California Republican Assembly

CRA VP Jonathan Ingram for Murrieta City Council – Received Death Threats?

California Republican Assembly Comments Off

Oct 082014

People that read this blog know I have been in a ton of campaigns, paid and not paid.

Usually, dirty tricks on the order of what I have seen in Murrieta are reserved for Congressional Level Campaigns.

In the Ingram for Murrieta City Council Campaign the level of collusion is astounding. This resembles politics on the east coast… blatant and in your face. One such example is “Sign-gate” where local code enforcement went berzerk, taking all the candidates’ signs, including signs that were in people’s front yards and off of Commercial Property where the owner had granted permission.

While Jonathan Ingram said in the article that there was no conspiracy, Code enforcement did give at least one of the incumbent council-members their signs back a few days before others. This allowed them to take all the prime locations that had been occupied by other candidates before the code enforcement rampage.

As a bonus, the CRA has been attacked repeatedly by the other candidates by name as the CRA in Murrieta is where Jonathan came from to run for office. Sound Familiar?

His life story is amazing.

Ingram re-located to Murrieta four years ago and got deeply involved in the community. He saw a virulently anti-growth City Government and the complaints of citizens about it and decided to run for City Council.

Jonathan is running on a simple platform of “Why Not Murrieta”. This seems to be more than the local establishment can handle.

Since Jonathan can self-fund, the establishment in Murrieta is in a near total meltdown. This can be seen in an article about a candidate forum where an extremely arrogant Rick Gibbs (an incumbent) attacked Jonathan for receiving an Assembly proclamation from Assembly-Member Melissa Melendez for his service to Veterans. You can see that article here and read the comments from outraged veterans – many of whom were directly aided by Jonathan.

There has been a ton of ugliness and insider plays that I will write about later. However, a young man was arrested for at least one Felony (Cyber-Stalking) and several misdemeanor harassment charges related to stalking and harrassing Jonathan Ingram.

I have seen the facebook threats. I was told about several phone calls made over a week long period. The perpetrator is someone from the CYRF who was on the losing end of a political fight with Ashley, Jonathan’s daughter a few years ago.

This individual appears to have contacted one or more of Jonathan’s opponents. This individual had the same false information that the opponents have been spreading via whisper around town about other people named Jon Ingram.

The Young man named Jeff Benson, bonded out somehow today and within a short time several facebook pages that were attacking various Murrieta City Council candidates were removed. Jonathan had been getting blamed for their presence.

I can not prove that Benson made the pages. I can only prove circumstantially based on the hard evidence I have that Benson was in contact with one of the other candidates. However, take a look at someone dumb enough to leave a trail behind himself a mile wide who got himself arrested on a felony beef over a psychotic obsession for revenge. You’d certainly draw the same conclusions I did.

What I saw from Jeff Benson were vile comments left on Facebook. Apparently, he threatened the Ingram family in several voicemails, including telling them they would pay in blood for the campaign.

Jeff Benson did not get the false information about Jonathan Ingram on his own. Given the other crap that has gone on in this campaign – nothing is accidental at all.

I can’t wait to write more on this race, but it may have to wait until after the election…

Anaheim RA 92, Matt Cunningham 0 – Little Known Facts About the “New” Anaheim RA

2014 Elections, California Republican Assembly Comments Off

Aug 222014

Why is Matt Guadalupe Cunningham such a moron? I found rare and recently uncovered footage of Cunningham’s first interview at the capitol for a government job years ago… it may explain a lot.

Why is it that when the little guys win, that Kurt Kringle and his assistant Matt Guadalpue Cunningham are on the losing end?

Not unlike the Chuck Norris Facts website – I am offering you some amazing and true facts behind the liberation of the Anaheim Republican Assembly.

1. 18 people that joined CRA were former Republicans who had re-registered DTS out of disgust over the political process. They re-joined the GOP in order to join CRA.

2. The officer elections at the Wednesday night reorganization meeting were CONTESTED. There was debate.

3. Benita Gagne – who was attacked by name by Matt Cunningham, had not endorsed a candidate for Anaheim mayor and had not made up her mind until Steve Sarkis went on his rampage. Let that sink in and then put that in perspective with the…

4. … previously mentioned stunned phone call with Tom Tait where he said he was going to support re-electing Steve Sarkis and could not figure out why his application was rejected.

5. The aforementioned Guadalpue, Kurt Kringle and the rest of the Anaheim Chamber Crew did not attempt to join CRA until AFTER Steve Sarkis attempted to reject the 49 members.

6. 12 Officers of the State CRA were present – these included: CRA President John W Briscoe, CRA VP’s Mark Gardner, Tim Thiesen, Alice Khosravy, Aaron Park, Jonathan Ingram and Bill Schmidt, Membership Secretary George Park, Recording Secretary Todd Blair, Senate District Directors Benita Gagne, Kurt Kunkel and Wendy Albright.

7. 13 more people Joined the Anaheim RA on Wednesday Night + apps received in the mail Thursday. This beings their membership to 92. This makes the Anaheim RA one of the 7 Largest Units in the CRA. For comparison, the other large units are Santa Clarita (the clear #1), Placer, San Joaquin, Porterville, Glendale Burbank, Murrieta Temecula rounding out the top seven with Anaheim.

8. Matthew Guadalupe Cunningham lives in Orange. There is a CRA Unit in Orange. It lists several political consultants amongst its’ members, Cunningham would be right at home there. Cunningham’s membership application is dated 7/28 – after Steve Sarkis started throwing out existing members of the Anaheim RA.

9. No CRA Unit has expelled more than 2 existing members in the last three years. In all cases, the expulsions were done by the board of the respective unit with ample reasons to do so. None of the 6 people who Sarkis attempted to execute were given a hearing, nor were they warned of said action.

10. There is a significant movement within the State CRA’s Board of Directors to Ban proxy voting at the local unit level. We banned this practice at the state level in 2012. The only units that allowed Proxy Voting have been in Orange County – the Anaheim RA is one of them.

11. There is a significant movement within the State CRA’s Board of Directors to set guidelines for how units deal with rejecting memberships. There are state by-laws that govern such actions, including providing notice and a hearing. Anaheim’s By-Laws had no such provisions – leading to the attempted rejection of 49 new members, attempted expulsion of 6 existing members and the likely rejection of the additional 13 that joined this week had something not been done.

Yet – in the mind Matt Cunningham, everything was all about the mail campaign of Tom Tait.

I understand why people leave comments that say —- you Matt Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham is a fool for putting himself in a position where a win for the CRA comes at his expense.

I am not a Pollyanna. I know that some of the new Anaheim RA members won’t renew once the campaign is over – however, I know that from the people I met Wednesday night, they care deeply about their home town of Anaheim. They get nothing out of CRA other than a forum from which to operate and to try to grow the GOP and the movement to restore Republican values to government.

That is the definition of a movement and that transcends a stupid logo on a stupid piece of mail.

I received the following comment on this blog:

Thank you SO MUCH for your help. Seriously. I am floored that perfect strangers would come help like that.

Idiots like Matt Cunningham will never understand this. This is why I will never be a full-time political consultant, ever. This is why being a paid political operative is not compatible with being a true believing activist. When your paradigm is manipulation and control – the concept of family and being an officer in a volunteer organization is foreign.

I hope that the movement that is starting in Orange County of Active, vibrant CRA units will start attracting people back in to the GOP so that a Anaheim turns Red again and that lost territory in Orange County can be reclaimed.

P.S. – with all due respect to Lucille Kring and Tom Tait, I have not endorsed anyone, I will not endorse anyone. That is a local election in Anaheim some 400 miles away from me. I write this despite my internal desire to endorse Tait and attack Kring just to spite that arrogant asshole Cunningham. However, if I did that, I’d be guilty of mimicking his behavior.

The Anaheim Council race is not a state or a federal election which affects me indirectly (which is my nexus for sometimes blogging on state/federal races outside of Placer County) so I defer to the people of the Anaheim RA and the OC Cent Com to ably adjudicate endorsements in said races.

I found Matt Cunningham – In a Van Down By the Cement River

California Republican Assembly 1 Response »

Aug 212014

When I was at the Anaheim Republican Assembly Meeting last night – I was there with five other Sock Puppet CRA Vice Presidents and of course my hand puppet, CRA President John W Briscoe.

One of my hand-picked minions, Mark Gardner is from Fresno, Three-Plus Hours away from Anaheim. He is also a chemical salesman, so I decided to go stanhope of some of his floor samples before writing this post…

I was very pleased to see all of my hand-picked sock puppets doing my bidding.

You see – the CRA had been beset by Gerbils. There are the kinds of Gerbils that adorn someone’s head, there are the kinds of Gerbils that dance around the Jumbotron in Anaheim Stadium and of course there are the Gerbils that sit in mommy’s basement on their commodore 64 dreaming up political scenarios to validate themselves.

The problem is that if left unattended, Gerbils will multiply and will multiply quickly.

So – I got out my secret mind control device and pulled off the following:

I invented 49 fake members for the Anaheim RA then I told the Commodore 64 Gerbil to throw out 6 Anaheim RA members so I could rally my sock puppets.

I then got my sock puppets to come from as far as 4 hours away from Anaheim in the middle of the week to stage an event for the Anaheim RA.

All of this so that I could control a CRA endorsement for a guy I have never met who was going to vote for the Commodore 64 Gerbil for President of the Anaheim RA anyway!

Then when I got to the Anaheim RA meeting I had rigged the outcome of – to my horror, my hand-picked recruits were nominating candidates for unit office I had not planned on. I witnessed the HORROR of contested unit officer elections!

Even worse, there was debate amongst the unit members!!! I might have lost control of the outcome…

At the end of the day – my favorite sock puppet from Santa Clarita manipulated everyone just like I had asked her to and I got the result that I wanted.

I mean, I drove 850 miles round trip and got home at 4am because I was either under the influence of chemicals or because the pay was so good, right? I mean, those are the only two plausible explanations any reasonable person not under the influence of paint-thinner could draw?

Then I faced the horror of volunteer politics. I had actually sacrificed my time for the sake of the CRA and 65 people I had never met. I must have truly been higher than a kite… maybe I need to go to a meeting tonight and admit a relapse.

To think of the audacity of realizing that mocking the Virgin of Guadalupe is a bad thing for GOP party building, or seeing the margin in Orange County slipping from 68% to 53% in the most recent Presidential election as a bad thing!

Controlling people, places and things and viewing organizations only for their endorsement on a piece of mail is where the true power is, right?

I knew that re-connecting with reality and understanding that the only solution to what ails the Orange County GOP must certainly qualify me for therapy as I have certainly lost my way.

Just Another Day in the Life of The Orange County Elite – Trying to Buy the Anaheim CRA

California Republican Assembly 1 Response »

Aug 202014

We have fought hard to rid the CRA of Consultants and Partisan Electeds that seek to open CRA Franchises to serve as little more than endorsement mills.

Every election cycle, the story seems to repeat… hotly contested race, and the vultures attempt to descend upon the CRA.

In my home county of Placer, we have a real unit with real people so we convened an endorsing convention and did it the old-fashioned way. Apparently, having an open forum is disturbing to the political elite who want to control an outcome.

I give you the Anaheim Republican Assembly.

It’s “President” Steve Sarkis is out of control. He has publicly endorsed a woman, Lucille Kring for Anaheim City Council. (which is his right, by the way) Kring has taken Union Money despite a pledge not to and voted for a massive hotel tax in Anaheim despite a public pledge not to.

The current by-laws of the Anaheim Republican Assembly allow proxy voting and allow the President of the unit to unilaterally reject would-be new members. This is hardly the hallmark of a real CRA unit.

Steve Sarkis has used said authority to reject the applications of a staggering 49 new members.

IT does not stop there. He has sent letters to an additional 6 existing Members of the Anaheim Republican Assembly informing them that they have been expelled from the unit for various violations of bylaws. (Please note that in several cases, the violated by-laws don’t exist) 2 of the expelled members are sitting CRA Board Members as well!

Tonight, there was/is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Anaheim Republican Assembly. Steve Sarkis has been running his mouth all over Orange County to anyone that will listen – so 1/4 of the existing CRA’s Board of Directors decided to attend the meeting tonight to ensure that the attempted coup is unsuccessful.

I knew when Steve Sarkis started going berzerk that there was an election at hand. One of the rejected 49 members was none other than Tom Tait. When spoken to, Tait indicated that he was going to vote to re-elect Steve Sarkis at the meeting where he was rejected!

At the meeting where Sarkis threw out 49 members, they fell below quorum and were unable to elect officers. So, currently Sarkis is acting with no authority whatsoever.

Later, Steve started forwarding members that he had approved to the CRA’s Membership Secretary (who happens to be my brother). They included everyone’s favorite racial ambassador Consultant Matthew Guadalupe Cunningham, the President of the Anaheim Chamber and notorious bully Todd Ament, City Council Member and tax-raiser Gail Eastman , and of course Kurt Kringle the Santa Claus of Anaheim who hands out all the taxpayer funded corporate welfare to his cronies. (It should also be noted that Ament’s live-in Girlfriend also is listed as a would-be member of the CRA, an avowed socially conservative group)

Kurt Kringle (the former Assembly Majority Leader) is a cousin of Kris Kringle, the famous fat guy that runs around in a sleigh. It appears that Kringle and his sock puppets have come calling for a CRA Franchise to endorse their Crony Capitalist.

The nexus became clear Monday night – Lucille Kring was rejected famously as the normally reserved OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh unloaded on Kring before the Orange County Central Committee overwhelmingly endorsed Tom Tait for re-election…

… which gets us all the way back to Steve Sarkis. Sarkis has a terrible reputation in Orange County I have discovered. Living 400+ miles away, it is hard to keep track of the morasse that is Orange County GOP politics.

It appears that Sarkis made promises to Kurt Kringle and his sock puppets that they would get a CRA endorsement to use as a counterweight against the Orange County GOP. Ummmm… nope. If the real members of the Anaheim CRA choose Kring, that’s one thing.

However, from going over 4 years of meeting minutes as well as their absurd by-laws, Sarkis (who lives in Stanton) has controlled the Anaheim RA with an Iron fist. (The losers that supported Karen England in 2011 were right in their criticism of Sarkis after all)

7 of the 20 would-be new members that Sarkis “approved” live outside of Anaheim.

Steve Sarkis has gone so far over the line that it is my sincerest hope that he is separated from the CRA for a very long time.

Despite threats of having their cars towed and being threatened with arrest in writing by Steve Sarkis, 6 Sitting CRA Vice Presidents were amongst the 12 State CRA Board Members that attended this evening.

Now that tonight’s meeting is over – the CRA can start to repair its’ image and return to being a real grassroots organization that stands for something, instead of being a cheap whore of political consultants and their lackeys.

With Major Losses – Will Republican Establishment Show Up in November in Competitive versus Safe R Seats?

2014 Elections, California Republican Assembly Comments Off

Jun 042014

UPDATE 9PM 6/5 to reflect the change in the SD-28 race.

As of right now, it looks like a string of stunning losses for the so-called establishment. This was made possible by the uber-low turnout created by the establishment-backed Prop 14.

SD-28 Bonnie Garcia, a liberal Republican in the mold of Abel Maldonado looks like the canvass has put her in the runoff. SD-28 is a Safe R seat. (There are still ballots outstanding)

Jeff Stone, the most conservative was hammered with all sorts of charges of corruption, etc. I am not sure how much validity there is to them – suffice to say Charles Munger spent big and other PACs spent big on Garcia. I have received additional info since the Tuesday Primary about the extent of the issues with Jeff Stone and am now not convinced that Bonnie Garcia would be a bad thing in the State Senate. What a bizarre situation.

IN AD-44, Pastor Rob McCoy defeated establishment pick Mario De La Piedra handily. AD-44 is a seat the GOP must defend. Charles Munger poured $350k in to De La Piedra, and other PAC’s chipped in to him. With McCoy as the nominee will these same PAC’s and donors look elsewhere?

In AD-73 the establishment was crushed. Nearly $500k ($414k of it from Mr. Munger) poured in to Anna Bryson. Lightly funded CRA-Endorsed Bill Brough finished second to the dem and will go to the runoff.

In AD-33 the CRA and the establishment agreed on Jay Obernolte who has a nearly insurmountable grasp on 2nd place.

Note – of the Four major races that the establishment picked, their only win was AD33 – the one that the CRA endorsed.

There is an important sidebar – Three of the four seats that drew huge money were Safe R seats. This has to stop.

We need money spent in AD-40, AD-44 – in addition to the Must-Pick-Up AD-36 and AD-65 where CRA-Endorsed candidates Tom Lackey and Young Kim had stellar showings.

We need money spent in SD-34 on Janet Nguyen who had an excellent showing in the primary. My fear is that with a pending R vs Jeff Stone runoff that the establishment will continue to pour money in to SD-28 emperiling Janet Nugyen.

In 2012, we saw the establishment impose their will on AD-05 and AD-78 forcing moderate/liberal Republicans in to safe R seats while we lost AD-08, AD-32, AD-36, AD-65 and nearly lost AD-63, 40, 44.

In CA-25 – CRA Endorsed Steve Knight is in a runoff against Tony Strickland. Once again, I am convinced that the establishment will spend huge on Strickland – and could do so whilst ignoring CA-07, CA-26, CA-36 and CA-09/CA-03 should those two make it on the radar.

We have to hold SD-28 and pick up SD-34 in order to get above 1/3.

We have to hold AD-40 and AD-44 while picking up AD-36 and AD-65 to get above 1/3. As a wildcard, AD-66, AD-32 and AD-16 are also on the radar screen.

As an aside, the establishment (particularly Mr. Munger) also poured significant money in to Catherine Baker in AD-16. This is a winnable seat in the east bay. Is it likely that the establishment chooses to sacrifice AD-44 because McCoy is “too conservative” in favor of the moderate Baker in AD-16 or David Hadley in AD-66? If you look at the deomgraphics of AD-16 or AD-66 versus AD-44… it seems that AD-44 is a much easier win. I don’t have a problem with Catherine Baker – she fits that district. I do have a problem if AD-44 gets abandoned just because the GOP candidate was not the original choice.

Which gets me to CA-07, CA-26, CA-36 and CA-52 – all four can go GOP. I will go berzerk if the establishment prioritize CA-25 while there are four winnable seats. The nominees in all four of those marginal districts are regarded as moderate/liberal Republicans. The establishment got their men, get out of the safe seat game and help the damn party gain territory! Please!

There is also an outside chance that CA-03 and CA-09 make it on to the national radar.

Lastly – there was some playing in Safe D seats as well, in an attempt to pick GOP Nominees. CA-22, Jonathan Madison was supported with $40k in IE’s, he lost to Pastor Mark Gilham. IN AD04, CRA Member Charlie Schaupp finished first despite money spent on his GOP opponent. In AD07 and AD09 no GOP candidate made the runoff despite spending in that primary.

IN CD-30 Mark Reed, endorsed by CRA, defeated Pablo Kleinman for the GOP nod despite the establishment spending on Pablo.

IN AD-69 Ceci Iglesias missed the runoff despite receiving establishment support (and a CRA endorsement 🙁 ).

In AD-24 and CD-18 – those candidates favored by the establishment made the runoff. In AD-24, there was only rep and the spending likely prevented a DvsD runoff and in CA-18, inexplicibly, there were 3 R candidates.

Overall, last night was a stunning defeat for the moderate establishment in district races.

This defeat was created by Prop 14 and the amazingly low turnout + the unpredictable dynamic of a blanket primary. The motivation of those that brought us Prop 14 was control – and in 2012, with the manipulation of several safe R seats foisting moderates on to conservative districts it looked like Conservatives would be hunted in to extinction.

It didn’t happen in 2014. Prop 14 is now fully erupted.

As I write this – there is a real possibility that David Evans could make the Controller Runoff creating an R vs R runoff in California for a Statewide office. Should that happen, watch the labor unions invest $20+ million in an attempt to repeal Prop14. They may well be plotting that anyway with several (GASP) Pro-business democrats winning primaries last night.

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