I thought John Moorlach was the smartest person in the room? (Just ask him or his sycophants, they will tell you)
John Moorlach let his CPA license expire and says he will get it back by 12-31-2022. The question is, don’t you have to be a CPA or a Public Accountant to even run? Where the hell was the county clerk on this!? He should have not been able to file!!!
See a PDF of the document here.
This is a developing story…
It is amazing really to see the parallels between Diane Harkey and John Moorlach. 
In the aftermath of the election there is no ownership or personal responsibility. I received an email from the OCGOP via several people that shows Fred Whitaker is from the same camp. I did not even have a chance to highlight the effective, yet vain effort that the OCGOP put on (with $30K of Fred’s own money) to save Moorlach. It is pretty much impossible to complement anything Fred Whitaker and the OCGOP did as the ego is pre-eminent.
Whitaker doubled down (as did Moorlach) effectively calling the opponents of Moorlach’s liars.
Whitaker and Moorlach also projected blame for Moorlach’s defeat on others. In Fred’s mind, everyone should have listened to him and not run. There are two flaws in Whitaker’s logic, beyond the decision to move heaven and earth for Moorlach, the assumption that all of Vo and Muldoon’s voters would have chosen Moorlach, and the second flaw is covering up the underperformance of Republican voters in that district.
Honest brokers would realize that Moorlach likely loses a head-to-head matchup as voters disgusted with Moorlach would have either taken the democrat or left the universe. Both dynamics would erase the slim margin of total Republican votes. Take a look at the underperformance of Republican voters in this election to understand fully what is happening.
Consistently from the beginning, the issue with John Moorlach was the moral failure related to his Chief of Staff in the Senate covering up a rape by Bill Brough (who owed him $45k at the time) and Moorlach being so disconnected from his staff that he knew nothing. Yet the hysterical defense of comparing Moorlach to Brett Kavanaugh ruled the day.
Moorlach and Whitaker got caught smearing the rape victim – and Whitaker did it again in his summary email. Talk about tone-deaf and wondering why Women abandon the GOP so quickly?
Moorlach’s career in politics is also fraught with blatant hypocrisy that would have been enough to wreck him long before the rape of a staffer he later smeared came to light.
Diane Harkey shares all of these attributes (with different circumstances of course), based on my research. This time, however, in order to help save the OCGOP and others from themselves I am way out ahead of this. Perhaps Harkey can take responsibility unlike Moorlach and save herself the same fate.
Diane Harkey and John Moorlach are retreads
Diane Harkey and John Moorlach are beset with scandals made worse by their personal conduct
Diane Harkey and John Moorlach are career politicians
Diane Harkey and John Moorlach have consistently played the victim when challenged with their moral failures
Diane Harkey and John Moorlach are both darlings of the OCGOP establishment who do all the establishment things to promote them.
As we continue rolling out our research on Diane Harkey – the push-back is going to be predictible. The most incorrigible will make it about me. Most will just try to hide and avoid conflict. The few smart ones will read and digest the info.
I don’t care who the Chairman of the OCGOP is. What I do care about is teeing up another flawed fossil of OCGOP politics with more baggage than a 747 and watching her lose her second major race in 4 yearss.
Trish Todd, who was raped by Bill Brough while working for John Moorlach is the real victim here.
She was victimized by Lisa Bartlett whose disclosure of her incident with Bill Brough touched off a series of events that led to Trish coming out in public. Despite the common nexus, Bartlett endorsed Moorlach – making people ask the question if her disclosure was motivated by the spectre of having a race with Bill Brough for her next office (State Senate).
Trish was victimized by Tim Clark (Moorlach’s Chief of Staff and long time campaign consultant) who covered up the rape.
Trish was victimized by the OCGOP who stubbornly continue to attack her because of their own imbalanced egos.
Trish Todd was also victimized by John Moorlach.
The OCGOP leadership and the cocktail party circuit don’t care and now they are short a supervisor… soon to be two as they learned nothing about foisting a flawed candidate on the electorate.
We warned you about John Moorlach months, even years ago. Now we are warning you about Diane Harkey – read with an open mind or else the democrats will take over the OC Board of Supervisors.
There is a final point to make here. The OCGOP’s influence is dead. They no longer can determine the outcome of a race anymore. Since Diane Harkey blamed Darrell Issa for all of her maladies in 2018, the OCGOP can expect to be treated the same if Harkey loses in 2022. Mrs. Harkey ought to take a good close look at just how much the OCGOP can bring to the table and temper her expectations instead of allowing herself to get in to the same trap she did when she projected the impossible on to Darrell Issa.
I am glad John Moorlach is gone. I am not glad Katrina Foley won. However, my fear, that is grounded in reality is that history is set to repeat itself in 2022. You will see more detail soon.
So – here is the famous “noogie” photo:
Someone sent me photos of a couple of mailers sent blasting Moorlach.
The top mailer was clearly sent to Women It is brutal. The bottom was clearly sent to Republicans. It really sucks to be John Moorlach.
Moorlach is stuck running videos on social media from Female employees talking about what a great employer he was – doing two things, highlighting his primary weakness and of course attacking Trish Todd by inference. Felony stupid campaign tactics.
UPDATE: 9AM 2-25-2021 Fred Whitaker had to ride in to the rescue with a statement from the OCGOP Good Ol’ Boyz Club. #FEARTHEBLOG
It has been hard to deal with the hard-headed Moorlach-Can-Do-No-Wrong Caucus in Orange County. John Moorlach just did what he does best, faceplant. I am sure Fred Whitaker is having to take out a loan on his home to find more money to pour in to the OCGOP after this. If Moorlach finishes 3rd, Whitaker is done as OCGOP Chairman.
Related to this Covid issue, the issue with Trish Todd was Moorlach’s disconnection from his staff and Moorlach having his head so far up his ass he could not recognize that Dick Ackerman was trying to warn him he was going to have a problem. Here we go again with the complete lack of self-awareness and lack of common sense.
The issue here is that Moorlach started having symptoms last Wednesday. (A week ago)
Moorlach acknowledged attending a series of campaign events and obligations throughout the past week, including a drive-through fundraiser Tuesday at the Crystal Cove Shake Shack in Newport Beach and a precinct walk on Saturday.
Ouch. the Tuesday referenced in the article is yesterday.
Now, the former senator is isolating in his Costa Mesa home and notifying those with whom he may have had contact. Aside from the occasional cough, bouts of fatigue and long periods of sleep, Moorlach said he and his wife are feeling fine, given the circumstances, and are focused on recuperating.
Good Lord Moorlach – you told the media you were pausing your campaign. I got a screenshot of the article before the LA Times updated it with a different headline:
Moorlach’s campaign for O.C. Supervisor paused after he, wife test positive for COVID-19
John Moorlach, a former state senator and Orange County supervisor announced Wednesday he and wife Trina tested positive for COVID-19 and were self-isolating in their Costa Mesa home.
(Courtesy of Moorlach family)
SARA CARDINE
FEB. 24, 2021 1:53 PM PT
John Moorlach’s campaign for Orange County supervisor hit a snag this week, after the former state senator and his wife, Trina, learned Monday they had both tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Clueless. It is time for Moorlach to retire and get well from the Covid.
Now for some irony. John Moorlach is on a poorly done video trashing the City of Costa Mesa. Enjoy the subject matter and note the twiddling of the thumbs and the awkward pauses. His staff used to coach him through this and it appears his campaign staff are not cutting it on a whole bunch of fronts. Yikes.
I have served as a volunteer activist since 1980, giving my time and legal services to conservative and Republican causes that I believe in. I recently decided to “retire” from my volunteer work. Then a very brave woman named Trish Todd, who I had never met before, reached out to me last November and asked me to help her.
She told me a gut wrenching story about being severely beaten, raped, and sodomized by then Assemblyman Bill Brough in 2015, while working for then-state Sen. John Moorlach. She also told me that she had reported it to Moorlach’s then-Chief of Staff, Tim Clark, who she says told her to keep silent. Clark claims Todd, his subordinate, told him to remain silent but admits he was told about the rape and did not report it. Clark omits that Brough’s campaign paid him over $40,000 in 2016, after he failed to report the rape.
I am not naive. I was aware that this case would be high profile and politically charged. Moorlach had already declared his intention to run in the county supervisor’s special election. There was simply no way that this case would not become caught up in that election given that one of the central questions was whether Moorlach and Clark covered-up the rape after it was reported to Clark?
In two editorials, The Register has questioned my motives for representing Ms. Todd. Ms. Todd was very clear with me as to her motives: “Brough should go to prison for what he did to me and Moorlach and Clark should be held accountable for silencing me.”
The Register, in one editorial framed me as a “long time Orange County political operative” and in a column, Steven Greenhut claimed that “[Schroeder] shops around the idea that Moorlach can’t be trusted.” Greenhut goes on to complain that “Schroeder is blowing smoke on a side issue. He claims Moorlach tried to smear Todd during a meeting with this newspaper.”
Not fair or true. I have made no public statements about Moorlach. I merely pointed out verbally to the editorial board that Moorlach falsely claimed when he first heard about the rape of my client. Moorlach first claimed that he had not heard anything about the rape of his employee until last Election Day, November 3, 2020. He also claimed he believed the victim and he would fight passionately in any case where he encountered sexual assault. He was forced to admit that, in fact, months earlier, he had discussed the matter with former Sen. Dick Ackerman and later claimed he forgot being told something so monumental.
Moorlach also claimed on the record that he did not support hiring Ms. Todd and that she had performance issues as documented in her confidential personnel file. I am told that Moorlach then claimed to have been talked into hiring her. In response to this smear, Ms. Todd authorized me to publicly release Ms. Todd’s entire personnel file. Again, the file tells a different story, reflecting no such doubts. In her file was a letter written and signed by Moorlach when he hired her lauding her skills and referring to her as his “de facto Deputy Chief of Staff.” When Ms. Todd finished her service, John Moorlach issued and signed an official California State Senate Resolution praising and thanking her for her service. This would very much seem to contradict Moorlach again.
Ms. Todd did file a gender discrimination complaint to the Senate Rules Committee at the end of her employment alleging that Moorlach did not promote or give raises to women. In response, the Rules Committee turned down her claim and stated that Ms. Todd had allegedly not let some members into an event at the Outdoor Caucus. Ms. Todd disputes that.
Yet, the editorial suggests that in raising questions, “justice is taking a back seat to politics”.
What every reader needs to consider is if you had to face these types of attacks on your honesty, professional abilities, and ethics to report a rape or represent to a rape victim, would you do it?
Michael Schroeder was chairman of the California Republican Party and represents Trish Todd.