The OC Weekly had a fascinating article about some political machinations in the 2014 election. Let me write it in crayon, this post is not about Jeff Lalloway, who benefited from the Independent Expenditure. This is about #epicfails of Orange County GOP Leadership.
Lesson 1. Rules in the Orange County Political Elite are selectively enforced:
According to records at the Secretary of State’s office, the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association contributed $5,000 to the California Taxpayer Protection Committee on October 22, 2014, the same day the group reported spending $42,914 on independent expenditures for Lalloway.
Emails obtained by the Weekly also show that Lalloway, an appointed Orange County Fire Authority board member, told Jon Fleischman, a prominent Republican activist who managed the political action committee, that the firefighters had endorsed his candidacy.
Fleischman, who has made no secret of his loathing of public employee unions over the years, then contacted Tony Bedolla, a longtime firefighter’s union boss, for a contribution and supportive quote to be included in election literature.
Scott Baugh, he of the recent self-aggrandizing betrayal of Don Wagner gave the famous edict that is known as the “Baugh Manifesto” – this was thou shalt never, ever take money from or accept the support of Labor Unions. But his errand boy was right there with his hand out for said help. Whoops.
Don Wagner gets help from Unions, Bad. Other candidate (who is on the OC Cent Com) gets help from Unions. Crickets.
Lesson 2. Political Incest.
The CRA’s Pol-Pot Bellied Information Minister, Thomas N Hudson and AD55 Candidate (and former CRA President) Mike Spence are both publicly affiliated with the California Taxpayer Protection Committee and have been for years. Cozy.
Do you ever wonder why I am projecting a CRA endorsement of Spence in AD55? I am sure, of course there will be a nice “un-coordinated” independent expenditure as well. I wonder if Mr. Anti-Union Flash will run it.
Further quoting Moxley:
Fleischman did not respond to questions for this story.
Lesson 3. Money Only Matters When They Get Some of It.
(Fleischman’s PAC also made 2014 expenditures for Republican candidates Matt Harper in Huntington Beach ($5,179) and Scott Peotter in Newport Beach ($3,000), according to campaign finance records.)
Scott Baugh minimized the role of Don Wagner’s hundreds of thousands of dollars raised and given to Republican Candidates at the Orange County GOP meeting where they rammed down an endorsement of the unpopular and troubled Big Government John Moorlach. I have been looking for answers beyond the base self-serving political betrayal angle. Perhaps Mr. Baugh may have felt differently if Don Wagner had cut a check to the fraudulent shell group known as the California Taxpayer Protection Committee? (it should be called the California Taxpayer Protection Racket, but I digress)
Lesson 4. It is still about defending and protecting failure.
Never, ever support a challenger, ever lest we set a precedent for someone to challenge us. This is base human nature and a cold hard fact. This is also a symptom of moral bankruptcy when the same group supported a liberal Democrat who conveniently re-registered as a Republican in order to run for OC Sheriff. She is hostile at best to gun owners. Get this – John Moorlach even defended Mike Corona whose replacement these people thought they could control the selection of:
At it’s enactment, many of the GOP faithful praised the move, while others saw it as a hamfisted way to harm a single, 2010 candidate, Bill Hunt, a veteran deputy seeking to replace Baugh-backed Mike Carona, who was convicted of corruption and sent to federal prison for more than six years, as sheriff.
Hunt is a Republican–a very conservative one, in fact–but he is also fiercely independent, a trait party bosses abhor. The Baugh Manifesto went into effect while Hunt, a veteran sheriff’s deputy and former chief of police in San Clemente, was favored by the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, whose coffers have influenced elections for decades in the county. Sandra Hutchens, a Los Angeles Democrat turned OC Republican, won that election and remains in office.
A gun-grabbing Orange County Sheriff was the beneficiary of the famous OC Central Committee rule about Labor Union Money. Ouch.
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