Aaron F Park’s Voter Guide

 Voter Guide  Comments Off on Aaron F Park’s Voter Guide
Apr 302014
 

Please note that my opinions and those of the CRA may vary.

Governor: TBD (CRA endorsed Tim Donnelly)

Lt. Gov: Ron Nehring

Secretary of State: Pete Peterson

Controller: David Evans (CRA endorsed Ashley Swearengin)

Treasurer: Greg Conlon

Attorney General: TBD (CRA did not endorse)

Insurance Commissioner: Ted Gaines

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Lydia Gutierrez

BOE Dist 1: George Runner

Congressional District 1:  (It is expected that CRA will endorse Doug LaMalfa on 6/7)

Congressional District 3: Dan Logue

Congressional District 4:  (It is expected that CRA will endorse Tom McClintock on 6/7)

Congressional District 7: Igor Birman

Assembly District 1:  (It is expected that CRA will endorse Brian Dahle on 6/7)

Assembly District 2: Matthew Heath

Assembly District 3: James Gallagher

Assembly District 4: Charlie Schaupp

Assembly District 5: Frank Bigelow

Assembly District 6: Beth Gaines

Assembly District 8: Doug Haaland

Assembly District 11: Alex Henthorn

Senate District 4: Jim Nielsen

Senate District 6: Jonathan Zachariou

Placer County Supervisor District 2: Robert Weygant

Placer County Superintendent of Schools: No Recommendation

Assessor: Kristen Spears

Auditor-Controller: Andy Sisk

Clerk-Recorder-Registrar: Jim McCauley

District Attorney: R Scott Owens

Sheriff-Coroner-Marshall: Ed Bonner (recommended, not endorsed)

Treasurer-Tax Collector: Jenine Windeshausen

* Bonner is a registered Democrat with a history of endorsing Republicans and issuing CCW Permits

Prop 41 – No

Prop 42 – No

 

Apr 292014
 

… I start with a disclaimer. I am personally to the right of many tea partiers and I agree in principle with their mission. What I have seen in practice has been an unmitigated disaster.

Yesterday I wrote about the naivete and gullibility of many tea parties and their succeptibility to believing lies spread by bad operators. I am still hearing some lies that are now over 5 years old.

I hear new lies all the time about myself, the CRA, other CRA officers and the like.

There is a group that calls itself the SPAN Political Action Network. They fancied themselves as a political consulting firm that lists Dave Miller and Tim Core as the two primary officers of the group. They were prime movers behind the failed campaigns of many Tea Party California Caucus members for California Republican Party office.

Tim Core was an also-ran in the 2012 CA03 Congressional Primary. The only thing I know about Core is that he was an assistant manager at a Domino’s Pizza in Yuba City at the time he ran.

During the CA-03 campaign, I wrote in a blog about Rick Tubbs (another failed CA-03 candidate) that his wife Kristy was fodder for the Jerry Springer Show. I admitted that I lost my cool and apologized directly to Rick Tubbs for the quip. (And pulled it from the post)

In the mind of Tim Core – it turned in to the following: (From a comment left on Facebook that was sent to me)

Tim Core Park’s modus operandi is to attack the spouses and children of people he disagrees with. In 2012 he attacked my wife and children as well as the wife and children of another candidate (one of my opponents) in the CD3 race. His comments in support of a different candidate -while at the same time admitting he worked for that other candidate- caused the race to become a farce covered in mud thrown by his own hand… (SNIP)

Tim Core is lying. However, his friends in the Tea Party accept what he says at face value without challenge and repeat the lie.

Here are a few things to consider – I don’t know Tim Core’s Wife’s name, I don’t know how many kids Tim has, I don’t know how many Kids Rick and Kristy Tubbs have, it was publicly disclosed and common knowledge I was on the payroll of another candidate in CA-03.

How in God’s green Earth could I “attack” someone’s wife and kids when I neither know their names or how many kids there are to attack!? I’m sorry – the facts don’t matter here to Mr. Core or those that listen to him.

It appears Mr. Core is bitter because Kim Vann became the GOP Nominee and outperformed many other GOP candidates coming within 7 of Garamendi despite a 10% differential and the Obama wave.

I have discovered that Tim Core has repeated this lie about me attacking his wife and kids (or versions of it) many times.

This is similar to a lie people in the Placer Tea Party accusing me of recruiting Art Moore to run against Tom McClintock. It traveled all over the state, I am sure some still believe it as well…

The double-standard of conduct by Tim Core is underlined in its’ absurdity over the way the SPAN Network fired Rodney Stanhope over his conduct while helping destroy the Congressional Campaign of a Matt Jenkins in Alabama.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Strategic Political Action Network (SPAN) has officially terminated our relationship with Rodney Stanhope. Mr. Stanhope had been working as the Senior Campaigns Coordinator until yesterday. Mr. Stanhope’s actions and statements, made while working with the Matt Jenkins For Congress campaign, were extremely unprofessional and uncalled for. It is unconscionable that Mr. Stanhope took to Social Media and attacked the voters of Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. Though we had no control over Mr. Stanhope’s actions SPAN feels the need to offer our sincerest apologies to all of those that were offended as well as Matt Jenkins, his family, and the rest of his Campaign Staff. Mr. Stanhope’s actions in no way reflect the high level of professionalism that SPAN strives to achieve in all of our dealings. Due to Mr. Stanhope’s actions SPAN has instituted new policies to insure that an instance such as this will never happen again with one of our contracted Campaign Managers.

Dave Miller President

Timothy Core Vice President of Operations

In a perfect world – so-called Tea Party groups would hold themsevles to the same standards of conduct they demand out of candidates. The public reason they used to fire Stanhope was that he posted a video clip on facebook tearing in to “Christian Conservatives” for taking issue with Jenkins’ soft-liberal social stances.

Tim Core I thought people had learned to ignore the man. He is a despicable human being which is why he earned the title : His Royal Douche-Nozzliness, the Crown Prince of Dumbfuckistan, Aaron “I really really want to be Magnum PI” Park.

Then, I got the above comment forwarded to me and realized I may well have wasted my time writing this post. I am sure I will go to my grave with people I have never met or talked to believing stories they either make up or got from third parties.

… but then, it hit me. Someone attacked my wife anonymously in a very long and vicious blog post directed at her and not me. The nature of it suggested someone with a personal vendetta. Even at that an attack like that requires you to have some sort of justification in your own mind. Seeing Tim Core’s comment and fully understanding the lie for the first time – It connected for me.

… and now I realize what electeds go through every day of their life, and I understand a lot better the psychology of some of them.

It is sad, the Tea Party could have been a great thing for America. What I have seen is a movement that appears to crave anarchy and un-vetted candidates that cost the GOP winnable elections time and again.

Yes, I have met many good people in the Tea Party, but they are outnumbered.

The term Tea Party is a big negative in polls, and the Tea Party members (most, anyway, not all) are about the only ones that don’t realize it.

Apr 282014
 

You’ve heard of them – America Deserves Better PAC, Conservative Campaign Committee, Campaign to defeat Barack Obama, The Tea Party Express, The Tea Party Leadership Fund and the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.

The MSM has finally picked up on it. The story, that I believe is designed to discredit the Tea Party itself, is devastating.

Quoting the story:

Three well-known groups — the Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party Express and the Madison Project — have spent 5 percent or less of their money directly on election-related activity during this election cycle. Two other prominent tea party groups, the Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks, have devoted about 40 percent of their money to direct candidate support such as ads and yard signs.

On average, super PACs had spent 64 percent of their funds on directly helping candidates by roughly this stage in the 2012 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data.

I have long been suspicious of the Tea Party Express and their offshoots – the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, the Conservative Campaign Committee and America Deserves Better PAC. I have looked through their reports myself and have seen that 60-70% of the money raised is not going in to campaigning.

But of the $7.4 million that the Georgia-based group’s super PAC has spent since the beginning of 2013, just $184,505 has gone to boost candidates, The Post found. Three-quarters of the spending by the Citizens Fund — $5.5 million — has been devoted to fundraising and direct mail.

This was referring to the Tea Party Patriots, and continues on about Jenny Beth Martin.

Jenny Beth Martin, the super PAC’s chairwoman, oversees all its expenditures, according to Broughton, meaning she sets her own $15,000 monthly fee for strategic consulting — payments that have totaled $120,000 since July.

She also draws a salary as president of the Tea Party Patriots’ nonprofit arm — getting more than $272,000 in the 2012 fiscal year, according to the group’s most recent tax filing.

Her twin salaries put her on track to make more than $450,000 this year, a dramatic change in lifestyle for the tea party activist, who had filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and then cleaned homes for a period of time to bring in extra money.

As a State Officer in the California Republican Assembly – I have seen first-hand one of the internal fights within the Tea Party – when they weren’t attacking CRA.

Jenny Beth Martin has been part of the Tea Party California Caucus as well. This is a loosely associated group controlled by a couple political consultants fighting for relevance. They spend most of their time attacking the CRA, the group most closely aligned with their principles because the people attempting to control the Tea Party California Caucus want to keep control of it for themselves. A collaboration with CRA would jeopardize that.

It does not surprise me that two of the founders of the Tea Party – Ginni Rapini and Mark Meckler split away from Jenny Beth Martin, Ken Campbell and the others on the national board a couple years ago. The locus of the fight was the monetization of the Tea Party.

While I have issues with Rapini – they are not issues of integrity. Rappini has chosen to believe things told to her about CRA officers without question that is an issue with Naivete. I’ve still never met her in person.

However, Jenny Beth Martin has proven to me through her actions that she is a charlatan. No true conservative that was a cause conservative would attack CRA or try to wedge the Tea Party against other conservative groups. Only people that crave control engage in that behavior.

The main thrust of article talks about how the “Tea Party” has gone professional.

I have written many times that the Tea Party I have seen wants anarchy in the political process and a small group of slick-talking charlatans prey on the Naivete and Anger of groups of people for power and profit. Ironically, this is the reason why many in the Tea Party joined a local Tea Party, because they felt used.

Worse, when many in the Tea Party find out they have been used or have made an error in judgement, in their self-righteous arrogance, they double down on the failure until they are marginalized. I am witnessing this in my own county and in various places in the North State.

Sometimes this attitude manifests in a plethora of horrific endorsements of candidates that sometimes make national headlines for their stupidity.

It is the dynamic of anarchy, lack of wisdom, lack of discernment and the proliferation of charlatans that has the words “Tea Party” upside down badly in name ID polling.

It is a tragedy – because as a state officer in the CRA, I see it clearly. I joined CRA 17 years ago for almost the exact same reasons many join Tea Parties today. I don’t oppose the Tea Party per ce’, rather I oppose the Tea Party I have seen first hand.

And Jenny Beth Martin is the poster child.

Never Ever Give to a PAC, unless you know the members of the PAC Board of Directors and know the track record of how the money is spent. Give directly to a candidate.

The Tea Party Express, a PAC run out of Sacramento by longtime Republican consultant Sal Russo, has paid Russo’s firm $2.75 million since the beginning of 2013, while donating just $45,000 to candidates and spending less than $162,000 on ads and bus tours supporting their election.

Apr 282014
 

John Hrabe at the Cal Newsroom just blew up Tim Donnelly.

In contrast to his carefully-crafted image as a supporter of free market capitalism and individual liberty, Donnelly’s position on redevelopment not only puts him at odds with the Tea Party, but makes him with the most “socialist” candidate in the area of property rights.

And – this is just the start of the column.

Then add the muscle that Neel Kashkari added to today:

Mitt Romney and Darrell Issa endorse Neel Kashkari

The Mitt Romney endorsement matters a ton to me, this is a big deal. I really believed in and believe in Mitt Romney and hope he runs for President again in 2016.

I am starting to wonder if suddenly we have a race here.

Apr 262014
 

As you all know, the CRA endorsed Tim Donnelly. I am also a Vice President of CRA. I write this as an individual, not representing the CRA.

Neel Kashkari is the only other GOP candidate with money, he is a social liberal who I have met in person. I like Neel as a person, he is an articulate man and very engaging.

Tim Donnelly is earnest and very socially awkward. Donnelly has been busting his tail campaigning the old fashioned way. Donnelly has an empassioned army, many from the fringes of the political movement who have found a rally point.

I have told many people that I am torn.

I have serious reservations about Donnelly with regard to whether he helps or hurts the GOP as a whole at the top of the ticket.

The media hates Tim Donnelly. They have investigated him thoroughly. The best they have come up with is a teenage altercation and a video in 2006 where Tim Donnelly is making some very strong statements about the borders and immigration.

The video in 2006 is what concerns me the most. I know Tim Donnelly is not a racist. However, there are tons of low-information voters and Jerry Brown has $20 million to spend. It is this dynamic that concerns me – especially in swing, majority dem districts in Central California and a few districts in the south with significant latino populations that we need to win / maintain.

If it was a purely ideological decision, I’d be chugging Donnelly Kool-Aid by the gallon.

Then, I look at the departure of Jennifer Kerns.

I look at the gun in the airport incident, and even before that some of the grumblings in the capitol about Tim Donnelly being a lone-ranger.

Is a lone-ranger that got caught with a gun in the airport good for the GOP? What about the Video from 2006?

Then, I look at the departure of Alex Vassar and the grumblings in the Capitol about the circumstances surrounding it.

Then the FPPC Complaint filed against Tim Donnelly does not look so ridiculous after all.

Is Tim Donnelly running for liberty to establish a self-exemption from the rules?

Then, recently – I found out that Tim Donnelly has been paying a deadbeat dad with a record as long as my arm of legal trouble for campaign work.

Actually, the payments went to his wife – because it appears any money Rodney Stanhope gets will be garnished to pay back child support or tax liens.

One page 287 of the 2013 Donnelly report is a payment of $781.20 to Sara Pace Stanhope and on Page 144 of the 3-17-2014 Donnelly report is a payment of $1554.81 to Space Promotions, a company set up in Sarah’s name that past payments for Rodney’s political work have been made to.

There is a pattern here. It keeps getting worse, not better. I am wondering what’s next.