You’d have to be living under a rock in Orange County to not be aware of the Scandal that has embroiled John Moorlach. One of his then Senate Staff was raped by Bill Brough. Moorlach claims to have not known about the rape and when challenged had to admit some prior knowledge – yet still tried to hide behind his disdain for the Right on Daily Blog to justify his callous indifference to the victim.
Worse, Tim Clark, who is John Moorlach’s “volunteer” Campaign Manager and was his Senate Cheif of Staff has been implicated in covering up the rape. Why? Perhaps it was because Bill Brough still owed Mr. Clark $44,000 which Clark was finally paid in October of 2015, some three months after he covered up the rape of Trish Todd by Bill Brough. You’d have to be a complete fool to think that Clark was not thinking about that $44K first and of course the negative news for his meal ticket John Moorlach who was fresh in office when Todd was raped. (BTW – Tim Clark and Bill Brough are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I think they are both scum of the earth and as such I believe pretty much every negative thing I’ve learned about both of them)
So what is the significance of the Lisa Bartlett endorsement of John Moorlach? It was her revelation of abuse at the hands of Bill Brough in 2011 when both were councilmembers in the City of Dana Point that started the avalanche of events that led to the humiliation and defeat of Brough at the ballot box. Because Lisa Bartlett stood up in front of Fred Whitaker and a bunch of others who are currently trying to Save John Moorlach and who resisted holding Brough accountable, 5 other victims of Bill Brough’s are now known. These include people still actively working in Orange County politics.
Trish Todd got raped by Bill Brough. Tim Clark covered it up. John Moorlach feigns lack of knowledge of the whole affair. His and Clark’s handling of the scandal has been abysmal. So why did victim 1 seemingly set fire to victims 2-6 by endorsing the man whose Supervisor campaign is about to go up in flames over covering up the rape of victim 6? (Trish Todd)
When I first saw the facebook post of Lisa Bartlett endorsing John Moorlach I was enraged. It came across as Bartlett not caring about the other victims as she got what she wanted – Bill Brough out of the way seemingly clearing the path for her to run for State Senate unabated in 2022. Brough, because he is a sociopathic monster will look at this and claim vindication (as in Bartlett only accused him because she wanted to wreck him politically). Remember, Bill Brough is incapable of understanding he did anything wrong at any time even as he is allegely trying to justify the rape of Trish Todd to anyone that will listen. These are two of the worst case outcomes of this endorsement.
I did some research and learned that Lisa Bartlett had endorsed John Moorlach right after he lost his Senate Re-Election Campaign. This detail matters as the rape of Trish Todd was not fully known at the time she endorsed John Moorlach. Now, why Lisa did not pull her endorsement once known is another issue, but this fact mitigates the likely accusations of political cynics questioning her motives for coming out publicly against Bill Brough. However, if Bartlett was still having nightmares about what Brough did, you’d think she’d have told Moorlach to sit on her endorsement and not publicize it at least.
Now, Lisa Bartlett is going to be forced to have to publicly deal with the perception this has created.
This is where Tim Clark comes in. It is the opinion of this blogger, because I know Clark and his absolute ruthless lack of character that he knew 100% what he was doing. I believe he knew this endorsement and the timing of it would do maximum damage to Lisa Bartlett to the benefit of John Moorlach. In effect, Clark used Lisa Bartlett as a human shield for the moral failures of John Moorlach. Read a summary of the horrific crisis communication from the Moorlach Camp on this whole issue.
Lisa Bartlett because of her decision is isolated politically now. Andrew Do, Don Wagner and now Laurie Davies have all endorsed Kevin Muldoon. Bartlett is in even worse shape as she is clearly being used by the Corrupt Tim Clark and the morally failed John Moorlach as a political human sheild. Clark has made it clear in the communications of the Moorlach for Supervisor campaign that their next move is to use Lisa Bartlett as a hammer to further de-legitimize Trish Todd, Jennifer Rodriguez, Heather Baez, Maria Elena Banks and the anonymous dem staffer that spoke to the LA Times.
If you want to know why Women who get raped and/or abused by people in power are reticent and even afraid to come forward? Use Trish Todd as an example. Fred Whitaker in an email attacked her. It is common knowledge that Whitaker and someone who may or may not have been Tim Clark was calling people smearing Todd in order to jam down a party endorsement of Moorlach. The OC Register has apparently stopped covering the Moorlach saga because they don’t want to be forced to rescind their endorsement of Moorlach, the OC Lincoln Club and OC New Majority have chosen silence rather than correcting their errors – even as members of both groups are honeslty telling others about their buyer’s remorse of John Moorlach. Still worse, the Women leaders of the California Republican Party are silent on this whole issue. We were supposed to be impressed by all of them because they were Republican Women leaders. When our leaders – apparently Lisa Bartlett included – refuse to stand up for abused women who will?
Now Lisa Bartlett has a choice to make.
If she says nothing, then it means she is complicit and willing in protecting John Moorlach rather than being used as a human shield by Tim Clark and John Moorlach. Silence in the wake of this endorsement will permemently call in to question her motives for her original revelation of the incidents between her and Bill Brough. It will also smear the credibility of the other victims, because people will ask reasonable questions, like “what happened to the nightmares, Lisa? Or did those stop now that Brough is no longer an opponent to your senate race?”
If she makes a statement regarding the rape of Trish Todd and it is a weak statement it will be perceived as Bartlett trying to cover up her mistake.
If she makes a strong statement denouncing how Fred Whitaker, Tim Clark and others have handled this situation, it will restore her credibility.
Why Bartlett did not tell Moorlach no is a question I will likely never be able to answer fully. She could have revoked the endorsement or told Tim Clark not to use her endorsement – instead she tried to avoid conflict and now she is in the middle of the mess. However, what Bartlett chooses to do in the next few days in the wake of this will tell everyone volumes.
Lisa – get a good look at Trish Todd and then ask yourself how your endorsement of John Moorlach made her feel? Did you think of her and the others when you did what you did? The next move is yours, make it count.
Michael Todd, begs reporters to hold Orange County Assemblyman Bill Brough accountable for allegedly raping his wife, Patricia Lenkiewicz Todd, right, in 2015. They were in her lawyer Michael Schroeder’s office in Orange on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
