CA-10 Update: Handicapping the Three Republican Contestants

 2020 Elections, CA-10 Race, Ted Howze  No Responses »
Jul 312019
 

Bob Elliott is 70. He will be 72 within weeks of taking office. Even with the advances of modern medicine and increasing longevity (until Obama took office that is), 70 is still 70.

CA-10 is a Targeted Seat that is Dem +3.6% in Registration with a whopping 24.6% Independent Vote. This will never be an easy seat for anyone that lives in it. This means that the incumbent congressman will be under pressure to be back in his district as often as possible. Can a 72 year old man endure the physical drain of flying 3300 miles and three time zones twice a week for months on end? I’m 48 and I shudder to think about that in my own circumstance.

Elliott also has limited resources in his campaign account – most are rollovers from his Supervisor or State Senate Account. Will Elliott be able to raise any more money or support or has he peaked?

Bob Elliott’s primary resume is his service as a San Joaquin County Supervisor. CA-10 lists only 25% of its’ voter universe in San Joaquin County.

Mr. Elliott also has a problem with the demographics of CA-10, CA-10 is 42% Latino. While Latinos are not guaranteed to discriminate against White Candidates, (see also Andy Vidak) consider that a disproportionate amount of Latinos are under 40 (heck, under 30). It has been my observation that people will vote for their father, but not their Grandfather making it a net negative for Mr. Elliott.

Even the lilly white AD-73 has a similar problem with 71 Year old Ed Sachs vetting a run against the embattled and scandal-marred Bill Brough. Unless Sachs has $1,000,000 to spend (and Ana Bryson did when she lost to Brough in the original tilt) or Bob Elliott has $1MM to make up for the glaring presentation weakness, it is a problem.

Elliott’s Facebook Page has 199 likes and he has yet to set up a website, thus suggesting that he may also not be tech savvy.

Ted Howze is 51. Thus, his age is less of an issue. Howze has also been a veterinarian in the district for many years which will give him connection to the voters in Stanislaus County (75% of the electorate).

Howze has 4+ times the resources as Mr. Elliott. It has been put to me that Mr. Howze has the ability to spend nearly limitless resources on his campaign. This will neutralize one of Josh Harder’s key strengths as Harder is almost 100% funded by PAC’s and Special Interests despite his pledge not to be beholden to them.

The third Republican candidate Marla Livengood, a lobbyist, somehow has less than $30,000 in her campaign. I am seriously not sure why she is still running for congress.

The tale of the tape in CA-10 is as follows:

Josh Harder democrat incumbent, age 35 puppet of Nancy Pelosi, Jarrod Nadler, Elijah Cummings – #1 Fundraiser of the vulnerable democrats.

CA-10: 42% Latino, Registration: 36.7% Dem, 33.1% Rep and a whopping 24.6% DTS.

Bob Elliott, has about $140K in the Bank, Age 70.

Ted Howze, has $675K in the Bank, Age 51.

Marla Livengood, has $30K in the Bank. Age 39.

This is one of the cases where the most conservative candidate (Howze) may well be the most viable candidate in the race. I think by any objective measure as a Republican that Ted Howze is the choice.

AD-73 Update – Bill Brough, Drunk? Living Off of His Campaign Account? 5 Female Victims?

 2020 Elections, Bill Brough  No Responses »
Jul 292019
 
As of today, despite the mounting list of issues with Bill Brough, the Orange County Republican Party leadership has done nothing other than a milquetoast comment and a bunch of no comments. Could there be a connection between this refusal to lead and the thousands of dollars Mr. Brough has donated to the OCGOP? It is a fair question.

On Monday 6-17-2019, Lisa Bartlett, a Supervisor told her spellbinding story to an audience that sat in stunned silence about Bill Brough’s Harassment and unwanted advances toward her.

Rather, OC Supervisor Lisa Bartlett spoke out forcefully against endorsing Bill Brough to a stunned audience. She detailed in graphic terms the incident of Sexual Assault/Harassment that she personally endured at the hands of Mr. Brough.

It is clear to this blogger that Brough has had enablers covering for him for years. It is also clear that Brough has had a litany of issues related to intoxication and his out of control behavior that occurs once intoxicated. Sans proof (aka the victims talking to me, or documented evidence of criminal/civil proceedings) I’ve stayed quiet.

The OC GOP sat in stunned silence as Lisa Bartlett opened up publicly for the first time about the alleged incident that was widely known but never confirmed by Mrs. Bartlett. The stunned committee voted Unanimously (save one holdout) to refer Brough’s endorsement to the endorsement committee for a “Closed Door Investigation”.

This story was broken on the Right on Daily Blog 40 hours later despite attempts by the OCGOP Leadership to “Keep it in the Family”.

Against Assemblymember Bill Brough, at least two more alleged victims have come forward to your intrepid blogger regarding their stories. This brings us to a total of three women that your intrepid blogger is aware of. (as of 6-20-2019) I have yet to meet the person that filed the claim with the assembly rule committee that appears to have been stuffed. Right On Daily wrote about a female victim that was later quoted in the Los Angeles Times.

That story was written here on 6-20-2019 several days before the LA Times.

In May of 2018, Bill Brough lied to my face, denying the existence of an Assembly Rules Committee Complaint when I asked him about it. He also appears to have lied to several other political leaders in the area in denying the existence of an Assembly Rules Committee Complaint – even as the feckless Fred Whitaker is trying to figure out how to maintain the incumbent protection plan.

On 6-21-2019 The Orange County Register weighed in, quoting Right on Daily as a source. They also got bill Brough to confirm the existence of at least one complaint to the Assembly Rules Committee by a female victim. (We now know there were at least 2 more).

6-24-2019: The Sacramento Bee and the Voice of OC joined the chorus.

Then on 6-26-2019, Right On Daily began an investigation of Bill Brough’s campaign finance records. We learned that his portable bar (called a Burbon Barrel) appears to have been paid for with campaign funds.

We also learned that the embedded picture corresponds to a family trip paid for by the campaign account to a RedSox game.

Once the shock wore off regarding such blatant abuses of his donors, we dug further.

We highlighted a sampling of what appears to be a string of luxury dining engagements paid for at donor expense:

$1800 to the Capitol Grille.

$1200 to Mastro’s Steakhouse.

Both events claim 3-4 attendees.

$2360.80 to El Niguel Country Club for what turns out to be a retirement party for a former Chief of Staff that used to live with Brough in his Sacramento apartment. (That is affectionately referred to as Brough’s Rager Pad)

Is Bill Brough covering up other personal expenses in these blatantly large payments?

Then we detailed $13,400 in payments to Verizon Wireless, suggesting that Bill Brough has straight out been paying his families’ phone bill with his campaign funds.

In addition to the previous revelation about the “Burbon Barrel” we learned that Brough may well have purchased a Cigar Humidor and hundreds of dollars worth of cigars with campaign funds as well.

We could very well have a second Duncan Hunter type scandal in the ranks of the GOP legislators in Southern California.

Meantime, our investigation shows Brough has written several checks to the Orange County Republican Party. We Challenged the leadership of the OC GOP over why they are refusing to protect women, including volunteers and political staffers (let alone Lisa Bartlett who is a Supervisor), preferring instead to say No Comment. The LA Times story detailing several sordid stories was replete with cowards in local government in Orange County that refused comment as well. Cowardice enables evil, this has been a pattern throughout history.

We now know that Brough may have dozens of campaign finance violations. Some may well be crimes as well.

We have two women on the record with their incidents of harassment, which include physical confrontation.

We have three more women (one of whom talked to your intrepid blogger several days before the LA Times) who are known to have filed complaints regarding Brough’s actions.

The incidents are at different times in different places and have corroboration.

Yet, Fred Whitaker and the OCGOP Leadership are enabling Bill Brough by doing nothing… Is Fred Whitaker just a coward or has his silence been bought? The Rank and File OCGOP Member should call for and vote for Fred Whitaker’s removal along with that of Bill Brough.

… to be continued.

CAGOP Update: Oligarchy of Controlled Failure in Complete Control of Everything CAGOP, Platform Drafting Update, and Meet the Man Behind the Curtain

 2020 Elections, California Republican Party  1 Response »
Jul 272019
 

Get to know David Stafford Reade he is the man behind the curtain. Based on 6 leaks of information from 6 sources inside the leadership of the CAGOP we can give you some updates.

The California Republican Party has $1,000,000 in its’ State Account. Before Celebrating too much, about half of that is new money. The Democrats have about $12 Million. One of the top issues used against Travis Allen and Steve Frank was fundraising, it appears that Jessica is doing about as good as Travis Allen would have done. To her credit, she has had dozens of meetings – at least 15 of which I have been briefed on in detail.

The CAGOP has only 98K in net cash in its’ Federal Account. The CADEMS have a ton and more coming in daily. The Fall Convention will be used (completely legally and ethically by the way) as a vehicle to boost the terrible Federal number. Remember, the CAGOP needs about 1 federal dollar per 2-3 state dollars spent with which to operate.

Grade: C- with room for improvement – Jessica Patterson has raised money. (She has had a lot of help doing so, but the only metric to judge by are the results) The people helping Jessica were also committed to making sure Steve Frank or Travis Allen failed should one of them have upset Jessica for Chair of the CAGOP. They may yet fail even though they imposed their will on the Feb 2019 elections of CAGOP officers. (I was told by three people “Leadership” was texting people to elect Peter Kuo over Corrin Rankin on the convention floor)

Platform Drafting Committee: It is clear that David Stafford Reade was in total control of the process. He attempted to choke off the flow of information, but your intrepid blogger knew about three weeks ago that the outcome was being orchestrated and how it was being orchestrated. David Reade is phenomenal at creating proxies, fake groups or controlled groups within micro-universes in order to produce an outcome. I’ve seen him control county parties, volunteer groups and the like for years. He applied this skill to near perfection in the platform drill.

It is clear that Reade (who is Jessica Patterson’s political and campaign manager) directed Patterson to steer clear of taking a public position on the outcome of the platform as the would-be platform destroyers clearly outnumbered the conservatives on the committee. At the end of the day, fealty to their paychecks kept the platform committee from making anything other than minor changes to the CAGOP Platform. (See also consultants and staffers – a subset of the oligarchy of controlled failure)

I Give David Stafford Reade a Grade of A on the Platform Drill – from a pure operative / paid political hack paradigm, he did exactly what he needed to do. He controlled an outcome, kept his client out of the line of fire and helped prevent an all-out war at the coming convention. While I know David Reade to be a Conservative at his core, I am not so naive to believe his intervention in keeping people like Deborah Wilder from pulling the Pro-Life and Pro-Family planks from the platform was rooted in anything other than the political calculation of keeping the peace. He still gets credit for doing the right thing ideologically even if for political, not moral reasons.

I give Jessica Patterson an D on the Platform Drill. She failed to take a public stand. We deserve leadership and similar to her avoiding the AD-73 and CA-50 Issues, she missed the boat on the platform drill. She gets a D instead of an F because she hired David Stafford Reade who made sure a war was avoided over the disposition of the platform.

Jessica Patterson announced her committee appointments. I will post the list at a time that suits me if challenged, and may yet do a full expose’ on the lists. 90% of the people on the lists are not conservative activists. A Conservative Activist is defined by your intrepid blogger as an ideological conservative whose opinions and stances on things CAGOP are not controlled or influenced by a paycheck. Over half the committee members are outright moderate-liberal GOP-ers and an additional 35ish % are staffers/consultants. An additional 10% are people I know to be conservative but are under the sway or influence of the oligarchy of controlled failure.

One of the sharpest criticisms I leveled at Mrs. Patterson pre-CAGOP Chair election was that she’d hand over total control of the CAGOP to the shrinking coven of consultants and electeds. She has done just that, and it appears when these people controlled who the delegates to the party were this was the expected outcome. Travis Allen was right, Steve Frank was right, period.

It has been made clear to me repeatedly that David Stafford Reade was involved heavily in the outcome of the committee assignments. This is consistent with a paradigm of control and use only your own people. This is a classic 1990’s era consultant move. It also ensures more of the same outcomes as new blood is shunned in favor of familiar names and faces.

David Stafford Reade: Grade A – from the pure Consultant’s Paradigm, again he did his job and the bidding of those paying him. For that he deserves credit.

Jessica Patterson: Grade F – The composition of the committees is homogeneously dominated by moderates/consultants. This is not healthy for any organization at all, but this is what “leadership” wanted because they are incapable of pivoting off of failure. Patterson is a by-product of them. It is what it is.

The results of the last two days of the CAGOP’s meetings is the definition of the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure. You can expect more of the same in 2020. I wish I was having to walk back more than my previous criticism of the fundraising, and was making more positive comments about the direction and leadership – but I can’t at this time.

I can’t even celebrate that the 2019 Platform is going to be a good platform. It really means nothing as those in charge appear to have doubled down on failure.

Your intrepid blogger will continue getting leaks and will continue filtering them to protect the brave people talking to me despite fears of retaliation. The goal here is to keep the Travis Allen and Steve Frank supporters informed as we get attacked in the media by people like Mike Murphy and Mike Madrid and then shunned by David Reade and Jessica Patterson.

The Oligarchy of Controlled Failure is in complete control and there are no conservative straw men left (they ran them all out) to blame for what’s coming in 2020.

Tea Party Ripoff Update: Tea Party Express / Move America Forward PAC / Non-Profit is Getting Sued

 Move America Forward PAC, Tea Party, Xavier Becerra  No Responses »
Jul 242019
 

I have never been a fan of the Tea Party Express. It has always been my opinion that it is a scam and a handful of political consultants and minor Conservative Pundits have gotten rich off of it. Their most memorable political stunt was ginning up thousands of people to descend on Searchlight Nevada when Harry Reid was Senate Majority Leader.

From time to time there have been articles written about PACs and how they spend 90% or more of their funds on Salaries, etc. The Tea Party Express and Move America Forward PAC (pretty much the same group) are two such PACs that have been similarly assailed.

One of the reasons for my disdain of the Tea Party has been the existence of leeches like these and no willingness within the movement to police itself. (See also Antifa and others on the left that arose out of the netroots)

Any simple research will reveal that the Tea Party movement has splintered in to several pieces and a whole lot of people have gotten rich off of it.

It appears that the founders of the The Tea Party Express and Move America Forward PAC’s had a non-profit they were using as a front (my opinion) to make even more money off of “supporting the troops”. Because Xavier Becerra has presidential ambitions like Gavin Newsom – he is looking to make a name for himself. This is why he has been trying to prosecute David Dadelien or James O’Keefe. It makes sense why Xavier would go after MAF PAC.

That said, MAF PAC is a scam (my opinion) and Xavier is right to attack them. However, if Xavier prosecutes rather than sues MAF PAC, then almost every Soros-backed group would be vulnerable to prosecution too. It is the age old question about legally sanctioned unethical behavior.

The Sacramento Bee, being the reliable political harlots for the left broke the story – ostensibly after Xavier’s office made sure they had advanced notice. (This is standard practice for prosecutors)

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a Sacramento nonprofit that sends care packages to troops, alleging that the organization misled donors and its directors misused charity money for political purposes.

The lawsuit against Move America Forward alleges that the organization violated Internal Revenue Services regulations because its two directors, Sal Russo and Shawn Callahan, managed separate for-profit groups that “charged fees for services” provided to the nonprofit.

Becerra argues that the charity engaged in “deceitful solicitation gimmicks,” which he said included using photographs from other organizations, advertising a veteran’s story without his permission and plagiarizing information from other nonprofit campaigns.

For years – your intrepid blogger has railed on “Tea Party Leech PACS” that send out tons of spam emails or have people posting stuff on social media and/or sending spam texts trying to piggy back on campaigns. While I have no direct proof, it has been put to me several times that Mr. Russo and others have gotten rich off of the Tea Party Express PAC. It appears that similar to so many others living high on the hog in ethically questionable endeavors, they could not stop at just leeching off of the Tea Party. They appear to have created vendors in order to strip-mine even more money out of the Non Profit for themselves.

I’ve seen hundreds of fundraising emails including a US Senate Special election in New Jersey (hopeless for a Republican) which was Cory Booker’s original election. The Tea Party Express / Move America Forward PAC’s would endorse people and then fund raise off of these high-profile campaigns. Some Republican candidates have been quoted over the years expressing their irritation that these PAC’s were creating confusion and hindering their own fundraising!

I can’t wait to see what the legal discovery reveals related to the finances of Move America Forward. And, shame on them for making themselves an easy target for a piece of crap Attorney General looking for campaign material.

Russo, chief strategist for the nonprofit and a Sacramento County resident, allegedly diverted more than $1.8 million to his for-profit companies, according to the lawsuit. Callahan is the executive director. The suits also names Chairman Melanie Morgan and Director Howard Kaloogian as defendants.

Becerra’s office is alleging that the nonprofit also provided free office space for two political action committees called Move America Forward PAC and the Tea Party Express. The suit also claims charity assets were used to support candidates endorsed by the committees.

According to its website, Move America Forward has sent more than 388 tons of packages to troops “directly from American citizens affirming their support and providing some comforts from home.”

I met Howard Kaloogian in 2004. I’ve met Melanie Morgan a couple times, and she did not have time for me or others in the room. She also reminded me of Karen England. (someone whose scams I have written about for years – including diverting a ton of money from the Prop 8 effort) Kaloogian was an also-ran candidate for US Senate and by virtue of my firsthand experience with him, I believe he is a playboy. (Yet another “conservative” who likes to get wasted at CAGOP Conventions and chase girls. And I saw this first hand)

A former Radio Talk Show Host Eric Hogue used to rail on Move America Forward / the Tea Party Express as a rival Talk Show DJ was in on the early days of it. your intrepid blogger has never stopped monitoring their activities even as both of these guys have moved on.

It is the opinion of this blogger that Melanie Morgan, Howard Kaloogian, Sal Russo and others that have been on the take from this Charity and the two PAC’s had better get good attorneys. I’ve maintained that this operation has been dirty from the beginning and how sad it is that Xavier Becerra gets to ride in to clean it up (while ignoring rampant corruption all over California’s Democrat Run Municipalities).

It is truly a case of mixed emotions for me as it has taken 15 years to see any level of accountability for what these people have done, and it comes in the form of Xavier Becerra trying to create a campaign platform for himself.

CA-10 Update, Josh Harder Called Out for Taking $300K+ in PAC Money After Public Pledge Not To

 2020 Elections  No Responses »
Jul 242019
 

They are all the same.

JoshHarderPACMAN.com Website Launches
Incumbent Congressman Josh Harder caught deceiving Valley voters on his two most important campaign promises – public demands he return the money.

CA-10: Midyear FEC campaign fundraising reports have unveiled that an alarming number of 2020 contributions from out-of-state entities, Bay Area special interests and politicians, and Political Action Committees are carrying incumbent Democrat Josh Harder’s campaign for re-election.

Fewer than 10 percent of donors to Josh Harder’s campaign actually reside in California’s 10th Congressional District, and less than 3% of dollars raised have come from local residents. A huge portion of Harder’s donors are from out of state, and also includes help from Party elites like Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Lee.

The report also indicates that Josh Harder has been caught deceiving  local voters about his top campaign promise to “refuse Corporate PAC donations,” and has instead accepted approximately $314,000 in PAC contributions to date.  PAC donors to Harder include PAC to the Future and Jersey Values PAC which count Goldman Sachs, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and a host of capital management companies as some of their biggest contributors.

“Josh needs to return the money he promised local voters he would not take. He can argue and deny all he wants, but he has failed to put the people above the special interests and party bosses in these first nine months,” said Ted Howze, the leading Republican candidate to replace Democrat incumbent Josh Harder.

While incumbent Congressman Josh Harder may be six years younger than the video game PAC-MAN (Harder was born in 1986 and PAC-MAN launched in the U.S, in 1980), he has certainly become very good at playing the game.

For more and continued updates go to: JoshHarderPACMAN.com

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