler released this statement today to assert the legitimacy of the CRA endorsement of Van Tran in his race against Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez:

VAN TRAN HAS EARNED THE CRA ENDORSEMENT

Candidates that participate in a CRA Endorsing Convention often ask for an appeal based on procedural matters, but after an extensive review, it is clear that Van Tran won the CRA endorsement for the Republican nomination in the 47th Congressional District on February 20th, 2010, in Costa Mesa, CA, by a 2 to 1 margin under every possible scenario.

JUST THE FACTS:

1. The standing vote required Mr. Tran to have at least 16 votes – he had 17.

2. If for some reason the vote from one of the Stanton CRA Unit delegates, Paul Hegyi, could be disqualified, the 2/3 threshold would have been 15 votes and Mr. Tran would
have still won the endorsement with 16 votes.

3. Lastly, even IF the Stanton unit would have not been permitted to vote, Mr. Tran still would have won the endorsement as the 2/3 threshold would have been 13
votes. Mr. Tran received 13 votes from among the 4 remaining Units voting, as there were only 4 votes from Stanton to begin with.

Anyway you look at this race, Mr. Tran rightfully and honestly won the CRA endorsement over Quang Pham, the other Republican candidate.

“Assemblyman Van Tran reflects our conservative Republican values and is the best man to represent the 47th Congressional District. We need Van Tran in Congress and the CRA is proud to give him our endorsement,” stated Ken Mettler, CRA President.“

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For the past week I have been trying to think of a reasonable defense for a candidate for any office to refuse to appear in a debate or at least a campaign forum.  If you’ve frequented the Flash Report (www.flashreport.org) you may have read that by a 10-1 margin members of the California Republican Party want to see a debate for key statewide races at the convention next month.  It seems however, that two of the major candidates are responsible for holding these debates up.

The two candidates who are bending over backwards to avoid a debate and actively trying to shut down an effort to organize a debate?  Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.  Apparently the dynamic duo who have been MIA at the polls until recently apparently have no eager desire to join in another cherished part of the American democracy…discussing and comparing ideas with your opponents!

Steve Poizner responded to the “debate or not debate” question by offering t surrender his slated speaking appearance at the CRP Convention to make room for a debate with Whitman.  To up the ante a little more the Poizner Campaign sent out an email today uging voters to sign a petition to have a debate at the CRP Convention.   You can find the petition here:

http://stevepoizner.com/debate-petition/?tr=y&auid=5959384

From the looks of it Whitman has not offered much of an explanation other than she doesn’t want to debate.

Similarly the other diva making their political debut, Carly Fiorina is dancing around the same issue.  Fiorina however, is a multi-talented debate dodger.  Everyone’s favorite failed CEO is not only dodging the CRP debate, she is now refusing to attend a debate that was being organized by Chapman University.  Clearly the organizers of the Orange County debate aren’t too please with Ms. Fiorina either, this scuffle was chronicled in today’s OC Register Total Buzz Blog:

http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2010/02/18/is-fiorina-ducking-o-c-debate/30437/

If Whitman and Fiorina are serious about representing California they should not treat interest voters as subjects.  The spirit of representative democracy finds its soul in an open disscussion of ideas by those who hold and seek power.  Carly and Meg should repect this tradition. Their refusal to debate sadly is not surprising, but what should we expect from candidates who have just recently figured out how to vote, only to ask for ours a few years later?

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This is fresh from a caucus meeting this afternoon – and about two hours old.

Read here for more

Martin Garrick is in his first day as leader and he takes a faceplant right out of the gate. No wonder the Tea Party out polls the Republican Party…

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If you’re a Republican – here’s a list of don’t do’s:

1. Parade around as a Conservative while nailing a lobbyist (Duvall, et al)

2. Bloviate on your blog about ethics while getting paid off by a campaign (Chip Hanlon / Matt Cunningham)

3. Ask people to put fake posts up on your behalf (Hanlon)

4. Delete posts of contributors on behalf of people you’re supporting (Cunningham)

When emailed about his hypocricy – Hanlon’s response was “you can quote me here: “Yawn”.”

That’s Red County – folks, the home of Bush-McCain-Whitman squishes…

Want the details – read my latest post on www.rightondaily.com

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If you’re entertained by politics in California, then you should have your popcorn ready watching  a few statewide races on the GOP side this past week.  Gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner lopped the first grenade of the week by holding a press conference accusing Meg Whitman of unethical, and even illegal campaign tactics.   The accusation stems from an email that was sent by a Whitman campaign official Mike Murphy directly to the Poizner campaign.  In the email Whitman’s camp urges Poizner to drop out of the race to preserve political capital that would be better spent on the US Senate in 2012.  The email also pretty blatantly vows that Meg will drop $40 million in negative expenditures against Poizner in the primary should he stay in the race.  During the press conference Poizner indicated that he was filing a complaint with the FBI, US Attorney and California State Attorney General’s Office.  Of course the irony with this complaint being filed with the AG’s office brings the 3rd major candidate, Jerry Brown, into the mess as well.

Not to be outdone entertaining us political spectators, while the Poizner was conducting his press conference, mailmen around the state were delivering complimentary signed copies of Whitman’s new book “The Power of Many” to California Republican Party members.  The reason Meg’s campaign is trying to get in the good graces of the CA GOP faithful may be because of the news on Tuesday that she wouldn’t be participating in a debate with Poizner at the coming CA GOP State Convention in March.  For those CA GOP members who didn’t appreciate the gesture from Meg, there is now a Facebook group for them to consider should desire to cash in on Meg’s gift:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=451343800471

And then there was the Demon Sheep…

This disturbing image that would make Freddie Krueger blush is brought to you by the Carly Fiorina campaign.  In her new ad she criticizes Tom Campbell for being a “F.C.I.N.O” (pronunciation still unknown).  The ad has generated a huge internet buzz, not for its substantive content, but for the ridiculous imagery.  In fact, late last night #DemonSheep became a trending topic on Twitter.  A conservative activist reportedly from North Carolina has started a twitter profile for the Demon Sheep (http://twitter.com/demonsheep) and had over 1,200 followers in under 24 hours.  The updates are actually quite hilarious.  In fact US Senate GOP rival Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s campaign has already capitalized on this buzz by vowing to eradicate Demon Sheep from our political discourse and has set up http://www.demonsheep.org to advance that objective.

This ad is incredibly embarrassing for Carly’s campaign despite the what her campaign is proclaiming.   Fiorina campaign spokeswoman Julie Soderlund acknowledged the avalanche of attention the ad has received when the National Review quoted her today:  “It has taken on a life of its own. We produced it with the intent of breaking through the clutter, but it has exceeded our expectations. It seems to be everywhere online. Some people call it the best ad ever, some say it is the worst, but everyone is talking about it.”  Really Julie?  Some are saying the best ad ever?  Apparently denial isn’t just a river in Egypt in Fiorina world.   Successful political ads usually garner attention and drive a message home, all the attention surrounding this ad has been focused almost exclusively on the bizarre “Demon Sheep.”  Furthermore, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is urging the Fiorina Campaign to make more video “preferably featuring farm animals.”  At least the Fiorina creative team received a vote of confidence from the enemy.

For those who have not seen the now famous ad, here it is:  (Warning characters in this video may cause nightmares and is not suitable for children)

Demon Sheep

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